LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE LIFEBOAT IN THE STORM . . . . . . Frontispiece LAUNCHING THE LIFEBOAT THE LIFEBOAT HOUSE MEDAL OF THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION NEWS OF A WRECK ON THE COAST A RAMSGATE BOATMAN AN OLD WRECK SURVIVORS OF THE "INDIAN CHIEF" A LIFEBOAT GOING OUT SAVING THE CAPTAIN A PERILOUS REFUGE THEY BENT THEIR BACKS TO THE OARS SIGHTING THE WRECK LIVES IN PERIL COMING ASHORE--"ALL SAVED" The Lifeboat! oh, the Lifeboat! We all have known so long, A refuge for the feeble, The glory of the strong. Twice thirty years have vanished, Since first upon the wave She housed the drowning mariner, And snatched him from the grave, The voices of the rescued, Their numbers may be read, The tears of speechless feeling Our wives and children shed; The memories of mercy In man’s extremest need. All for the dear old Lifeboat Uniting seem to plead. STORIES of THE LIFEBOAT CHAPTER I. MAN THE LIFEBOAT! To Lionel Lukin, a coachbuilder of Long Acre, London, belongs the honour of inventing the lifeboat. As early as the year 1784 he designed and fitted a boat, which was intended "to save the lives of mariners wrecked on the coast." It had a projecting gunwale of cork, and air-tight lockers or enclosures under the seats. These gave the boat great buoyancy, but it was liable to be disabled by having the sides stove in. Though Lukin was encouraged in his efforts by the Prince of Wales--afterwards George the Fourth--his invention did not meet with the approval of those in power at the Admiralty, and Lukin’s only lifeboat which came into use was a coble that he fitted up for the Rev. Dr. Shairp of Bamborough. For many years this was the only lifeboat on the coast, and it is said to have saved many lives. In the churchyard of Hythe, in Kent, the following inscription may be read on the tombstone, which marks the last resting-place of the "Father of the Lifeboat":-- "This LIONEL LUKIN was the first who built a lifeboat, and was the original inventor of that quality of safety, by which many lives and much property have been preserved from shipwreck, and he obtained for it the King’s Patent in the year 1785."