STORM WARRIORS: OR, Life-Boat Work ON THE GOODWIN SANDS. BY THE REV. JOHN GILMORE, M.A., RECTOR OF HOLY TRINITY, RAMSGATE; AUTHOR OF "THE RAMSGATE LIFE-BOAT," IN MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE. _FOURTH THOUSAND._ LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1875. [_All rights reserved._] [Illustration: Life-boat] LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS. STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. TO THE MOST BELOVED MEMORY OF MY LATE FATHER, JOHN GILMORE, COMMANDER, R.N., AND TO THE MOST BELOVED MEMORY OF MY LATE ELDEST BROTHER, ROBERT GRAHAM GILMORE, CAPT., R.N.R., TWO MOST BRAVE, AND SKILFUL, AND TRUE, AND LOVING-HEARTED SAILORS, WHO HAVE PASSED IN FAITH AND PEACE TO THE HAVEN THAT THEY HUMBLY SOUGHT, I INSCRIBE THIS WORK. J. G. PREFACE. "O Mamma, I do hope that we shall be wrecked on the Goodwin Sands, that we may be saved by the brave life-boat men!" "You horrid boy, hold your tongue, do," replied the Mamma, who was anticipating, with some degree of nervousness, starting upon a voyage for Australia in about three weeks' time, and could scarcely be expected to enter to the full into her young son's very practical enthusiasm. But within the last half hour the boy's shrill voice had been heard at the Ramsgate pier-head, among the cheers that welcomed the life-boat back from a night of toil and triumph on the Goodwin; and for the present, to be saved from a wreck by the life-boat men is to him one of the most delightful ideas on earth. After reading an article in 'Macmillan's' of the life-boat men's doings, a brave English Admiral, then commanding a fleet, wrote--"My heart warms to the gallant fellows; tell them so, and please give them the enclosed (a guinea each) from an English Admiral without mentioning my name." A Kentish Squire, sending a donation of a guinea for each of the men wrote,--"To read the brave self-sacrificing doings of the Ramsgate life-boat men, makes me proud of the men of my county." Other gentlemen wrote, and ladies wrote, and by-and-by we heard from Australia, America, South America, and also from other parts of the world came evidence, that English hearts, wherever they are, cannot but feel deeply as they read the simple narrative of such gallant deeds. "Your life-boat stories have undoubtedly helped on the good life-boat cause," said Mr. Lewis. "The public have evinced considerable interest in those tales of life-boat work," said Mr. Macmillan; and so the idea grew that I must write a book about the life-boat work on the Goodwin Sands. A formidable idea this for a man with no "learned leisure," and quite unconscious of possessing any especial literary skill, or any especial literary ambition. Certainly, I could have no difficulty in obtaining full and abundant particulars of the various adventures of the life-boat.