At 11.40 P.M. on the 26th December a message was received reporting that the Nore Light-vessel was firing signals of distress.

The Life-boat James Stevens No. 9 was launched without loss of time, and in the neighbourhood of the Girdler Light- vessel she found the s.s. Mona, which was then at anchor close by the Sands, in a disabled condition. In the mean- time one of the tugs belonging to Sheerness Dockyard had also come to the vessel's assistance, and both she and the Life-boat stood by until daylight, when the tug took the vessel in tow to Sheerness..