THE PITILESS GOODWINS 295 



deadlier surges on the bank six miles away. The bitter 

 blackness is pitted with the gleams from the lightships 

 and the lighthouses, the light-vessels' lanterns making 

 great sweeps as the red craft roll and pitch heavily at 

 their moorings. 



You can see what sort of waves are rushing shore- 

 ward, and can picture what the breakers are like on the 

 Goodwins, and how at times the heart of the bravest 

 pilot must quail as he peers ahead and around him and 

 realises what a mistake will mean to the ship and people 

 in his charge. Well for him it is that there are so 

 many lights and sounds to warn him of the perils of the 

 Sands, and so many ready to succour the fishers and 

 fighters imperilled. 



There is no other shoal in the world which is more 

 thoroughly marked than these fatal Sands, and no other 

 region where more perfect means exist for saving life, 

 and where braver men live. Between the North and 

 South Forelands, a distance of ten miles, five lifeboats 

 are stationed, and four lightships the North Sand 

 head, the South Goodwin, the East Goodwin, and the 

 Gulf Stream and year in and year out, unceasingly, 

 hundreds of men are ready to obey the rousing cry of 

 " Man the lifeboat ! " whilst there are always crowds of 

 brave fellows at Deal prepared to put off in their famous 

 luggers. 



The record of the old Northumberland\\{&>z.\. shows 

 what such a craft can do, even when fighting an 

 opponent like the Goodwins. From 1851 to July 1865, 

 when she was broken up, she saved 261 lives from ships 

 that were totally lost, and took nineteen vessels safely 

 into harbour. 



