218 THE SEA. 



cargo; she had a crew of eleven men under the command of the captain, Modesto Crispo.. 

 Hoping- to save the vessel, the lugger, as she was running for the brig, spoke a Whitstable 

 fishing-smack, and borrowed two of her men and her boat. They boarded the brig as 

 the tide went down, and hoped to be able to get her off the sands at the next high 

 water. For this purpose, six Margate boatmen and the two Whitstable men were left on 

 board. 



With the rising tide the gale came on again with renewed fury, and it soon 

 became a question not of saving the vessel, but of saving their own lives. The sea 

 dashed furiously over the wreck, lifting her, and then letting her fall with terrific 

 violence on the sands. Her timbers quivered and shook, and a hole was quickly knocked 

 in her side. She filled with water, and settled on one side. " The waves began now to 

 break with great force over the deck; the lugger's boat was speedily knocked to pieces 

 and swept overboard ; the hatches were forced up ; and some of the cargo which floated on 

 the deck was at once washed away. The brig began to roll and labour fearfully, as wave 

 after wave broke against her, with a force that shook her from stem to stern, and 

 threatened to throw her bodily upon her broadside; the men, fearing this, cut the weather 

 rigging of the mainmast, and the mast soon broke off short with a great crash, and went 

 over the side." All hands now had to take to the fore-rigging; nineteen souls with 

 nothing between them and death but the few shrouds of a shaking mast ! The waves 

 threw up columns of foam, and the spray froze upon them as it fell. The Margate and 

 Whitstable men were caught in a trap, for neither lugger nor smack would have lived five 

 minutes in the sea that surrounded the vessel. Would the life-boat come ? 



As soon as the news of the wreck reached Margate, the smaller of the two life-boats 

 was manned and launched. By an oversight in the hurry of preparation, the valves 

 of the air-tight boxes had been left open, and she was fast filling. Although she 

 succeeded in getting within a quarter of a mile of the brig, she had to be speedily 

 turned towards shore, or she would have been wrecked herself. After battling for four 

 hours with the sea and gale, she was run ashore in Westgate Bay. There the coast- 

 guardmen did their best for them. Meantime, when it was learned in Margate that the 

 first boat was disabled, the larger one was launched. Away they started, the brave 

 crew doing all they could to battle with the gale, but all in vain; their tiller gave 

 way, and they had to give up the attempt. They were driven ashore about one mile 

 from the town. Next, two luggers attempted to get out to the wreck. The fate of the 

 first was soon settled : a fearful squall of wind struck her before she had got many 

 hundred yards clear of the pier, and swept her foremast clean out of her. The 

 second lugger was a little more fortunate ; she beat out to the Sands, but only to find the 

 surf so heavy, that it was impossible to cross them, or to get near the wreck. " The 

 Margate people became full of despair; and many a bitter tear was shed for sympathy 

 and for personal loss as they watched the wreck, and thought of the poor fellows 

 perishing slowly before their eyes, apparently without any possibility of being saved/-' 

 And now let us change the scene to Ramsgate. 



About nine o'clock the news came to Ramsgate' that there was a brig ashore on the 

 Woolpack Sands, off Margate, but it was naturally concluded that the life-boats of the 



