Ramsgate tug

The benefits of this in regard to the heavier ships in distress was inestimable, but nevertheless the salvage of wrecks soon became an intense and contested undertaking, offering substantial monetary rewards to the boatmen and the tugmen, who were otherwise ill-paid.

Ramsgate's tugs became a regular feature in the harbour; unlike the lifeboats they were able haul ships out into open waters against an unfavourable wind or in dead calm conditions.

In the 19th century the tugs were kept with "crew on board and steam up, ready to put to sea at a moment's notice".

[2] The Samson and her successors—Aide, a wooden paddle steamer of 112 gross tons (114 t) built at Blackwall[3] on the Thames and in use by 1855,[4] Vulcan, an iron steam paddle tug of 140 tons (142 t), also built at Blackwall and delivered to Ramsgate in 1858, and Fabia, which was in service in World War II[5]—participated in many rescues alongside the local lifeboatmen, receiving several rewards from the RNLI and grateful foreign governments.

"[7] In Wilkie Collins's novel The Fallen Leaves a Broadstairs boatman laments that the advent of the Ramsgate tug destroyed the rich pickings to be made by salvaging cargo from wrecks on the Goodwin Sands.