7.1 Before the advent of the steam tug, towage of one vessel by another as the rendering of a commercial service by a vessel dedicated to towage was all but unknown. All vessels were sailing ships and want of wind or the awkward set of the wind would affect all such vessels equally. While in port some small towage and manoeuvring would be carried out by oarsmen (as it was until relatively recently by the foyboatmen of the north-east coast eg at Shields: see The MacGregor Laird [1953] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 259), towage in the sense in which it is understood today, and as has been considered in Chapter 1 above, did not exist.