LIFEBOAT MAGAZINE ARCHIVE

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Arrow Belle

During the forenoon of the 19th January, the schooner Arrow Belle, of Aberystwith, bound from Glen- dower to Greenock, but then at anchor in the Bay of Dublin, parted from her cables and drove ashore near North Bull. A strong gale from the S.W. had blown all night previously, and it still blew hard, accompanied by a heavy sea. Although aground, she did not sink, but the danger in such cases is that the crew, exhausted and benumbed with cold, may be swept from the deck or rigging of their ship by the waves which sweep over her. There is also the contingency of the vessel being unspund and breaking up, as such vessels sometimes do even on the softest strands, a short time after striking. Speed is all- important, therefore; though sometimes, when the good people on shore see a vessel that has been stranded on a beach, standing " all-ataunto" after the storm, they wonder why the crew could not have been left quiet on board till the storm abated, without risking other lives to bring them on shore. Well, the Kingstown men did not waste time by speculations as to whether the stranded vessel would outlast the storm or not, but at once ran their boat down the slipway, jumped in, and were soon urging the Life-boat Princess Royal, under the able coxswainship of HENRY WILLIAMS, to the assistance of the schooner. By 4 P.M., after a five hours' pull, they regained the shore with the rescued crew, 4 in number.