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Updated: June 30, 2025
"Shoes, boots, pants, edges of trousers; two pipes, one pouch, six packets of gaspers; one entire tray of crockery; one air-cushion dropped in fright by stewardess; one coil of rope, one life-buoy, one tin can dented, one man's ankles slightly bruised; one bare patch to ship's cat's back. . . ." And so on and so forth; whilst murmurs arose from the sufferers, who chorused that "they didn't want no compensation, only too pleased to part with their bits, as long . . ." etc., etc.
The millstone that hangs around our national neck, so that we can barely keep our heads above water, even when there is not a ripple upon its surface, and that always threatens to engulf us in perdition at the first symptoms of a storm, this millstone shall be converted into an unsinkable life-buoy, that shall not only support itself upon the crest of the highest waves, but shall help to keep afloat the entire national body.
One day, when about ten years old, during a wild burst of storm, he fled down the beach in an agony of terror; for, considering all that moved as alive, he thought that the crashing sea and swaying, falling trees were attacking him, and, half buried in the sand near the bushes, found the forgotten life-buoy, stained and weather-worn.
The effect of course was to sink the machine deeper than ever, insomuch that poor Mr Hazlit, unable any longer to withstand the buffeting, threw up his arms with a cry of despair. Edgar caught him as he was falling over. "Here, put your arms round my neck," he cried, struggling violently to fix himself firmly to the life-buoy.
"I don't think any one is to blame about the attempt to save the poor fellow, sir. The life-buoy was let go, and the boat lowered promptly; the dishipline of the men was good." "Excellent, Mr Reardon. I have nothing to say there. It would have been better perhaps to have lowered down the second boat sooner. But I think we have done our best. Can you make them hear from this distance?"
Another smart fellow cut the life-buoy adrift so quickly that it struck the water within ten yards of Staines. The officer of the watch, without the interval of half a moment, gave the right orders, in the voice of a stentor; "Let go life-buoy. "Life-boat's crew away. "Hands shorten sail. "Mainsel up. "Main topsel to mast." These orders were executed with admirable swiftness.
The men were eagerly looking out over the sea. Some held coils of rope in their hands, others long poles, while Tom had fastened a number of cork net-floats together to form a life-buoy. They drew aside as they saw the lady and her daughter. "No fear, marm!" exclaimed Tom, when he observed their alarmed looks.
With the life-buoy hanging about his waist though of cork, a heavy weight for him he toddled along the beach to where it ended at a massive ridge of rock that came out of the wooded country inland and extended into the lagoon as an impassable point. He called the chief word in his vocabulary again and again, sobbing between calls.
Something white showed on the top of a sea to leeward and sank in a hollow. He sank with it, and when he rose again it was nearer. "Boat ahoy!" he sang out. "Boat ahoy! this way port a little steady." He swam as he could, cumbered by the life-buoy, and with every heaving sea the boat came nearer.
A life-buoy was likewise suspended from the bridge, to which a coil of line two hundred fathoms in length was attached, which could be let out to a person falling into the water, or to the people in the boat, should they not be able to work her with the oars.
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