THE LIFE-BOATMAN'S WORK. 215 



to exaggerate the awful circumstances attending a shipwreck. Let us picture the time, 

 when, after a peaceful sunset and the toils of the day are over, the hero of the life-boat 

 has retired to rest, and the silence of the night is unbroken except by the murmur of the 

 winds and the noise of the sea breaking on the shore. With the approach of the storm, 

 however, the winds and waves rise in fury upon the deep, and with their mingled vengeance 

 lash the cliffs and the beach. A signal of distress arouses the coxswain and his men; 

 crowds rush in curiosity to the cliffs, or line the shore, heedless of the driving rain or the 

 blinding sleet. Barrels of tar are lighted on the coast, and the signal gun and the fierv rocket 

 make a fresh appeal to the brave. The boat-house is unlocked, and the life-boat with her 

 crew is dragged hurriedly to the shore. The storm rages wildly, and the mountains of 

 surf and sea appal the stoutest heart. The gallant men look dubiously at the work before 

 them, and fathers and mothers and wives and children implore them to desist from a hopeless 

 enterprise. The voice of the coxswain, however, prevails. The life-boat is launched among 

 the breakers, cutting bravely through the foaming mass now buried under the swelling 

 billows, or rising on their summit now dashed against the hapless wreck still instinct 

 with life now driven from it by a mountain wave now embarking its living freight, 

 and carrying them, through storm and danger and darkness, to a blessed shore. Would 

 that this was the invariable issue of a life-boat service ! The boat that adventures to a 

 wreck meets with disaster itself occasionally ; and in the war of the elements some of its 

 gallant crew have sometimes been the first of its victims." And when we consider that 

 the number of wrecks on the coasts of the United Kingdom alone, averaged 1,446 per annum 

 for the twenty years between 1852 and 1871, we can form an idea of the importance of 

 life-boat work on these shores. In the succeeding chapter some special instances of perilous 

 and successful rescues will be presented. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

 "MAN THE LIFE-BOAT!" (continued). 



A "Dirty" Night on the Sands Wreck of the SamaritanoThe Vessel boarded by Margate and Whitstable Men A 

 Gale in its Fury The Vessel breaking up Nineteen Men in the Fore-rigging Two Margate Life-boats Wrecked- 

 Fate of a Lugger The Scene at Ramsgate " Man the Lif e-boat ! " The good Steamer Aid The Life-boat Towed 

 out A Terrible Trip A Grand Struggle with the Elements The Flag of Distress made out How to reach it 

 The Life-boat cast off On through the Breakers The Wreck reached at last Difficulties of Rescuing the Men 

 The poor little Cabin Boy The Life-boat Crowded A Moment of great Peril The Steamer reached at last Back 

 to Ramsgate The Reward of Merit Loss of a Passenger Steamer The Three Lost Corpses The Emigrant Ship 

 on the Sands A Splendid Night's Work. 



THE waves are tearing over the fatal Goodwin Sands, but the life-boats of Ramsgate, 

 Margate, Deal, and Kingsdown are ready for their work. At Ramsgate, in particular, 

 the life-boat is ready at her moorings in the harbour, while a powerful steam-tug 

 the Aid, whose interesting history would form many a chapter is lying with steam 

 partially up, prepared to tow out the boat as near the Goodwin Sands as may be with 



