the hearts of
brave and generous Britons cease to beat, and the wild winds cease to
blow, for the undying and unconquerable enemy of whom we write is--the
Storm!

"Death or victory!" the old familiar warwhoop, is not the final war-cry
here. Death is, indeed, always faced--sometimes met--and victory is
often gained; but, final conquests being impossible, and the "piping
times of peace" being out of the question, the signal for the onset has
been altered, and the world's old battle-cry has been exchanged for the
soul-stirring shout of "Rescue the perishing!"

Though our foe cannot be slain, he can, like the genii of Eastern story,
be baffled.

In the days of old, the Storm had it nearly all his own way. Hearts,
indeed, were not less brave, but munitions of war were wanting. In this
matter, as in everything else, the world is better off now than it was
then. Our weapons are more perfect, our engines more formidable. We
can now dash at our enemy in the very heart of his own terrible
strongholds; fight him where even the boldest of the ancient Vikings did
not dare to venture, and rescue the prey from the very jaws of death
amid the scenes of its wildest revelry.

The heroes who recruit the battalions of our invincible army are the
bronzed and stalwart men of our sea-coast towns, villages, and hamlets--
men who have had much and long experience of the foe with whom they have
to deal. Their panoply is familiar to most of us. The helmet, a
sou'wester; the breastplate, a lifebelt of cork; the sword, a strong
short oar; their war-galley, a splendid _lifeboat_; and their shield--
the Hand of God.

In this and succeeding chapters I purpose to exhibit and explain in
detail our Lifeboats, and the great, the glorious work which they
annually accomplish; also the operations of the life-saving Rocket,
which has for many years rescued innumerable lives, where, from the
nature of circumstances, Lifeboats could not have gone into action. I
hold that we--especially those of us who dwell in the interior of our
land--are not sufficiently alive to the deeds of daring, the thrilling
incidents, the terrible tragedies and the magnificent rescues which are
perpetually going on around our shores. We are not sufficiently
impressed, perhaps, with the _nationality_ of the work done by the Royal
National Lifeboat Institution, which manages our fleet of 270 lifeboats.
We do not fully appreciate, it may be, the personal interest which we