gston having taken the _Lark_ schooner to Sierra Leone, where she
was condemned, was appointed to HMS _Saracen_, which soon afterwards
arrived there. From that place the _Saracen_ sailed for the river
Gambia, soon after the 2nd of March.

On the evening of the 13th of the same month, while on her passage
there, when it was blowing fresh, with a heavy cross sea, a lad
aged nineteen, named John Plunket, fell overboard from the
main-topgallant-yard. In falling he struck against the topsail-yard and
the sweeps stowed on the quarter, and was bleeding at the mouth and
almost senseless when he reached the water. The lad could not swim, and
his death seemed inevitable; when Mr Kingston, who was on the
quarter-deck, without a moment's hesitation sprang overboard, exclaiming
to his commander as he ran aft, "Send a boat as quick as you can, sir--
I'll save him." He struck out bravely towards the poor lad, but before
he could reach him he sank. A cry of horror arose from all on board,
for they thought the lad was lost, though every exertion was made to get
a boat in the water to pick up Mr Kingston. Plunket, however, again
rose, and Mr Kingston grasping hold of him, supported him above water,
though with much difficulty, as the lad, who bled profusely from the
mouth and nostrils, convulsively clung round him, and almost dragged him
down to the bottom. Fortunately, he released himself from the clutch of
the now senseless youth, and continued to support him by swimming and
treading water. For fear of exhaustion, he afterwards threw himself on
his back, and, placing the head of his almost inanimate shipmate on his
chest, he kept him up for a quarter of an hour, till a boat reached them
and took them on board.

On another occasion, while on the coast of Africa, in a spot where
sharks were known to abound, Mr Kingston leaped overboard after another
lad who had fallen into the water. Fortunately the life-buoy was let go
at the same time, and, wisely catching hold of it, he towed it up to the
sinking youth, and providentially preserved his life.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

GALLANT DEEDS.

HUMANITY OF LIEUTENANT BREEN, RN--MEDITERRANEAN, 1850.

That the seamen of the British navy are as humane as they are brave we
have numberless examples to prove. The following is one of numerous
instances in which they have risked and often sacrificed their lives for
the good of others, and should on no account be passed over.

As one of