Oil painting, previously titled 'Shipwreck with a paddle tug towing a lifeboat in a gale' as the subject had not been identified. It shows a dramatic rescue on the outer Goodwin Sands, after the sailing barque 'Indian Chief', bound from Middlesbrough to Yokohama with a general cargo, was driven onto the Long Sands in an east-north-easterly gale at 2.30 in the morning of 5 January 1881. News reached land by noon and four lifeboats put out to the rescue from Aldborough (Suffolk), Harwich and Clacton (Essex) and Ramsgate (Kent) - the last between 20 and 30 miles away. The first three failed to find the wreck before darkness again fell and the Harwich boat went to the successful aid of a Spanish schooner.

At dawn on 6 January it was located by the Ramsgate boat 'Bradford' which had stayed at sea all night under tow of the Ramsgate harbour steamer 'Vulcan'. The first and second mate, the pilot and nine seamen were rescued onto the steamer, though the second mate died of exposure on board: the master and the other 16 crewmen had been washed away shortly after the ship was wrecked.

The 'Indian Chief' is shown aground on the left, keeled over and having lost her masts. Figures can be seen on the deck waving their arms as they desperately await rescue. The drama is enhanced by the sun rising behind clearing clouds in the distance, which can also be read as a symbol of dawn bringing hope. The painting is signed ‘R H Nibbs’.

Several gallantry awards were made for the rescue to the Ramsgate lifeboatmen, including the RNLI gold medal to the coxswain, Charles Fish, and silver medals to the 11 men of his crew, to the master of the steamer (Alfred Page) and other acknowledgements to its crew. The three medals presented to one of the 'Bradford' men, Thomas Cooper junior, are also in the Museum collection. The wreck was widely reported and illustrated at the time and is also popularly remembered today because subject of a long commemorative poem by William McGonagall.