The RMS Ascania being assisted by a tug boat sometime in the late 1920’s. This photograph was taken from the steps of the Tilbury Hotel at Thurrock, on the Thames estuary. Standing at the entrance to the dock and part of the original Tilbury Docks development, the hotel provided facilities of a very high standard for passengers arriving or departing on the many cruise ships which operated from Tilbury. The hotel was destroyed by incendiary bombs in 1944, during the Second World War.