Most admirable service was also per- formed on the morning of the 16th Oct. by the Walmer Life-boat Centurion, as will be seen by the report furnished by the Coxswain of the Life-boat as follows.

He says, " It was blowing hard from the southward, with a heavy sea on the beach, when I observed a vessel on the Goodwin Sands; I immediately assembled the boat's crew and launched the Life-boat, and proceeded towards the Sands under a reefed storm foresail. On crossing the South Sand Heads in a tremendous sea, the boat filled seven or eight times, and 2 of our men were nearly washed over- board. After crossing the Sands we kept away towards the wreck, and on nearing her saw she was full of water, with the sea making a clean breach over her. Feel- ing it would be dangerous to go alongside, we let go the anchor to windward and dropped down towards her: we could see the crew huddled together before the foremast, with the seas breaking over them.

On reaching as near as possible, we managed—-with the assistance of the loaded cane and line—to get a rope to the vessel, and each man fastening it round his body, we hauled them through the broken sea; but the foremast going, and the seas running higher, when 2 only had been saved by this means, the remain- ing 2 men took to the mainmast, where there was great difficulty in communicating with them; but in about half an hour the maintopmast rigging gave way, and having hooked the wreck of this, the men were induced to slip down it into the sea, and get hold of the rope that we had secured to the wreck. In this way the remaining 2 men were saved, making in all 4 men, the entire crew of the vessel.

They were very much exhausted when taken into the boat. The wrecked vessel was the schooner Hero, of London, bound from Newcastle to Truro with a cargo of coals. In less than five minutes after the position, the wreck disappeared, and there was not a vestige of her to be seen. We lifted our anchor and proceeded towards the shore, where we hove up at 11 A.M., in the presence of a concourse of people who took hold of the capstan rope and hauled the boat up to the boat-house amidst the cheers of the people." The crew spoke in great praise of the perform- ance of the Life-boat on this occasion.