The S.S. Castillo Tordesillas
Dover, Kent.—At 4.20 on the morn- ing of the 1st of February, 1953, a steamer which had been driven on to the breakwater in a strong north- westerly gale with a rough sea, fired distress rockets. At 4.45 the life-boat Southern Africa left her moorings and found the S.S. Castillo Tordesillas, of Madrid, alongside the breakwater.
Her engine-room was leaking. The second coxswain went on board, and the life-boat also put the harbour master aboard and asked for tugs.
The tugs arrived and made fast to the steamer, and two life-boatmen jumped on to the breakwater and cast her off.
The tugs then towed the steamer to the beach in Dover harbour, and the life-boat remained with her until she was evenly aground, arriving back at her station at five in the afternoon.— Property Salvage Case..