The vessel originally known as Charles and Eliza Laura served as the Moelfre lifeboat and earned awards for gallantry well before the Dunkirk evacuation. This 12-oar, 15-man pulling-and-sailing lifeboat saved her first lives during her delivery trip in 1910. After departing the River Mersey, she was called to assist the yacht Drake, which was sinking with two people on board.

Rigged with a standing lug foresail, mizzen, and jib, the lifeboat demonstrated exceptional sailing capabilities during a dramatic rescue in 1927. The ketch Excel, bound from Birkenhead to Ireland with a cargo of coal, began shipping water and soon became uncontrollable amid a heavy south-westerly gale. Second Coxswain William Roberts commanded the lifeboat during this operation.

The Excel had been in tow of a German tanker when the tow-rope parted, leaving little time to rescue the three men aboard. Due to heavy seas, it was impossible to come alongside the vessel. In a desperate maneuver, the coxswain drove the lifeboat over the crest of a large wave onto the Excel, remaining there long enough to take off the crew before the ketch’s stern dropped and the lifeboat slipped off. The gale was approaching hurricane force, and the Charles and Eliza Laura was holed in five places, yet the crew persevered, holding on desperately and sailing through the sea rather than on it. After seventeen and a half hours on the storm-swept ocean, they returned safely.

For this rescue, the coxswain and one other crew member were awarded the RNLI Gold Medal, while the rest of the crew received bronze medals. One crew member died from injuries sustained during the operation. Over 18 years, the lifeboat responded to 35 similar calls, saving 84 people and a dog.

On 11 February 1929, the vessel broke from her moorings in heavy seas and sustained damage too severe for repair to lifeboat standards. Consequently, she was sold out of service. Douglas Kirkaldy, a renowned coxswain of the Ramsgate lifeboat, purchased her and sailed her home from Anglesey in 1940. At this time, her name was changed to Salvor.

The vessel continued her service, initially with the Trinity House Lightship service and later as a stand-by lifeboat. During World War II, she was commandeered by the Royal Navy and commissioned as HMS Salvor. A naval crew took her to Dunkirk, and after the war, she was returned to Douglas Kirkaldy, who requested that she be burned upon his death—a request that was never fulfilled.

Eventually, the vessel was found deteriorating at her moorings in Richborough, Kent, by Reg Cornwell, a timber preservation specialist. Determined to preserve this historic vessel, Cornwell spent a year restoring her before returning her to Ramsgate Harbour, where she received a warm welcome. Today, she is used for fishing and pleasure trips and is regarded with great respect by those familiar with her distinguished history.