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.]
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, thatwe may be saved by the brave life-boat men!"
"You horrid boy, hold your tongue, do," replied the Mamma, who wasanticipating, with some degree of nervousness, starting upon a voyagefor Australia in about three weeks' time, and could scarcely be expectedto 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 atthe Ramsgate pier-head, among the cheers that welcomed the life-boatback from a night of toil and triumph on the Goodwin; and for thepresent, to be saved from a wreck by the life-boat men is to him one ofthe most delightful ideas on earth.
After reading an article in 'Macmillan's' of the life-boat men's doings,a brave English Admiral,[Pg viii] then commanding a fleet, wrote—"My heartwarms to the gallant fellows; tell them so, and please give them theenclosed (a guinea each) from an English Admiral without mentioning myname."
A Kentish Squire, sending a donation of a guinea for each of the menwrote,—"To read the brave self-sacrificing doings of the Ramsgatelife-boat men, makes me proud of the men of my county."
Other gentlemen wrote, and ladies wrote, and by-and-by we heard fromAustralia, America, South America, and also from other parts of theworld came evidence, that English hearts, wherever they are, cannot butfeel deeply as they read the simple narrative of such gallant deeds."Your life-boat stories have undoubtedly helped on the good life-boatcause," said Mr. Lewis.
"The public have evinced considerable interest in those tales oflife-boat work," said Mr. Macmillan; and so the idea grew that I mustwrite a book about the life-boat work on the Goodwin Sands.
A formidable idea this for a man with no "learned leisure," and quiteunconscious