ON Sunday morning, 8th February, the Ramsey Life-boat went out to a ketch which was seen to be flying signals of distress a little way outside the harbour.

A strong breeze was blowing, but the sea was smooth and the weather fine. The ketch was found to be the Amis Reunis, of Falmouth, manned by a family crew, which consisted of the father and mother, a daughter of nineteen, and two sons of seven- teen and fifteen. With them a was a goose.

The ketch was bound from Killough, in Northern Ireland, to Portmadoc, in Wales, with potatoes. She had had a terrible night in a S.W. gale, had been compelled to run back to Ramsey for shelter from ten miles off Holyhead, and was making water very fast. The Life-boat brought her and her crew into harbour.

So much for the actual service. The more domestic side of the story is best told in the following account which has been received from Ramsey :— " It appears that the skipper of the ketch was a Dutchman, who was married to a Welshwoman, and the whole family spoke Welsh. They had bought a goose for their dinner, but, running into very heavy weather, all their thoughts of a meal passed away, and the whole family was occupied in pumping operations, so much so that, practically, they were rescued at their last gasp (including the goose). Subsequently, as you are aware, the ketch itself was brought in. The unhappy experiences of the whole family, including the goose, were such that, instead of the latter being used for the purposes of sustaining life, it has become a family pet, and now plays the part of a faithful watch-dog." If it were the practice of the Institu- tion to include geese in the record of lives saved, we might very justly claim this goose as having been saved twice.