By the late 1850s, after an increasing number of shipwrecks and severe storms in which lives were lost, villagers and Lloyd's of London realised that a lifeboat was needed on the west coast of the Lizard Peninsula. In 1859 the RNLI also agreed, but despite Lord Robartes agreeing to help fund it, progress towards obtaining one was slow. The nearest lifeboats at that time were at Porthleven and Lizard Point. In a series of severe storms from January to April 1867, there were 16 shipwrecks in the Port of Penzance area. Three schooners, "Cherub", "Ebbw Vale" and "Margaret", were wrecked off the cliffs between Mullion and Poldhu in one storm on 5 January, with four lives lost. In the same storm there were five wrecks at Marazion. The villagers in Mullion held a public meeting chaired by the local vicar, Rev. Edmund George Harvey, calling for a lifeboat to be stationed at Mullion Cove. The RNLI responded and funds were raised by Lord Robartes, local Methodists, the RNLI and other generous contributors. Shortly afterwards, in March 1867, a barque, the Dutch Eastindiaman "Jonkheer Meester van de Wall van Putterschoek", was wrecked in Mullion Parish, off the Men-y-Grib rocks south of Poldhu with the loss of 24 lives and only one survivor. For this man Georgio Buffani, a Greek sailor already injured, it was his third total shipwreck and the third time he had been the sole survivor. This was already the 15th wreck of the year in the Penzance Port area.