According to legend, the sinking of a British battleship off the coast of Devon in 1915, in which a sailor was rescued by a dog, later led to the story of which famous Hollywood canine?

On New Year's Day, 1915, a German torpedo sank a British battleship off the Dorset coast, sending hundreds of men to a watery grave. Next day one lifeboat washed up on the beach and those on board, the bodies and the barely alive, were taken to a pub nearby. The dead were placed in the beer cellar where the landlord's dog, Lassie, began to lick the face of one sailor. Half an hour later it was realised that the man was still alive. The story of Lassie and the sailor from HMS Formidable reached Hollywood, inspiring the famous films of the sheepdog that bears Lassie's name ...

The seaman had been dragged unconscious from the surf just below the Cobb Gate at Lyme Regis and given up for dead. Rescuers instead concentrated on saving survivors washed ashore alive. But the landlord's collie dog refused to leave Able Seaman John Cowan's side as he lay motionless in the Pilot Boat Inn, where sailors, dead and alive, from the sunken battleship had been taken. She sat by his motionless body, and continued to lick and nuzzle him for half an hour. Amazingly, the "drowned" sailor began to stir and rescuers rushed to his aid. The crossbred collie - called Lassie - had saved his life.