Eleven people were rescued in pitch darkness after a river taxi ran aground.
An RNLI crew rushed to assist 10 ferry passengers and a skipper who had beached on the quayside at Exmouth, Devon, at 10.30pm on Friday night.
Three trips had to be made on an inflatable boat to take the passengers to safety.
Scott Ranft, who helmed the lifeboat, said: “We walked over to the taxi and transferred three or four of the passengers at a time to our D class lifeboat, making three trips in total to a local, larger rigid inflatable boat which could recover them all to Exmouth Marina safely.
“On our last trip, we transferred the skipper. The crew volunteers ensured the anchor was deployed so that the boat wouldn’t drift when it refloated on the rising tide.”
The RNLI confirmed that no one was harmed in the incident.