Dover’s RNLI lifeboat made its first travels of 2014 yesterday in a bid to salvage a damaged cargo ship and its crew.

A Liberian registered cargo ship, heading towards Genoa in Italy passed between a tug and a smaller vessel it was towing, causing severe damage.

The RNLI Severn class lifeboat, the City of London II and the Galatea took over from a Dungeness lifeboat, leaving the Port of Dover shortly before midday.

The volunteer crew of seven set off, and reached the casualty vessels just before 2pm.

The cargo ship anchored off the Sussex port of Newhaven.

The crew of the tug suffered from tiredness, which resulted in the tow of the damaged vessel being taken up by RNLI’s lifeboats.

After a long day, the crews arrived in Dover just before 11pm.

Lifeboat operations manager at Dover, Roy Couzens, said: “This was a long arduous service for our volunteer crew which thankfully resulted in no-one being injured.”