3-071-025 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A Channel tug trying to get a rope on board a distressed vessel in a storm, 1881. 'We have noticed the gallant efforts of the life-boat crews all round the coast...but we must likewise give a share of praise to the masters and crews of Channel steam-tugs, for their effectual services in aid of some vessels that were in extreme peril off the North Foreland. A performance of this kind is the subject of the Illustration presented this week, drawn from precise information furnished to our Artist by those engaged in the action. Two or three steam-tugs were, upon this occasion, concerned in successive attempts to save a disabled ship; and we lament the fate of one of them, the Napoleon, which foundered in the gale at sea, causing the death of the master and nine other brave men, while striving to rescue others. The steam-tug which actually succeeded, by dint of intrepid perseverance during many hours, in saving the Allanshaw and bringing her into the Thames, was the Victor, commanded by Mr. John McCarthy, the one shown in our Illustration'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.