300 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



perished except five, who had taken to the only small 

 boat that was left. These men were picked up by the 

 lifeboat. The pilot was numbered with the lost. 



Sometimes, after a struggle which is almost super- 

 human in its fierceness, a crew will be dragged from the 

 very jaws of death on the Goodwins. Such an instance 

 of salvation is on record concerning the Providentia, a 

 full-rigged ship from Finland which went ashore on the 

 Sands one bitter December night. 



When the lifeboat reached the ship it was seen that 

 she had been almost smashed to pieces, and that, of her 

 crew of fifteen hands, only three were visible two men 

 and a boy, who were crouching for shelter under the lee 

 of the deck-house. The lifeboat fought valiantly to get 

 near the wreck, and it seemed as if she would triumph, 

 when a tremendous sea swept upon her and injured half 

 a dozen of her crew. 



Undaunted, she continued the fight, and in the thick 

 of it a man was seen to spring up from the shelter of the 

 deck-house and to hurl himself into the tumult of waves, 

 trying to reach the lifeboat. 



After a fierce struggle, he gripped the gunwale and 

 got his head through a lifebuoy ; then the ruthless waters 

 swept him away into the darkness. He was considered 

 lost, and the lifeboat set to work to save the other three 

 survivors. 



But on the run back there happened one of the 

 wonderful things of the sea, for in the blackness of the 

 night a cry for help was heard, and the crew dragged on 

 board the very man who, on the verge of safety, had 

 been torn away by the waves. This proved to be the 

 captain. 



