A posed photograph of Walmer boatmen and two schoolboys with a single masted lugger on Walmer beach, Kent. One of the boatmen is standing in the boat, wearing foul weather gear and a cork lifejacket, and has a safety line tied round his waist. He is holding the line to a leather lifesaving float which is being brought into the boat by another elderly boatman who is stepping over the port bulwark. In the background is a younger man. Two schoolboys are pushing against the starboard bow of the boat and they may be the sons of Edgar Tarry Adams, the photographer. A boat on the right of the picture has a bowsprit. The photographer is looking to seaward.