224 



THE SEA. 



Plymouth, Devon, with its grand breakwater and many associations, has often been men- 

 tioned in these pages. Comparatively recently it was the scene of a most gallant rescue. Five 

 boys were playing on the beach in front of the Hoe, when they entered a cave in the rocks, 

 and remained there until the tide, which flowed in with unusual rapidity on account of a gale 

 outside, completely hemmed them in. Their screams were heard from the road and promenade 

 above, and hundreds of people quickly congregated. The waves were dashing furiously on the- 

 beach, and surging into the cave where the terrified lads were crouching, shivering with wet 

 and cold, and trembling at their apparently inevitable fate. No boat could live in the surf, or 

 dare approach the rocks. But seamen's proverbial ingenuity came to the rescue ; ropes werc- 

 procured, and two seafaring men, George Andrews and Thomas Penny by name, were lowered 



WRECK OF A STEAM-SHIP XEAK LIZAUD POINT. 



over the precipitous crags through the blinding spray and dashing foam to the mouth of the 

 rocky recess. Here, still attached to the ropes, they allowed themselves to be washed by the 

 sea into the cave far enough to seize a boy, when, the signal being given, they w r ere hauled 

 out and up. This was repeated, until amid enthusiastic cheering, the fifth and last boy was 

 saved . 



Has the reader ever visited Dartmouth, one of the loveliest spots in Britain ? The men, 

 and, if history tells us aright, the women too, of that ancient town rendered a good account of 

 themselves when the French, in 1404, after burning and sacking Plymouth, thought they 

 would have an easy prey. The inhabitants of Dartmouth pluckily resisted the invaders, and 

 with such success, that the commander of the fleet, three barons, and twenty knights, were 

 taken prisoners. But then out of a comparatively small population, then as now, a large propor- 

 tion were men of the sea. 



