296 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



The call for help will surely come during a bitter 

 gale by day or night. There is the boom of a gun from 

 the Goodwins, or the flare of a rocket, or the actual call 

 of a voice, for the Gull lightship and the watch-house at 

 Ramsgate are connected by telephone. Instantly a 

 rocket is fired from the capstan at the head of the 

 pier to let the lightship know that the signal of distress 

 has been heard, and the lifeboat crew is summoned. 



A policeman, a civilian any one may see the rocket 

 and raise the alarm, but whatever happens a watchman 

 must go through a certain routine. He must run to the 

 homes of the lifeboatmen and rouse them, and he has 

 to perform this task even though the men themselves 

 may be, as they always are in bad weather, within reach 

 of the craft in which they are to battle with the storm. 

 The routine call will take twenty-five or thirty minutes, 

 but sometimes, long before it has been made, the tug is 

 dragging the lifeboat towards the Goodwins. 



It maybe a case of saving life or salving a vessel, 

 and in both respects the men of Deal and Ramsgate 

 have an unequalled record, for the Goodwins are 

 always seizing prey in the shape of man and ship. The 

 Lifeboat Institution pays a certain sum to each volunteer 

 who goes on service, whether life is saved or not. 



"There's no retaining fee," a storm warrior told me. 

 " If we get a vessel off the Goodwins and into the 

 Downs or harbour, there's so much for each of us, 

 according to the value of the ship and her cargo. We'd 

 rather take salvage-money than lifeboat-money; but 

 those jobs are very rare nowadays. There's a nice bit, 

 too, for a man who first gives the alarm of a ship in 

 distress no matter who or what he is. Perhaps a 



