Читать книгу Storm Warriors; or, Life-Boat Work on the Goodwin Sands - John Gilmore - Страница 3

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"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.

It was gravely said to a friend of mine,—"It is really very wrong of Mr. Gilmore, as a family man, to risk his life in the life-boat." I have been able to get all particulars without risking my life, and without, which is not much less to the point, lumbering up the boat with a useless hand; moreover, I doubt whether I should have had very keen powers of observation, while cold and exhausted and breathless, and clinging for very life to the thwarts, with the seas rushing over me, and tearing at me, striving to wash me out of the boat; which would have been my condition and very soon the condition of any unseasoned landsman who went to share the strife which the experienced boatmen often find it hard enough to endure.

I have managed better: I have had sometimes two, three, or four boatmen up to my house; and we have fought their battles over again; I questioning and cross-questioning, getting particulars from them, small as well as great.

"What did you do next?" To one such question, I remember the answer was—"Why then we handed the jar of rum round, for we were almost beaten to death."—"But with the seas running over the boat, and the boat full of water, it must have been salt-water grog very soon—how did you manage it?"—"Well, Sir, when there was a lull, a man just took a nip; then if there was a cry, 'Look out! a sea!' he put the jar down between his legs, shoved his thumb in the hole, held on to the thwart with his other arm, then bent well over the jar and let the sea break on his back."

Thus getting them to recall incident after incident, I got the full details of each adventure; and when we arrived at the more stirring scenes, it was very exciting work indeed; the men could scarcely sit in their chairs—their muscles worked, faces flushed, and most graphically they told their tales, I, not one whit less excited, taking notes as rapidly as possible.

Truly I must live to be an old man before I forget the hours I have spent in my study with Jarman, Hogben, and Reading, and R. Goldsmith, and Bill Penny, and Gorham, and Solly, and some other of my brave boatmen friends, as they have told me their many experiences and toils and dangers in life-boat work.

To Jarman especially do I owe thanks for his many graphic narratives; he was coxswain of the boat for ten years, and during the time of most of the adventures related.

One difficulty I have had to contend with has been the comparative sameness in the ordinary life-boat services. I could have had nine narratives in one especial fortnight, for nine times was the life-boat out during that time; but it has taken nearly ten years for me to find a sufficient number of narratives so varying in their chief incidents that the book should not of necessity be wearisome from repetition, and at the same time give a picture of the varied experiences and dangers of life-boat work.

I must leave my Readers to judge how far I have gained my object in the selection I have made.

As the few life-boat stories I have already published have been used to some extent in public Readings, Penny Readings, and on the like occasions, I have thought it well to make each story, as far as possible, complete in itself, although to effect this, some repetition of similar incidents has been unavoidable.

I come of a sailor family—this will account to landsmen for my seeming acquaintance with nautical matters; I have never been to sea—this will explain to sailors the ignorance on such matters that they will not have much difficulty in detecting.

"God help the poor fellows at sea!"—"God protect and bless the life-boat men!" (humble, honest, hardworking and most generous and brave-hearted men as I well know full many of them to be);

"And God prosper the good Life-boat Institution, and advance its noble object!" that many a brave fellow may be spared to his family and home; many a good man be plucked from death to be yet the joy and support of loved ones; and many a man, unfitted to meet death, be snatched from its jaws to live to repent and to seek that peace which he had formerly disregarded. With such prayers I launch my book. And may God further it to His glory, by making it instrumental in gaining yet increased sympathy with the already much-loved life-boat cause; thus blessing it to be one of the humble instruments, among many, in helping to work out the results for which, in our sailor-loving land, so many are ever ready to hope, to work, to pray.

One last word. The narratives related are, I firmly believe, as far as possible, strictly and literally true; I am positive the boatmen would not knowingly exaggerate in the least; and I have sought to tell the tales, incident by incident, what the men did, and what the men suffered, and what the men said—simply as they related each circumstance to me.