They combat with the blast;
And gain, by dint of hardihood,
The victory at last.
"Then let us pay the honour due
To such devoted strife;
Where gallant men so nobly risk
For fellow men their life."
G. Ward.
We left, in our last chapter, the Kingsdown life-boat making for Ramsgate harbour, and the Walmer life-boat, after a couple of upsets, making for Deal beach. The Kingsdown boat reached Ramsgate about seven o'clock in the morning, the gale still blowing very heavily.
Shortly after seven o'clock signals are heard from the Gull light-ship; and the coxswain of the Ramsgate life-boat receives orders from the harbour-master to proceed at once to sea,—the steamer as usual taking her in tow: the sea is very heavy, and the air thick with rain and spray. The steamer and life-boat work their way out through the storm, and find a brig riding at anchor in the Gull stream, not far from the light-ship; she has a flag hoisted at her peak as a signal, and they make for her; the crew tell them, that shortly before, in a lift in the storm, they saw a ship on the north-west spit of the Goodwin; the life-boat cruises in the direction pointed out, but the crew can see nothing of the wrecked vessel, so they proceed to the Gull light-ship, hoping there to obtain further information. The men find the crew of the light-ship anxiously watching for their approach; they crowd aft as the steamer and life-boat passes under the stern of the vessel, and make signals to describe the position of the wreck; the boatmen soon discover it, and as soon as they have been towed into the right position for so doing, slip from the steamer, and make in for the stranded vessel.