William Rowe of Porthleven was awarded a silver medal for swimming out to a wreck with a rope and saving the crew on 27 April 1824 the brig Olive was wrecked beneath the Halsferran Cliffs. John Freeman of Gunwalloe was awarded one also for assisting him.

Frederic Rogers of Penrose led a bid to rescue the captain and mate of the ketch Ida of Stockholm wrecked on Loe Bar in a gale on 5 February 1826. The rest of the crew had been swept overboard. A young woman from Cury was also killed when the breakers surged over Loe Bar and carried her into Loe Pool. A young Helston man was swept off an outlying rock. Cuttance organized the rescue. He sent over food on a light rope until a heavier one could be rigged with a chair. All were brought ashore after ten hours.

In January 1796 a large transport, bound for Portsmouth with the 26th Dragoons on board, parted from her convoy and ran ashore near the rocks of Porthleven. Despite huge seas, "nine men of Breage" joined themselves by rope and waded out towards her, but they were engulfed by a great wave and never seen again. Soon after, the transport broke apart and none of the 400 on board survived. Sixteen years later, the entire crew of a Swedish ship which was wrecked nearby, were entirely saved by a local man, Tobias Roberts, who had already distinguished himself in the loss of the Anson in 1807.