Action Committee The village formed one of the first Community First Response Teams in Scotland and has helped to set up other teams in the area. Following several incidents involving vessels in difficulties in Luce Bay the RNLI were asked to site a lifeboat at Port William, when this was denied the villagers formed a committee known as the Port William Inshore Rescue Service Action Committee (PIRSAC). Funds were raised to buy and staff an inshore rescue boat, this was launched in 1979 and it still operates today, covering Luce Bay, Wigtown Bay and the inshore waters between South West Scotland and the Isle of Man. The Harbour The harbour was extended in 1790 and again in 1848; its commercial importance continuing until the end of World War I. Further work was done to protect the harbour in the 1980s by building a breakwater to the western side of the harbour. A statue of a fisherman overlooks the harbour: once made of concrete, it has been cast in bronze. The statue was part-funded by the millennium lottery fund. In front of the statue is a plaque with the first verse of the poem "Leisure" by W. H. Davies. References Wigtownshire Villages in Dumfries and Galloway Ports and harbours of Scotland