Ramsgate tugboats

At Ramsgate the Harbour’s development coincided with the growing use of the steam tugs that were then being built for the shipping industry.

During this era a considerable amount of the work undertaken by the local boatmen was carried out by these tugs. 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.

The first Ramsgate tug, built of wood and measuring 90 tons, with a 50 hp engine, was built at South Shields by Woodhouse in 1843, and named the "Samson".

The "Samson" and her successors — "Aid", a wooden paddle steamer of 112 gross tons built at Blackwall on the Thames and in use by 1855, and "Vulcan", an iron steam paddle tug of 140 tons, also built at Blackwall and delivered to Ramsgate in 1858 — participated in many rescues alongside the local lifeboatmen, receiving several rewards from the RNLI and grateful foreign governments.