2-979-043 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Royal West India Mail Steamer "Tyne" on shore at St. Alban's Head, 1857. '...the Brazilian mail steam-ship Tyne, on her homeward voyage, ran aground on the Isle of Purbeck. The whole of the passengers were landed in safety...Shortly after she struck, getting a little more east, into deeper water, she swung round, and very happily for those on board came head to wind, by which the force of the waves was separated as it were by the bows of the ship. Her lights and signals having been seen, some of the boats of the coast-guard from Kimmeridge, St. Alban's, and Bottom put off, and they, knowing the coast and its dangers, advised the captain to keep every person on board till the daylight, as it would be next to an impossibility to land as the sea then ran. This advice was followed, and all in the ship were saved. One unfortunate coast-guard man was unhappily drowned in his attempt to save others'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.