During a severe gale from the E.S.E. and a heavy sea, at 1.20 P.M.

on the 4th December, the barque Rheinland, of Hamburg, laden with timber, was being towed to the Tyne Harbour by the steam-tug Skylark. On arriving within the piers the tow-line broke, and the barque stranded off the Battery Point, the seas breaking over her. The alarm guns were fired, and the No. 2 Life-boat, the Forester, was launched with some difficulty.

After being several times filled, she reached the wreck and took off two of the crew, the remainder being rescued by a Shields Life-boat..