Whilst all on board were weighing these chances of destruction or of safety, the vessel's head had gone round off, and a few succeeding heavy surfs threw her again with her starboard quarter upon the rock, and whilst she was in this position, there appeared a possibility of getting some of the people on shore.
"Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849"
William O. S. Gilly
The boats employed on this business were manned by the Sirius's crew; so that every possible attention to prevent danger or accident was used: but, notwithstanding which, on the 17th of August, in what was considered as good landing, one of the boats, in coming into the passage, was overtaken by a succession of heavy surfs, which threw her on one of the reefs, where she parted in less than two minutes, and seven people were drowned.
"An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island"
John Hunter
In order to see how this work is, and has been, carried out, let us look at the results, as stated in the last annual report, that for 1864. The lifeboats of the Institution now number 132, and some of them were the means of saving no fewer than 417 lives during the past year; nearly the whole of them in dangerous circumstances, amidst high surfs, when no other description of boats could have been launched with safety.
"The Lifeboat"
R.M. Ballantyne