The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism Volume II Part 15

Most of those killed were buried or crushed by the broken fragments and rubbish of falling stacks of chimneys or walls. The fall of brick walls made a serious item in the losses. At Greenwich Park several pieces of the wall were down for a hundred rods at a place; the palace of St. James's was greatly damaged; the roof of the guard-house at Whitehall blown off, seriously hurting nine soldiers; the lead stripped off and rolled up like parchment from scores of churches and public buildings, including Westminster Abbey and Christ Church Hospital. "It was very remarkable,"

Defoe notes, "that the bridge over the Thames [_i.e._, Old London Bridge]

received so little damage, the buildings standing high and not sheltered by other erections, as they would be in the streets. Above a hundred elms, some of them said to have been planted by Wolsey, were blown down in St.

James's Park. Very fortunately the storm was succeeded by fine weather: for had rain or snow followed, the misery and damage to hundreds and hundreds of tenants would have been fearfully increased."

At Stowmarket, in Suffolk, one of the largest spires-100 feet high above the steeple-was completely carried away, with all its heavy timbers and an immense quant.i.ty of lead. So in Brenchly and Great Peckham, Kent, the former doing damage to the church and porch as it fell, and entailing a total loss of 800 to 1,000, which would represent much more in these days. "The cathedral church of Ely," said one of Defoe's correspondents, "by the providence of G.o.d, did, contrary to all men's expectations, stand out the shock, but suffered very much in every part of it, especially that which is called the body of it, the lead being torn and rent up a considerable way together; about 40 lights of gla.s.s blown down and shattered to pieces; one ornamental pinnacle, belonging to the north aisle, demolished; and the lead in divers other parts of it blown up into great heaps. Five chimneys falling down in a place called the Colledge, the place where the prebendaries' lodgings are, did no other damage (prais'd be G.o.d!) than beat down some part of the houses along with them.

The loss which the church and college of Ely sustained being, by computation, near 2,000." Accounts of nearly irretrievable damage done to valuable painted church windows, for one of which-at Fairford, Gloucester-1,500 had been offered, came from many points. In some cases the lead blown from roofs, amounting to tons in weight, was so tightly rolled up that it took a number of men to unroll it without cutting or other damage.

The Bishop of Bath and Wells was killed under rather remarkable circ.u.mstances. The palace was the relic of a very old castle, only one corner of it being modernised for his lords.h.i.+p's use. Had the bishop slept in the new portion his life would have been spared; but he remained in one of the older apartments. Two chimney-stacks fell and crushed in the roof, driving it upon the bishop's bed, forcing it quite through the next floor into the hall, and burying both himself and lady in the rubbish. The former appears to have risen, perhaps perceiving the approaching danger, and was found, with his brains dashed out, near a doorway.

One of the most remarkable cases of the power of the wind ash.o.r.e was the removal of a stone of four hundredweight, which lay sheltered under a bank, to a distance of seven yards. On the Kingscote estate, in Gloucester, 600 trees, all about eighty feet in height, were thrown down within a compa.s.s of five acres. The storm was accompanied by thunder and lightning and waterspouts. A clergyman, writing from Besselsleigh, says:-"On Friday, the 26th of November, in the afternoon, about four of the clock, a country fellow came running to me, in a great fright, and very earnestly entreated me to go and see a pillar, as he called it, in the air in a field hard by. I went with the fellow, and when I came found it to be a spout marching directly with the wind; and I can think of nothing I can compare it to better than the trunk of an elephant, which it resembled-only much bigger. It was extended to a great length, and swept the ground as it went, leaving a mark behind. It crossed a field, and, which was very strange (and which I should scarce have been induced to believe had I not myself seen it, besides several countrymen, who were astonished at it, meeting with an oak that stood towards the middle of the field, snapped the body of it asunder. Afterwards, crossing a road, it sucked up the water that was in the cart-ruts. Then, coming to an old barn, it tumbled it down, and the thatch that was on the top was carried about by the wind, which was then very high and in great confusion. After this I followed it no farther, and therefore saw no more of it, but a paris.h.i.+oner of mine, going from hence to Hincksey, in a field about a quarter of a mile off of this place, was on the sudden knocked down and lay upon the place till some people came by and brought him home; and he is not yet quite recovered." An earthquake is also said to have followed the great storm.

Enough has now been written to show how universal were the effects of this terrible gale. The details, as recorded by Defoe and others, would fill several chapters like the present. The author of "Robinson Crusoe" puts, as we have seen, the loss of life partly on land but princ.i.p.ally by sea, at 8,000, but a French authority places it at the enormous number of 30,000! It can well be believed that a large proportion of the casualties were never reported or recorded.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A LIFE-BOAT GOING OUT.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREATHEAD'S LIFE-BOAT.]

CHAPTER XV.

"MAN THE LIFE-BOAT!"

The Englishman's direct interest in the Sea-The History of the Life-boat and its Work-Its Origin-A Coach-builder the First Inventor-Lionel Lukin's Boat-Royal Encouragement-Wreck of the _Adventure_-The Poor Crew Drowned in Sight of Thousands-Good out of Evil-The South s.h.i.+elds Committee and their Prize Boat-Wouldhave and Greathead-The latter Rewarded by Government, &c.-Slow Progress of the Life-boat Movement-The Old Boat at Redcar-Organisation of the National Life-boat Inst.i.tution-Sir William Hillary's Brave Deeds-Terrible Losses at the Isle of Man-Loss of Three Life-boats-Reorganisation of the Society-Immense Compet.i.tion for a Prize-Beeching's "Self-righting" Boats-Buoyancy and Ballast-Dangers of the Service-A Year's Wrecks.

The history of the life-boat is one that concerns every Englishman. In this isle of the sea, our own beloved Britain, our sympathies are constantly excited on behalf of those who suffer from s.h.i.+pwreck. It would not be too much to say that one-half the population of the United Kingdom have some direct interest in this matter. Let us not be misunderstood.

Pecuniary interests in s.h.i.+pping are held here more largely than in any other country, but we are not all s.h.i.+powners or merchants. But how many of us have some brother or friend a seafarer! Of the writer's own direct relatives six have travelled and voyaged to very far distant lands, and the friends of whom the same might be said would aggregate several score.

This is no uncommon case.

The origin of the life-boat, as now understood, is of very modern date.

Those who would study the matter in its entirety cannot do better than consult the work(71) from which the larger part of the material incorporated in the present chapter is derived. One of the very earliest inventors of a life-boat was Mr. Lionel Lukin, a coach-builder of Long Acre, who turned his attention to the subject in 1784, from purely benevolent motives. The then Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.), who knew Lukin personally, not only encouraged him to test his inventions, but offered to pay the expenses. Lukin purchased a Norway yawl, to the outer frame of which he added a projecting gunwale of cork, tapering from nine inches amids.h.i.+ps to very little at the bows and stern. Hollow water-tight enclosures gave it great buoyancy, while ballast sufficient for stability was afforded by a heavy false keel of iron. On this principle several boats were constructed, and found to be, as the inventor describes them, "unimmergible." The Rev. Dr. Shairp, of Bamborough, hearing of the invention, and having charge of a charity for saving life at sea, sent a boat to Lukin to be made "unimmergible." This was done, and satisfactory accounts were afterwards received of the altered boat, which was reported to have saved several lives in the first year of its use. The Admiralty and Trinity House would have nothing to do with it, in spite of the Prince of Wales' interest in the matter. It has been said that a committee is a body without a conscience; it was true in those good old days. Lukin retired from business in 1824, and went to live at Hythe in Kent, where, ten years after, he died; the inscription on his tomb in Hythe churchyard says that he was the first to build a life-boat.

Notwithstanding Lukin's increasing efforts to bring his life-boats into general use, hardly any progress had been made in their general adoption till 1789, when the _Adventure_, of Newcastle, was wrecked at the mouth of the Tyne. While this vessel lay stranded on a dangerous sand at the entrance of the river, in the midst of tremendous breakers, her crew "dropped off one by one from the rigging," only three hundred yards from the sh.o.r.e, and in the presence of thousands of spectators. This horrible disaster led to good results, for a committee was immediately appointed at a meeting of the inhabitants of South s.h.i.+elds, and premiums offered for the best model of a life-boat "calculated to brave the dangers of the sea, particularly of broken water." From many plans submitted two were selected, those of Mr. William Wouldhave and Mr. Henry Greathead. The idea of the first is said to have been suggested by the following circ.u.mstance.

Wouldhave had been asked to a.s.sist a woman in putting a "skeel" of water on her head, when he noticed that she had a piece of a broken wooden dish lying in the water, which floated with the points upwards, and turning it over several times, he found that it always righted itself. Greathead's model had a curved instead of a straight keel, and he, as the only practical boatbuilder who had competed, was awarded the premium, some of Wouldhave's ideas in regard to the use of cork being incorporated. This first boat, thirty feet in length, had a cork lining twelve inches thick, reaching from the deck to the thwarts, and a cork fender outside sixteen inches deep, four inches wide, and twenty-one feet long, nearly 7 cwts. of cork being fitted to the boat altogether. Greathead's curved keel was, however, the main point, and he is regarded as the inventor of the first practicable life-boat. From 1791 to 1797 his first boat was the means of saving the whole or larger part of the crews of five s.h.i.+ps.

Notwithstanding all this, no other life-boat was built till 1798, when the then Duke of Northumberland ordered one to be built at his own expense, which in two years saved the crews of three vessels. Others were soon after constructed, and before the end of 1803 Greathead built no less than thirty-one, eight of which were for foreign countries. In the beginning of 1802, when two hundred lives had been saved at the entrance of the Tyne alone, Greathead applied to Parliament for a national reward. Possibly it is more remarkable that he obtained it. 1,200 was voted to him, to which the Trinity House, Lloyd's, and the Society of Arts added substantial presents. The Emperor of Russia sent a diamond ring to the inventor.

After this, one might have reasonably thought that life-boats had become a recognised inst.i.tution and a national necessity. Not so. For years afterwards there was hardly an advance made, and there was no organised society to work them. The Government was apathetic. In 1810, one of Greathead's life-boats, carried overland to Hartley on the coast of Northumberland, rescued the crews of several fis.h.i.+ng-boats. On returning toward the sh.o.r.e, the boat got too near a fatal rock-reef, and was split in halves; thirty-four poor fellows-a moment before the savers and the saved-were drowned. The authority before cited says that even now several of Greathead's boats-exclusively rowing boats-are to be found on the coast; the oldest one is that in the possession of the boatmen at Redcar, it having been built in 1802. On seeing this fine old life-boat, which had saved some scores of lives, Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe composed some years ago the following verses, which were set to music:-

"The Life-boat! Oh, the Life-boat!

We all have known so long, A refuge for the feeble, The glory of the strong.

Twice thirty years have vanished, Since first upon the wave She housed the drowning mariner, And s.n.a.t.c.hed him from the grave.

The voices of the rescued, Their numbers may be read, The tears of speechless feeling Our wives and children shed; The memories of mercy In man's extremest need, All for the dear old Life-boat Uniting seem to plead."

As already stated, the important movement for saving life from s.h.i.+pwreck languished for some time. To Sir William Hillary and Thomas Wilson, then one of the Members of Parliament for London, is due the organisation of that most excellent society which has done more in the cause of humanity than, perhaps, any other whatever, and has done it on means which even to-day are too limited. Sir William Hillary was not a talker or subscriber merely, but had been personally active in saving life. When a Government cutter, the _Vigilant_, was wrecked in Douglas Bay, Isle of Man, where he was then residing, he was one of the foremost in rescuing a part of the crew. Listen to our authority: "Between the years 1821 and 1846, no fewer than 144 wrecks had taken place on the island, and 172 lives were lost; while the destruction of property was estimated at a quarter of a million.

In 1825, when the _City of Glasgow_ steamer was stranded in Douglas Bay, Sir William Hillary a.s.sisted in saving the lives of sixty-two persons; and in the same year eleven men from the brig Leopard, and nine from the sloop _Fancy_, which became a total wreck. In 1827-32, Sir William, accompanied by his son, saved many other lives; but his greatest success was on the 20th of November, 1830, when he saved in the life-boat twenty-two men, the whole of the crew of the mail steamer _St. George_, which became a total wreck on St. Mary's Rock. On this occasion he was washed overboard among the wreck, with other three persons, and was saved with great difficulty, having had six of his ribs fractured." No wonder that a genuine hero of this character should have succeeded in obtaining the a.s.sistance and encouragement of His Majesty King George IV., and any number of royal highnesses, archbishops, bishops, n.o.blemen, and other distinguished people,(72) when the formation of a "Royal National Inst.i.tution for the Preservation of Life from s.h.i.+pwreck" was mooted. The Society was immediately organised, and the receipts for the first year of its existence were 9,800 odd. The Committee, in their first report, were able to state that they had built and stationed twelve life-boats, while, doubtless, from their good example, thirty-nine life-boats had been stationed on our sh.o.r.es by benevolent individuals and a.s.sociations not connected with the Inst.i.tution. In its early days, the Society a.s.sisted local bodies to place life-boats on the coast, such being independent of its control. The good work done by the a.s.sociation in its early days is indicated in the following statement. In the second annual report the Committee showed that up to that period the Society had contributed to the saving of 342 lives from s.h.i.+pwreck, either by its own life-saving apparatus or by other means, for which it had granted rewards. And its total revenue for the second year was only 3,392 7s. 5d.!(73) For fifteen years afterwards the annual receipts were still smaller.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LIFE-BOAT SAVING THE CREW OF THE "ST. GEORGE."]

Between 1841 and 1850 the Inst.i.tution lost three life-boats, and this was the smallest part of the loss. In October, 1841, one of the boats at Blyth, Northumberland, while being pulled against a strong wind, was struck by a heavy sea, causing her to run stern under, and to half fill with water. A second sea struck her, and she capsized. Ten men were drowned. The second case occurred at Robin Hood's Bay, on the coast of Yorks.h.i.+re, in February, 1843. The life-boat went off to the a.s.sistance of a stranded vessel, the _Ann_, of London, during a fresh northerly gale.

The life-boat had got alongside the wreck, and was taking the crew off, when, as far as can be understood, several men jumped into her at the moment when a great wave struck her, and she capsized. Many of the crew got on her bottom, while three remained underneath her, and in this state she drifted towards the sh.o.r.e on the opposite side of the bay. On seeing the accident from the sh.o.r.e, five gallant fellows launched a boat and tried to pull off to the rescue, but had hardly encountered two seas, when she was turned _end over end_, two of her crew being drowned. An officer of the Coastguard service and eleven men lost their lives on this occasion; a few were saved, coming to sh.o.r.e safely on the bottom of the life-boat, and even under it, in its reversed condition.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOSS OF A LIFE-BOAT AT THE s.h.i.+PWRECK OF THE "ANN."]

A still worse accident occurred, in December, 1849, to the South s.h.i.+elds life-boat, which had gone out with twenty-four experienced pilots to the aid of the _Betsy_ of Littlehampton, stranded on the Herd Sand. She had reached the wreck, and was lying alongside, though badly secured. The s.h.i.+pwrecked men were about to descend into the boat, when a heavy sea, recoiling from the bows of the vessel, lifted her on end, and a second sea completed the work of destruction by throwing her completely over. She ultimately drifted ash.o.r.e. Twenty out of twenty-four on board were drowned. On seeing the accident, two other life-boats immediately dashed off, and saved four of the pilots and the crew of the _Betsy_.

The year 1850 marked an epoch in the history of life-boats, for then the Inst.i.tution was thoroughly re-organised. It was arranged that the boats should be periodically inspected by qualified officers, and that a fixed scale of payment, both for actual service or quarterly exercise, should be made to the c.o.xswains and crews.(74) His Grace the late Duke of Northumberland offered a prize of one hundred guineas for the best model of a life-boat, and a like sum towards constructing a boat on that model.

No less than 280 plans and models were sent in, not merely from all parts of the United Kingdom, but from France, Holland, Germany, and the United States. After some six months' detailed examination on the part of the committee, Mr. James Beeching, of Great Yarmouth, was awarded the prize.

That gentleman constructed several boats shortly afterwards, embodying most or all of the leading improvements, and was the first to build a "self-righting" life-boat. All of the Inst.i.tution's modern boats are on this principle.

"The chief peculiarity of a life-boat," says our authority, "which distinguishes it from all ordinary boats, is its being rendered unsubmergible, by attaching to it, chiefly within boards, water-tight air-cases, or fixed water-tight compartments under a deck.... Especially it is essential that the spare s.p.a.ce along the sides of a life-boat, within boards, should be entirely occupied by buoyant cases or compartments; as when such is the case, on her s.h.i.+pping a sea, the water, until got rid off, is confined to the mids.h.i.+ps part of the boat, where, to a great extent, it serves as ballast, instead of falling over to the lee-side, and destroying her equilibrium, as is the case in an ordinary open boat." The Inst.i.tution's self-righting boats are ballasted with _heavy_ iron keels (up to 21 cwts.), and _light_ air-tight cases, cork, &c. The advantage of employing a ballast of less specific gravity than water is, that in the event of the boat being stove in, the buoyancy of the material itself then comes into play.

"Self-righting" is, of course, a most important principle in life-boats, and out of some 250 boats of the Inst.i.tution there are scarcely more than twenty which do not possess it. Up to twenty years or so ago it was derided by many otherwise practical men. Yet as early as 1792 we find the Rev. James Bremner, of Walls, Orkney, proposing to make all ordinary boats capable of righting themselves in the water by placing two water-tight casks, parallel to each other, in the head and stern sheets, and by affixing a heavy iron keel. The self-righting power of to-day is obtained by the following means. The boat is built with considerably higher gunwales at the bows and stern than in the centre, while four to six feet of the s.p.a.ce at either end are water-tight air-chambers. A heavy iron keel is attached, and a nearly equal weight of light air-cases, and cork ballast cases are stowed betwixt the boat's floor and the deck. "No other measures are necessary to be taken in order to effect the self-righting power. When the boat is forcibly placed in the water with her keel upwards, she is floated unsteadily on the two air chambers at bow and stern, while the heavy iron keel and other ballast then being carried above the centre of gravity, an unstable equilibrium is at once effected, in which dilemma the boat cannot remain, the raised weight falls on one side or the other of the centre of gravity, and drags the boat round to her ordinary position, when the water s.h.i.+pped during the evolution quickly escapes through the relieving tubes, and she is again ready for any service that may be required of her."

Nearly all life-boat stations are provided with a transporting carriage, built especially for the particular boat. The use of this, in many cases, is to convey the boat by land to the point nearest the wreck. On some coasts the distance may be several miles. In addition to this, a boat-carriage is of immense service in launching a boat from a beach without her keel touching the ground; so much so, indeed, that one can be readily launched from a carriage through a high surf, when without one she could not be got off the beach. The carriage is often backed sufficiently far into the water to enable the boat to float when she is run off.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A life-boat and carriage-latest form.]

The foregoing will give a sufficient idea of the boat itself, and now to its work. Courage and ability are required to put it into action, and the dangers to which the crew of a life-boat are exposed ent.i.tle those who encounter them to the greatest honour. "It is impossible to exaggerate the awful circ.u.mstances attending a s.h.i.+pwreck. Let us picture the time, when, after a peaceful sunset and the toils of the day are over, the hero of the life-boat has retired to rest, and the silence of the night is unbroken except by the murmur of the winds and the noise of the sea breaking on the sh.o.r.e. With the approach of the storm, however, the winds and waves rise in fury upon the deep, and with their mingled vengeance lash the cliffs and the beach. A signal of distress arouses the c.o.xswain and his men; crowds rush in curiosity to the cliffs, or line the sh.o.r.e, heedless of the driving rain or the blinding sleet. Barrels of tar are lighted on the coast, and the signal gun and the fiery rocket make a fresh appeal to the brave. The boat-house is unlocked, and the life-boat with her crew is dragged hurriedly to the sh.o.r.e. The storm rages wildly, and the mountains of surf and sea appal the stoutest heart. The gallant men look dubiously at the work before them, and fathers and mothers and wives and children implore them to desist from a hopeless enterprise. The voice of the c.o.xswain, however, prevails. The life-boat is launched among the breakers, cutting bravely through the foaming ma.s.s-now buried under the swelling billows, or rising on their summit-now dashed against the hapless wreck still instinct with life-now driven from it by a mountain wave-now embarking its living freight, and carrying them, through storm and danger and darkness, to a blessed sh.o.r.e. Would that this was the invariable issue of a life-boat service! The boat that adventures to a wreck meets with disaster itself occasionally; and in the war of the elements some of its gallant crew have sometimes been the first of its victims." And when we consider that the number of wrecks on the coasts of the United Kingdom alone, averaged 1,446 per annum for the twenty years between 1852 and 1871, we can form an idea of the importance of life-boat work on these sh.o.r.es. In the succeeding chapter some special instances of perilous and successful rescues will be presented.

CHAPTER XVI.

"MAN THE LIFE-BOAT!" (_continued_).

A "Dirty" Night on the Sands-Wreck of the _Samaritano_-The Vessel boarded by Margate and Whitstable Men-A Gale in its Fury-The Vessel breaking up-Nineteen Men in the Fore-rigging-Two Margate Life-boats Wrecked-Fate of a Lugger-The Scene at Ramsgate-"Man the Life-boat!"-The good Steamer _Aid_-The Life-boat Towed out-A Terrible Trip-A Grand Struggle with the Elements-The Flag of Distress made out-How to reach it-The Life-boat cast off-On through the Breakers-The Wreck reached at last-Difficulties of Rescuing the Men-The poor little Cabin Boy-The Life-boat Crowded-A Moment of great Peril-The Steamer reached at last-Back to Ramsgate-The Reward of Merit-Loss of a Pa.s.senger Steamer-The Three Lost Corpses-The Emigrant s.h.i.+p on the Sands-A Splendid Night's Work.

The waves are tearing over the fatal Goodwin Sands, but the life-boats of Ramsgate, Margate, Deal, and Kingsdown are ready for their work. At Ramsgate, in particular, the life-boat is ready at her moorings in the harbour, while a powerful steam-tug-the _Aid_, whose interesting history would form many a chapter-is lying with steam partially up, prepared to tow out the boat as near the Goodwin Sands as may be with safety. The "storm warriors," as the Rev. Mr. Gilmore calls them with so much appropriateness, in his fascinating and powerfully-written work,(75) "are on the watch, hour after hour, through the stormy night walking the pier, and giving keen glances to where the Goodwin Sands are white with the churning, seething waves that leap high, and plunge and foam amid the treacherous shoals and banks. Look! a flash is seen; listen, in a few seconds, yes, there is the throb and boom of a distant gun, a rocket cleaves the darkness; and now the cry-'Man the life-boat! Man the life-boat! Seaward ho! Seaward ho!' Storm warriors to the rescue!"

One Sunday night in the month of February, a few years ago, the weather was what sailors call "dirty," and accompanied by sudden gusts of wind and snow-squalls. Before the light broke on Monday morning, the Margate lugger, _Eclipse_, put out to sea to cruise round the shoals and sands in the neighbourhood of Margate, on the look-out for the victims of any disasters that might have occurred during the night, and the crew soon discovered that a vessel was ash.o.r.e on the Margate sands. She proved to be the Spanish brig _Samaritano_, bound from Antwerp to Santander, and laden with a valuable cargo; she had a crew of eleven men under the command of the captain, Modesto Crispo. Hoping to save the vessel, the lugger, as she was running for the brig, spoke a Whitstable fis.h.i.+ng-smack, and borrowed two of her men and her boat. They boarded the brig as the tide went down, and hoped to be able to get her off the sands at the next high water. For this purpose, six Margate boatmen and the two Whitstable men were left on board.

With the rising tide the gale came on again with renewed fury, and it soon became a question not of saving the vessel, but of saving their own lives.

The sea dashed furiously over the wreck, lifting her, and then letting her fall with terrific violence on the sands. Her timbers quivered and shook, and a hole was quickly knocked in her side. She filled with water, and settled on one side. "The waves began now to break with great force over the deck; the lugger's boat was speedily knocked to pieces and swept overboard; the hatches were forced up; and some of the cargo which floated on the deck was at once washed away. The brig began to roll and labour fearfully, as wave after wave broke against her, with a force that shook her from stem to stern, and threatened to throw her bodily upon her broadside; the men, fearing this, cut the weather rigging of the mainmast, and the mast soon broke off short with a great crash, and went over the side." All hands now had to take to the fore-rigging; nineteen souls with nothing between them and death but the few shrouds of a shaking mast! The waves threw up columns of foam, and the spray froze upon them as it fell.

The Margate and Whitstable men were caught in a trap, for neither lugger nor smack would have lived five minutes in the sea that surrounded the vessel. Would the life-boat come?

As soon as the news of the wreck reached Margate, the smaller of the two life-boats was manned and launched. By an oversight in the hurry of preparation, the valves of the air-tight boxes had been left open, and she was fast filling. Although she succeeded in getting within a quarter of a mile of the brig, she had to be speedily turned towards sh.o.r.e, or she would have been wrecked herself. After battling for four hours with the sea and gale, she was run ash.o.r.e in Westgate Bay. There the coastguardmen did their best for them. Meantime, when it was learned in Margate that the first boat was disabled, the larger one was launched. Away they started, the brave crew doing all they could to battle with the gale, but all in vain; their tiller gave way, and they had to give up the attempt. They were driven ash.o.r.e about one mile from the town. Next, two luggers attempted to get out to the wreck. The fate of the first was soon settled: a fearful squall of wind struck her before she had got many hundred yards clear of the pier, and swept her foremast clean out of her. The second lugger was a little more fortunate; she beat out to the Sands, but only to find the surf so heavy, that it was impossible to cross them, or to get near the wreck. "The Margate people became full of despair; and many a bitter tear was shed for sympathy and for personal loss as they watched the wreck, and thought of the poor fellows peris.h.i.+ng slowly before their eyes, apparently without any possibility of being saved." And now let us change the scene to Ramsgate.

About nine o'clock the news came to Ramsgate that there was a brig ash.o.r.e on the Woolpack Sands, off Margate, but it was naturally concluded that the life-boats of the latter place would go to the rescue, and no one supposed that the services of the Ramsgate boat would be required. "But shortly after twelve, a coastguard-man from Margate hastened breathless to the pier and to the harbour-master's office, saying, in answer to eager inquiries, as he hurried on, that the two Margate life-boats had been wrecked. The order was, of course, at once given, 'Man the life-boat!' and the boatmen rushed for it. First come, first in; not a moment's hesitation, not a thought of further clothing: they will go in as they are, rather than not go at all. The news rapidly spreads; each boatman as he heard it, hastily s.n.a.t.c.hed up his bag of waterproof overalls and south-wester cap, and rushed down to the boat; and for some time, boatman after boatman was to be seen racing down the pier, hoping to find a place still vacant; if the race had been to save their lives, rather than to risk them, it would hardly have been more hotly contested.