t point.

On a terrible night in 1857 a Portuguese brig struck on the Goodwin
Sands. The noble, and now famous, Ramsgate lifeboat was at once towed
out when the signal-rocket from the lightship was seen, indicating "a
wreck on the sands." A terrific battle with the winds and waves ensued.
At length the boat was cast off to windward of the sands, and bore down
on the brig through the shoal water, which tossed her like a cork on its
raging surface. They reached the brig and lay by her for some time in
the hope of getting her off, but failed. The storm increased, the
vessel began to break up, so her crew were taken into the boat, which--
having previously cast anchor to windward of the wreck, and eased off
the cable until it got under her lee--now tried to pull back to its
anchor. Every effort was fruitless, owing to the shifting nature of the
sands and the fury of the storm. At last nothing was left for it but to
hoist the sail, cut the cable, and make a desperate effort to beat off
the sands. In this also they failed; were caught on the crest of a
breaking roller, and borne away to leeward. Water and wind in wildest
commotion were comparatively small matters to the lifeboat, but want of
water was a serious matter. The tide happened to be out. The sands
were only partially covered, and over them the breakers swept in a
chaotic seething turmoil that is inconceivable by those who have not
witnessed it. Every one has seen the ripples on the seashore when the
tide is out. On the Goodwins these ripples are great banks, to be
measured by yards instead of inches. From one to another of these
sand-banks this boat was cast. Each breaker caught her up, hurled her
onward a few yards, and let her down with a crash that well-nigh tore
every man out of her, leaving her there a few moments, to be caught up
again and made sport with by the next billow. The Portuguese sailors,
eighteen in number, clung to the thwarts in silent despair, but the crew
of the boat did not lose heart. They knew her splendid qualities, and
hoped that, if they should only escape being dashed against the portions
of wreck which strewed the sands, all might yet be well. Thus,
literally fathom by fathom, with a succession of shocks that would have
knocked any ordinary boat to pieces, was this magnificent lifeboat
driven, during two hours in the dead of night, over two miles of the
Goodwin Sands! At last she drove into deep water on the other side;