The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands

The Floating Light of the
Goodwin Sands, by

R.M. Ballantyne This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no
cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give
it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
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Title: The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands
Author: R.M. Ballantyne
Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21735]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
FLOATING LIGHT ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

THE FLOATING LIGHT OF THE GOODWIN SANDS, BY R.M.
BALLANTYNE.

PREFACE.

This tale, reader--if you read it through--will give you some insight into
the condition, value, and vicissitudes of the light-vessels, or floating
lighthouses, which guard the shores of this kingdom, and mark the
dangerous shoals lying off some of our harbours and roadsteads. It will
also convey to you--if you don't skip--a general idea of the life and
adventures of some of the men who have manned these interesting and
curious craft in time past, as well as give you some account of the
sayings and doings of several other personages more or less connected
with our coasts. May you read it with pleasure and profit, and--"may
your shadow never be less."
I gratefully express my acknowledgment and tender my best thanks to
the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House, to whose kindness I am
indebted for having been permitted to spend a week on board the
Gull-stream light-vessel, one of the three floating-lights which mark the
Goodwin Sands; and to Robin Allen, Esquire, Secretary to the Trinity
House, who has kindly furnished me with valuable books, papers, and
information. I have also gratefully to tender my best thanks to Captain
Valle, District Superintendent under the Trinity House at Ramsgate, for
the ready and extremely kind manner in which he afforded me every
facility for visiting the various light-vessels and buoys of his district,
and for observing the nature and duties of the service.
To the master of the Gull, whose "bunk" I occupied while he was on
shore--to Mr John Leggett, the mate, who was in command during the
period of my visit--and to the men of the "Floating-light" I have to offer
my heartfelt thanks for not only receiving me with generous hospitality,
but for treating me with hearty goodwill during my pleasant sojourn
with them in their interesting and peculiar home.
My best thanks, for much useful and thrilling information, are due to
Mr Isaac Jarman, the coxswain, and Mr Fish, the bowman, of the
Ramsgate Lifeboat-men who may be said to carry their lives
continually in their hands, and whose profession it is to go out at the
call of duty and systematically grapple with Death and rob him of his
prey. To the Harbour Master, and Deputy Harbour Master at Ramsgate,
I am also indebted for information and assistance, and to Mr Reading,

the master of the Aid steam-tug, which attends upon, and shares the
perils of, the Lifeboat.
R.M. BALLANTYNE.
EDINBURGH, 1870.
CHAPTER ONE.
PARTICULAR INQUIRIES.
A light--clear, ruddy and brilliant, like a huge carbuncle--uprose one
evening from the deep, and remained hovering about forty feet above
the surface, scattering its rays far and wide, over the Downs to
Ramsgate and Deal, along the coast towards Dover, away beyond the
North Foreland, across the Goodwin Sands, and far out upon the bosom
of the great North Sea.
It was a chill November evening, when this light arose, in the year--
well, it matters not what year. We have good reasons, reader, for
shrouding this point in mystery. It may have been recently; it may have
been "long, long ago." We don't intend to tell. It was not the first time
of that light's appearance, and it certainly was not the last. Let it suffice
that what we are about to relate did happen, sometime or other within
the present century.
Besides being cold, the evening in question was somewhat
stormy--"gusty," as was said of it by a traveller with a stern visage and
remarkably keen grey eyes, who entered the coffee-room of an hotel
which stood on the margin of Ramsgate harbour facing the sea, and
from the upper windows of which the light just mentioned was visible.
"It is, sir," said the waiter, in reply to the "gusty" observation, stirring
the fire while the traveller divested himself of his hat and greatcoat.
"Think it's going to blow hard?" inquired the traveller, planting himself
firmly on the hearth-rug, with his back to the fire, and his thumbs
hooked into the armholes of his waistcoat.

"It may, sir, and it may not," answered the waiter, with the caution of a
man who has resolved, come what may,