large, full-rigged ship, witn her masts gone, lying that some change would happen then-either sho broadside on to the swell, her decks turned in towards would break up, or the sea would lift her nearer the the shore. We could see the crew huddled together beach, and give us a chance to get aboard. So we under the weather side of the forecastle, and every all assembled ready to act, and I fired a couple more few minutes a great green sea would curl up over rockets at them to show we were there, but there the weather bulwarks, and fall across the decks from was no sign of their being awake, and at half-past stem to stern, like a great waterfall across a river. twelve a great piece of her stern washed up on the How to get at her I could not see, for we were on the beach; then we knew the ship had broken up, and cliffs above, and she was on the rocks out at sea. To it was all up with her crew. And so, leaving a watch be of any use, we were bound to get within 300 and fire, we got into shelter for the night. At dayyards. By-and-bye, however, we discovered a sort break we found the pieces of the wreck and the dead of gully half-way down, and we got the gear out bodies of fifteen men (all foreigners) jumbled up on and lowered it down, bit by bit, till it was all below, the beach together, and entangled in the midst was and then we lowered ourselves down and commenced still our rocket-line! We should have saved every crawling out over the rocks and getting, inch by man of them if, when we threw the line over them, inch, nearer the wreck. We took with us a few they had only hauled away on it. "But what can rockets, one line, and the rocket-stand, for the point you expect from foreigners?" was the concluding was to get near enough to fire a rocket-line off. If remark of the old coastguardsman. we could do that, getting out the whip and hawser was a mere matter of time. Of course, we all had our lifebelts on, otherwise, if any of us slipped off the rocks, we should have stood a good chance of being whirled out to sea by the undertow which surged up between the rocks. We found we could not get near enough at once, but the tide was falling. As the tide went out we climbed on over the rocks farther and farther. It was just before dark when we got the rocket-stand lashed to a rock, from which the rocket could be fired to the ship, the sea washing up between the legs of it, the line on another rock nearer the shore, and we nearly dead with cold, and holding on to the rocks. Well, we fired our rocket, and it just went over the centre of the ship, leaving the line right across her. Cold as we were, we gave a sort of cheer-there was no noisy crowd to cheer us in such a place as that, you may be sure-and we commenced to get our heavier gear out ready to bend on to the line, the end of which they had on board the ship. We were so busy at first we did not much notice. Then we saw that the crew, still huddled together, took no notice of our line. We watched a long time, and at last began to think they must be dead-frozen to death! It was no use sending off another line, but I fired a couple of rockets over them. The two produced no effect; a third struck not far from them. We saw the group move, and, after a little, one man crawled out along under the weather bulwark, and in a sleepy sort of way took hold of our line. He held it in his hand for a long time, looked at it and us. Evidently he did not in the least understand what to do with it, and supposed we wanted him to make it fast round his body, and then for him to throw himself into the sea! He saw what a hopeless job that would be, and after a time he made the line fast to the dead-eyes of the weather main rigging, and crept back to the group he had left. After that we could get no movement out of them, do what we would. Then the tide began to rise, and, beat out with the cold, we worked back over the rocks to the beach, taking our end of the line with us. We got a fire under the cliffs, and we bent the whip and tally and lifebuoy on to the line, so that if they should at any time in the night come to their senses, and haul away on their end of the line, they would find the right thing at our end of it. We set a watch, and then climbed up the cliffs and found food and shelter in a farmhouse half a mile away. It was high water about midnight, and I thought Here is another case, attended with more satisfactory results. The writer was attending Divine service at a little out-of-the-way church in an out-of-the-way part of the coast, when a certain commotion began to be apparent among the congregation. The writer, being a stranger, did not ascertain the cause, and remained in his seat; and though there was no general stampede, headed by the parson with the cry of "Wait till I get out of the pulpit let's all start fair (as is scandalously reported of a certain congregation at the news of a wreck, in "wrecking" times), there was a very sensible diminution of numbers caused by the silent withdrawal of twos and threes. The service was ended properly, however, and it then became generally known that a ship was close to the cliffs, trying in vain to draw off the shore against a north-west gale. The rocket-cart just then galloped through the crowd, and sped away to the coast, for the purpose of following the wreck along shore till she struck. The rain was falling heavily, and the wind rendered walking laborious work; nevertheless, the bulk of the congregations from chapel and church streamed out over the hills, and the lasses turned the Sunday dresses over the Sunday bonnets, and followed on after the lads, who raced over hill and dale, through rain and wind. By-and-bye, dog-cart, gig, and pony-trap, all sorts of vehicles and all sorts of animals, began to overtake the pedestrians. The great body of the crowd was still half a mile astern, however, when the vessel, a small coaster, struck; and the rocket-cart, which was abreast on the cliffs, was seen to wheel round at once, and the coastguardsmen, jumping out, began hauling out their hawsers and rockets and lines; and swarming down over a break in the cliffs, with their gear on their backs, soon set up their apparatus on the sands below, and in an incredibly short space of time a rocket with a line attached went whizzing out seaward against the storm. It was greeted with a cheer by the crowd, which, fairly "blown," had halted on the adjoining hill. It was, nevertheless, an undoubted bad shot, and went nowhere. Another was fired with greater care; then another, still without success; then the lines had got thoroughly saturated with wet and became entangled, and there was a long delay and some confusion, increased by the jeering of a country mob which had by this time gathered round. An express was sent back to hurry on the lifeboat, which, drawn by ten horses, was known to be staggering along through the miry roads, some miles off still; and in the midst of it all a huge wave lifted the wreck bodily off the reef, and lodged hor in a fresh place nearer the shore, but leaving the crew still clinging on to the bulwarks. Then a large piece of the wreck washing up on the beach, the cry was raised that the vessel was "breaking up." At last the rocket-lines were got clear again, but whether from the pressure of the mob or from over-excitement on the part of the director, twice more the rocket went wide of the mark! Only one rocket remained, and the nearest depôt was seven miles off. The only hope now seemed in the lifeboat, if she could but be got up in time. The rocketstand was moved to a new place; the legs were propped up with stones, to prevent their moving in the soft sand when the trigger-line was pulled, and the elevation was carefully adjusted by the pendulum; then, with the exceeding care of a man who knows that the lives of five others are hanging on the movement of his hand, the old chief-boatman, by a long steady pull of the trigger-line, fired the frictiontube, and sent the last rocket shrieking out towards the wreck. A shout of triumph broke from the crowd as they saw the serpentine line of fire dart right across the vessel, only just clear of the heads of the crew, and leave the rocket-line almost in their hands. It soon appeared, however, that the crew were as ignorant of the use of the line as the foreigners, of whom we have previously written, had been; though, in this case, the wreck belonged to a west country port, where the rocket apparatus was constantly exercised, and, to our horror, we saw them secure the bare line to the waist of a man who was preparing to jump overboard, hoping that we should be able to haul him ashore through the surf! Of course we could have done so, but of course the poor fellow would have been drowned a dozen times over. We, that is, the coastguard and the crowd, howled and waved and shrieked, and some of us ran as far as we dared into the surf, making signs, and at the last moment desisting, and doubtfully taking in something of what we wanted them to understand, these sailors commenced to haul away on their end of the rocket-line. To our end had already been secured the bight of a "whip," or light rope, rove through a block or pulley, attached to which was a small board, on which was printed, in French and English, instructions to secure the pulley to the highest part of the wreck or lower masts. This done, we should then have two ends of a line on shore, the bight of which was rove through a block on board the wreck, so that we could haul off to them anything which we considered would aid their escape to the shore. Well, in due time they hauled on board to them the bight of the whip, etc., and after studying the printed instructions (no doubt puzzling over the French before they discovered the English) for a terribly long time, they duly secured the block half way up the rigging; and now we manned the whip on shore, and quickly hauled off to them the end of a stout hawser, or large rope, together with a lifebuoy, with a pair of breeches attached, into which it was intended the men should get and be hauled on shore one by one. All went well, apparently. They secured their end of the hawser as high up as they could; we carried our end as high up the sand as we could, and led it over a huge triangle, to raise it as high as possible above the tops of the waves. We could not make our end fast, and set it up taut with a tackle, as is done sometimes, and which is the 本 best plan, because the wreck was rolling to and fro on the reef, as the rocks slowly tore their way through her bottom, and that motion would have speedily parted the hawser. So about one hundred people, women and men working together, laid hold of the end, and as the vessel rolled outwards from the land they "eased away," and as she rolled her mastheads in towards the beach they "gathered in the slack," so that we had established a kind of flying-bridge above the surface. There had been sent off, as I have said, along with the hawser, a lifebuoy and breeches. This was connected with a pulley, called by sailors a "block," and the block was of a size to travel along the hawser freely. Under the pulley was suspended the breeches-lifebuoy, in which the men (one at a time) were to sit. To the said pulley was secured the two ends of that whip we had first hauled off by the rocket-line. We had thus the means of hauling the breeches to and fro at pleasure, and getting the crew ashore with absolute safety had become a mere matter of time as we supposed. We had counted our chickens somewhat early in the hatching process, however, for when the first man was half way ashore the breeches began to travel slowly, and it was then discovered that the original rocket-line, with which they had hauled off the block and the two parts of the whip, had never been properly disconnected from it, and now by the travelling of the rope on which we were hauling it had been sucked into the sheave of the pulley, and was jamming momentarily more. Well, with immense anxiety and trouble we landed the first man; but when we tried to haul the breeches off for the second, the block refused to travel, and the jam was complete. We tried in vain to get the people on the wreck to go aloft and clear the block; they could not understand in the least; but at last, as they manifestly wanted the breeches off to the wreck, they got hold of the bight of the whip and hauled it off themselves, and quickly lading it with another sailor, they eased away and we hauled; and so, with a sound ducking, we landed numbers two, three, and four. The plan answered indifferently well as long as there was a sufficient force left in the wreck; but who was to haul off the breeches for the last man, and who was to ease him ashore? Our hearts sank at the thought. We stood in the surf with the breeches and buoy in our hand, thinking what we should do, and the skipper-for he was the last man-stood on the taffrail of his ship, holding on as he might, watching with that sort of sickening look of anxious inquiry on his face not easily forgotten. We knew he was far spent, for the "haul off" the last time had been accomplished with very great difficulty and delay. A coastguardsman volunteered to be hauled off in the breeches and get the exhausted skipper into them. He had not considered that the difficulty was to get even the empty breeches off, and that there must still for ever be a last man; and he was snubbed by his chief for his want of forethought accordingly. Such is sometimes the reward of valour. There was nothing we could do; we waved our arms-the old signal-to haul off the "breeches-buoy." The skipper was a fine fellow, and the writer hopes that he may have such as he to back him up when he is as hard pushed for his life as that man was that day; but he looked at the distance he had to haul the lifebuoy through the waves, and we saw him shake his head; then he stepped down on the deck, and slowly and painfully began hauling away. With painful solicitude the coastguard bore the buoy over their heads to ease the strain, and waded out with it till they were washed off their legs; and with anxious care a hundred hands carefully eased away the shore-end of the line, but it travelled more and more slowly, and at last stopped-the skipper had tumbled on to the deck, and was unable to move from exhaustion. He lay a long time; several huge seas, after washing his vessel fore and aft, rolled over him. When we thought it was all over with him, he suddenly staggered up again, and commenced hauling away once more. He heard the cheer with which we sought to encourage him, and retained his strength till he hauled the buoy near to the ship. There was no one to steady it while he got in; no one to haul it on board. He summoned his remaining strength, and sprang at it like a tiger, reached it and clung to it, but never could writhe himself up and into it. There was no use delaying; we ran away with our end of the whip as hard as we could tear, but when the breeches were still thirty yards from dry land the poor skipper let go his hold, and fell headlong into the boiling surf! The water at that moment had receded a long way, gathering strength for the next roller. The coastguard officers, and some others who were near, having hold of the line from the shore, and their belts on, dashed at the skipper, threw themselves round him-on him. The great waves rolled over the heads of the little knot of struggling men, and then rolled them all up in a helpless ball on the beach, the skipper underneath and insensible, but he was saved! These two cases illustrate most of the incidents connected with the use of this means of saving life. The rocket apparatus is placed at various points on the coasts of the United Kingdom by the Government. It is, with one or two exceptions, in charge of the coastguard. Years ago, when the number of these "rocket stations" was smaller, and a considerably greater number of coastguardsmen were employed, they alone worked the apparatus. Of late years decrease in the coastguard force, and considerable increase of the number of rocket stations, has caused the Government to adopt the plan of enrolling, as an auxiliary force, a certain number of the surrounding population-farmers, beachmen, and fishermen who act under the orders of the coastguard, obey the summons which announces that the rocket-cart is going out, either for service or exercise, and are paid on each occasion according to the number of hours employed. All the material considered necessary for saving life is kept constantly stowed in a cart specially adapted for the service, and which is drawn from the station to the scene of the wreck by two, three, or more horses. There is also accommodation on the cart for five or six coastguardsmen. The various articles generally stowed in the cart are:-First, three rocket-lines, faked each in a separate box. These lines are light and small, and one of them is attached to the rocket fired from the shore. When the rocket falls over the wreck, towing this line after it, it is manifest that the people on the wreck will have hold of one end of a line of which the other end is retained by the coastguard on shore. The sole use of this line is to enable the people on the wreck to haul off stouter ones. Second, a "whip" of manilla line, one and a half inches in circumference, rove through a block or pulley, which block is fitted with a tail, or piece of rope about a yard long. The coastguardsmen secure this block with the tail, and with the manilla whip, or rope, rove through it to the shore end of the rocketline, and as soon as the people on the wreck get hold of the line-fired off to them from the shore, as previously explained-they commence hauling on it, and ultimately drag off to them the tail-block, with the whip rove through it, the two ends of which are retained by the people on shore. With the tailblock also goes off a small board, on which is printed in English and French, "Make the tail of the block fast to the lower mast, well up; if masts are gone, then to the best place you can find; cast off rocketline; see that the rope in the block runs free, and show signal to the shore." Acting on which the people on the wreck accordingly secure the block as high as is found convenient. Third, a manilla hawser, or rope, three inches in circumference, one end of which is hauled off to the ship by the whip; with the hawser goes off another little tally-board, with directions to secure the hawser two feet higher up than where they have previously secured the tail of the block. Fourth, a sling lifebuoy, with breeches attached, which is fitted to travel to and fro on the hawser, and is hauled along it from ship to shore and back again by the whip, which is worked by the people on the beach. Fifth, eighteen rockets for carrying out the line. Those in common use are Dennett's, fitted with a staff in the rear, in appearance similar to an ordinary signal-rocket. They are said to be "double," because the interior composition is made up of two distinct chambers, one before the other: the second chamber igniting when the rocket is in mid-flight, gives the rocket a new impetus at a critical moment. We believe it is intended to introduce rockets after the pattern of Hale's, which are constructed for war purposes. They have no staff in the rear, as ordinary signal-rockets have, but as the gas, generated by the combustion of the composition, rushes out of the rear of the rocket through three holes, it bears on small half-spirals, in appearance not unlike the blades of a screw-propeller, and this imparts to the rocket a rotary motion round its own axis, which has the effect of keeping it end on to the direction in which it is propelled, o:. the same principle that a rifle. bullet is kept end on. These are the principal articles in the rocket-cart. There are, besides, an anchor for burying in the sand, a triangle, signal-lights, and sundry small articles, making on the whole a very complete affair of it. It will be seen, however, from what we have written, that all would be of little use without stout hearts and willing hands; and notwithstanding the fact that the rocket companies work on solid land, they are sometimes exposed to both danger and |