ew of
these. First, then, as to the _almost_ indestructible quality. Take
the following evidence:--

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
from the lightship as a signal to the men on shore that a vessel had got
upon the sands. No second signal was needed. Anxious eyes had been on
the watch that night. Instantly the Ramsgate men jumped into their
lifeboat, which lay alongside the pier. It was deadly work that had to
be done,--the gale was one of the fiercest of the season,--nevertheless
the gallant men were so eager to get into the boat that it was
overmanned, and the last two who jumped in were obliged to go ashore. A
small but powerful steamer is kept to attend upon this boat. In a few
minutes it took her in tow and made for the mouth of the harbour.

They staggered out right in the teeth of tide and tempest, and 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.

With difficulty the brig was found in the darkness. The lifeboat cast
anchor when within about forty fathoms, and veered down under her lee.
At first they were in hopes of getting the vessel off, and hours were
spent in vain endeavours to do this. But the storm 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 boatmen endeavoured to push off. All this
time the boat had been floating in a basin worked in the sand by the
motion of the wreck; but the tide had been falling, and when they tried
to pull up to their anchor the boat struck heavily on the edge of this
basin. The men worked to get off the shoals as only those can work
whose lives depend on their efforts. They succeeded in getting afloat
for a moment, but again struck and remained fast. Meanwhile the brig
was lifted by each wave and let fall with a thundering crash; her
timbers began to snap like pipe-stems, and as she worked nearer and
nearer, it became evident that destruction was not far off. The heavy
seas c