3-034-649 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

H.M.S. Racer aground on Ryde Sands, [Isle of Wight], 1871. 'The naval training-ship Racer, which ran aground on Ryde Sands, a quarter of a mile east of the head of Ryde Harbour Pier, at half-past eleven in the morning, was towed off at eight o'clock in the evening by a Portsmouth steam-tug...She had sailed past Ryde Pier from the westward. There was only a very slight breeze blowing from a northerly direction, and she had spread every inch of available canvas, and was making the best of what little wind there was...The tide was ebbing rapidly. After passing the pier she fell in with a strong current running in the same direction as the wind..., and drifted on the sand, taking the ground about midway between the pier and the Noman Port. Here she stuck tight in spite of every effort made by two of the steamers of the Portsmouth and Ryde Company to get her off. She lay over very much on the port side, and, being an old ship, it was feared she might be strained. As the tide came in she gradually righted herself, and was at length towed off... Engraving of a sketch by '...a gentleman on board the cutter-yacht Clutha, of the Royal Yacht Squadron at Ryde. It shows the Racer with the steam-tug Grinder preparing to tow her off the sandbank'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.