, cables, grapnels, anchors,
etcetera, is, as may be supposed, very complete, and she rides upon the
storm in a rather gay dress of red, white, and blue, in order that she
may be readily distinguished from other boats--her lower parts being
white, her upper sides blue, and her line of "fender" all round being
scarlet.

CHAPTER FIVE.

MORE TALES OF HEROISM.

If any one should doubt the fact that a lifeboat is _all but_
indestructible, let that sceptical one read the following tale of wreck
and rescue.

On a terrible night in the year 1857 a Portuguese brig struck on the
Goodwin Sands, not far from the lightship that marks the northern
extremity of those fatal shoals. A shot was fired, and a rocket sent up
by the lightship. No second signal was needed. The Ramsgate men were,
as usual, keeping a bright lookout. Instantly they jumped into the
lifeboat, which lay calmly floating in the harbour alongside the pier.
So eager were the men to engage in the deadly struggle that the boat was
over-manned, and the last two who jumped in were obliged to go ashore
again.

The tug _Aid_ was all ready--according to custom--with steam up. She
took the boat in tow and made for the mouth of the harbour. Staggering
out in the teeth of tide and tempest they ploughed their way through a
heavy cross sea, that swept again and again over them, until they
reached the edge of the Goodwins. Here the steamer cast off the boat,
and waited for her while she dashed into the surf, and bore the brunt of
the battle alone.

It was a familiar proceeding to all concerned. Many a time before had
the Ramsgate boat and steamer rescued men and women and little ones from
the jaws of death on the Goodwins, but they were about to experience a
few novelties that night.

It was very dark, so that the boat had much difficulty in finding the
brig. On coming within about eighty yards of her they cast anchor and
veered down under her lee. At first they were in hopes of getting the
vessel off, and some hours were spent in vain attempts to do this, but
the gale increased in fury; the brig began to break up. She rolled from
side to side, and the yards swung wildly in the air. A blow from one of
these yards would have stove the boat in, so the Portuguese crew--twelve
men and a boy--were taken from the wreck, and the lifeboat-men
endeavoured to push off.

All this time the boat had been floating in a basin worked in the sand
by the motion of the wre