At 5.30 A.M. on the 4th April information was received that a schooner was ashore on the Nore Sand. The crew of the Life- boat James Stevens No. 9 were at once assembled and they proceeded to the pierhead, but by the time they got there the ship had floated clear of the sands. The Life-boatmen remained at the pierhead for some short time, and just as they were about to return to the shore they observed the vessel ground again in a dangerous position. The Life-boat at once proceeded to her, and about the same time the ship showed what appeared to be a flare, but it afterwards transpired that the vessel had caught fire owing to the exploding of a rocket, which the captain was about to use as a distress signal. The vessel was the schooner Antje, of Hamburg, bound from Dantzic to London. When the Life-boat approached the vessel it was found that one man was still on board; and great danger was incurred in rescuing him, as the fire by this time was burning fiercely. The man proved to be the captain, and he was in an exhausted condition. It appeared that the crew of six men left the ship in their own boat, three of them went aboard a Government tug and the other three then tried to get back to the schooner for the purpose of rescuing the captain, but on account of the heavy wind and sea they were unable to do so, and they were subsequently picked up by a fishing smack, which conveyed them to Southend. There is no doubt the Life-boatmen incurred con- siderable danger in approaching to the burning schooner in the high wind and heavy sea, and the captain was loud in his praise of the manner in which the service was carried out. He also asserted that had it not been for the Life-boat he would have lost his life, as no other boat could have got near to the ship..