This revelation, needless to say, clinched the Commission’s decision. To-day four unattended gas-buoys mount vigil over these rocks, and the rollicking days on the floating _café chantant_ are known no more. The average crew for a lightship numbers some seven men under a captain and mate, who take it in turns to have charge of the vessel, the second official being responsible during the former’s spell of leave on shore. The crew is not a man too many, owing to the several and varied duties to be performed, especially when the storm-fiend is roused or fog pays a visit. The arrival of the latter demands the foghorn’s mournful dirge to penetrate the dense white curtain. Some of the vessels possess a hooter, the unmusical wail of which in its discordance is almost sufficient to put false teeth on edge, because a blast runs through the whole chromatic gamut with variations which would startle a disciple of Tschaikowsky or Wagner. But discordance in this instance is of incalculable value. The ear of the captain of a passing vessel is unconsciously arrested; he can distinguish the sound readily, and by noting its character can identify the particular light-vessel from which it proceeds, although he cannot get a glimpse of her form. The southern coasts of England, owing to the density of the maritime traffic, especially on both sides of the bottle-neck formed by the Straits of Dover, are well patrolled by this form of warning which supplements the lighthouses. Those guarding the dreaded Goodwin Sands perhaps are the most important. The crew of a vessel in these waters is busy throughout the day and night even in calm, clear weather, and the feeling of isolation is not so pronounced, since the continuous sight of traffic dispels despondency. The Nore light is another station which encounters very few minutes of rest throughout the complete revolution of the clock hands; especially is this the case when fog settles down, rendering the Thames inapproachable, so that incoming craft have to line up in long queues, ready to dash forward directly the pall lifts sufficiently for them to see 100 yards ahead.