whose hull lay deep down on its sandy bed. She
it was which had been burning flares for help the night before in vain,
and she had been beaten off the Brake Sand and sank before the lifeboat
came. She was a West India barque, with a Gravesend pilot on board,
and his pilot flag was found hoisted in the unusual position of the
mizzen topmast head, a fact which was interpreted by the Deal boatmen
as a message--a last message to his friends, and as much as to say,
'It's me that's gone.'

But the brave men in the lifeboat did their best, and by their
extraordinary exertions, although they did not reach this poor lost
barque in time, yet by God's blessing on their skill and daring they
did save, Swedes and Frenchmen, seventeen souls that night from a
watery grave.

CHAPTER XIII

THE RAMSGATE LIFEBOAT

Not once or twice in our rough island story
The path of duty was the way to glory.

A book bearing the title of _Heroes of the Goodwin Sands_, would hardly
be complete without a chapter devoted to the celebrated Ramsgate
lifeboat and her brave coxswain and crew. To them, by virtue of Mr.
Gilmore's well-known book, the title of _Storm Warriors_ almost of
right belongs, but I am well aware they will not deny their daring and
generous rivals of Deal a share in that stirring appellation, and I
know that their friends, the Deal boatmen, on their part gladly admit
that the Ramsgate lifeboatmen are also among the 'Heroes of the Goodwin
Sands.'

The first lifeboat placed in Ramsgate was called the Northumberland.
The next was called the Bradford, in memory of the interesting fact
that the money required to build and equip her, about L600, was
subscribed in an hour on the Bradford Exchange, and within the hour the
news was flashed to London. Since then the rescues effected by the
Ramsgate lifeboat have become household words wherever the English
tongue is spoken.

Nor less celebrated than the lifeboat is her mighty and invaluable ally
the steam-tug Aid, so often captained in the storm-blast by Alfred
Page, her brave and experienced master. This powerful tug boat has
steam up night and day, ready to rush the lifeboat out into the teeth
of any gale, when it would be otherwise impossible for the lifeboat to
get out of the harbour. The names of Coxswain Jarman, and more
recently of Coxswain Charles Fish, the hero of the Indian Chief rescue,
will long thrill the hearts of Englishmen and Englishwomen who read
that