THE SEA. 



beach, by the house where slept his wife and eight children, who were to call him 

 husband father no more/' The life-boat men hardly like to speak of such a cruel 

 disaster blameless though they be in the matter. In this particular case a Board of 

 Trade inquiry acquitted them and all else concerned of any blame whatever. 



A dark December night, and a large ship reported ashore on the Goodwins. The 

 harbour-master hurries to Ramsgate pier-head ; he and all with him can see nothing ; 

 they cross-question the man who asserts that he observed during a lift in the fog a 

 vessel on the sands. Although there is no signal from the light-vessels, the harbour- 

 master decides to send out steamer and life-boat. The crews of both soon discover 

 the vessel looming through the mist, a complete wreck, her bow to the sea, her mizen- 

 mast down to the deck, and the wild seas running over her. There are no sailors to 

 be seen lashed in her rigging. Have all on board perished ? 



Thank God ! not so. After infinite difficulty, and after nearly getting entangled with 

 some of the wreckage, the life-boat crew get near the vessel, and find that three men 

 and a boy are crouching under the shelter of the deck-house; they must be a small 

 proportion of the original crew, for she is a large ship, and must have had some fifteen 

 or sixteen hands aboard. The men have been crouching there for hours, and their con- 

 fidence in the advent of the life-boat had been so strong that they had prepared for 

 her coming by preparing a life-buoy, with a long line fastened to it, ready to throw 

 overboard. 



As the long hours passed, fervent hope had been dashed by wild despair. Sud- 

 denly the life-boat appears, coming up to her cable just astern of the vessel ; it is to 

 them as a reprieve from death, and they wake to life and action. They throw the 

 life-buoy and line to the life-boat men, and after much trouble the latter get it on board. 

 All hands lay hold on the rope, and do their utmost to haul the life-boat nearer to 

 the wreck, but the heavy gale, terrific sea, and strong tide, render it impossible. A 

 tremendous sea comes rushing over the vessel, and for the moment swamps the boat, 

 knocking down five or six of the men, hurting some of them severely, but she lifts 

 again, and no one is lost. But what of the poor crew ? The life-boat men feel that 

 it is impossible to haul their boat nearer the ship. 



" To their great surprise, they see the captain spring up from the lee of the 

 deck-house, hurriedly take off his oilskin coat, throw it into the water, and then, 

 jumping on the gunwale, grasp the hawser that holds the boat, and slide down into the 

 boiling sea. A huge wave breaks over him and washes him away from the rope; he 

 now tries to swim to the boat, but the life-boat is not directly astern the sheer she has to 

 her cable that is fastened to the anchor, which was thrown over some distance to the side 

 of the vessel, prevents her dropping right astern; and although the captain has but to 

 swim a few yards out of the direction of the sweep of sea and tide, it is impossible for 

 him to manage it. He is perfectly overwhelmed by the boil of sea, tossed wildly up 

 and down, wave after wave beating over him : it is all that he can do to keep his head 

 above water, and cannot guide his course in the least ; the boatmen try all they can 

 to make the boat sheer towards him, so as to reach him or throw him a rope, but it 

 is impossible : they cannot get sufficiently near, and in a few seconds they see him swept 



