flare of a
tar-barrel in the far distance. Already our watch was loading, and
firing our signal-gun, and sending up rockets for the purpose of calling
off the Ramsgate Lifeboat. It chanced that the Broadstairs boat
observed the signals first, and, not long after, she flew past us under
sail, making for the wreck.

A little later we saw the signal-light of the Ramsgate tug, looming
through the mist like the great eye of the storm-fiend. She ranged
close up, in order to ask whereaway the wreck was. Being answered, she
sheared off, and as she did so, the Lifeboat, towing astern, came full
into view. It seemed as if she had no crew, save only one man--
doubtless my friend Jarman--holding the steering lines; but, on closer
inspection, we could see the men crouching down, like a mass of oilskin
coats and sou'westers. In a few minutes they were out of sight, and we
saw them no more, but afterwards heard that the wrecked crew had been
rescued and landed at Deal.

In this manner I obtained information sufficient to enable me to write
_The Lifeboat: a Tale of our Coast Heroes_, and _The Floating Light of
the Goodwin Sands_.

A curious coincidence occurred when I was engaged with the Lifeboat
story, which merits notice.

Being much impressed with the value of the Lifeboat service to the
nation, I took to lecturing as well as writing on this subject. One
night, while in Edinburgh in the spring of 1866, a deputation of working
men, some of whom had become deeply interested in Lifeboat work, asked
me to re-deliver my lecture. I willingly agreed to do so, and the
result was that the working men of Edinburgh resolved to raise 400
pounds among themselves, and present a boat to the Institution. They
set to work energetically; appointed a Committee, which met once a week;
divided the city into districts; canvassed all the principal trades and
workshops, and, before the year was out, had almost raised the necessary
funds.

In the end, the boat was ordered and paid for, and sent to Edinburgh to
be exhibited. It was drawn by six magnificent horses through the
principal streets of the city, with a real lifeboat crew on board, in
their sou'westers and cork life-belts. Then it was launched in Saint
Margaret's Loch, at the foot of Arthur's Seat, where it was upset--with
great difficulty, by means of a large erection with blocks and ropes--in
order to show its self-righting and self-emptying qualities to the
thousands of specta