Heroes of the Goodwin SandsTreanor, Thomas Stanley
History
Heroes of the Goodwin Sands
Treanor, Thomas Stanley
Goodwin Sands (England); Lifesaving -- Great Britain; Shipwrecks
A book bearing the title of _Heroes of the Goodwin Sands_, would hardly
be complete without a chapter devoted to the celebrated Ramsgate
lifeboat and her brave coxswain and crew. To them, by virtue of Mr.
Gilmore's well-known book, the title of _Storm Warriors_ almost of
right belongs, but I am well aware they will not deny their daring and
generous rivals of Deal a share in that stirring appellation, and I
know that their friends, the Deal boatmen, on their part gladly admit
that the Ramsgate lifeboatmen are also among the 'Heroes of the Goodwin
Sands.'
The first lifeboat placed in Ramsgate was called the Northumberland.
The next was called the Bradford, in memory of the interesting fact
that the money required to build and equip her, about L600, was
subscribed in an hour on the Bradford Exchange, and within the hour the
news was flashed to London. Since then the rescues effected by the
Ramsgate lifeboat have become household words wherever the English
tongue is spoken.
Nor less celebrated than the lifeboat is her mighty and invaluable ally
the steam-tug Aid, so often captained in the storm-blast by Alfred
Page, her brave and experienced master. This powerful tug boat has
steam up night and day, ready to rush the lifeboat out into the teeth
of any gale, when it would be otherwise impossible for the lifeboat to
get out of the harbour. The names of Coxswain Jarman, and more
recently of Coxswain Charles Fish, the hero of the Indian Chief rescue,
will long thrill the hearts of Englishmen and Englishwomen who read
that wondrous story of the sea. It may be fairly said that no storms
that blow in these latitudes can keep the Ramsgate tug and lifeboat
back, when summoned to the rescue.
I had the privilege of standing on Ramsgate pier-head on November 11,
1891, when amidst the cheers of the crowd, who indeed could hardly keep
their feet, the tug and lifeboat slowly struggled out against the great
gale which blew that day. The lifeboat is towed a long way astern of
the tug-boat, to the full scope of a sixty fathom, five inch, white
Manilla hawser, and on the day I speak of, as the lifeboat felt the
giant strain of the tug-boat and was driven into the seas outside the
harbour, every wave broke into wild spray mast high over the lifeboat
and into the faces of her crew.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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