To see the transcribed test with images (if available) use the FB2 version. This book is mainly to describe the lifeboat service, and how private individuals can donate the money for building a new lifeboat. We start off with a wreck just occurring near a little seaside village, and how the local men rushed down to the beach to do what they could to save life. We then move to the offices of a mean grasping shipowner, who will do anything to avoid properly equipping his ships with what they would need if disaster struck. Eventually he is brought to a more sensible state of mind, and donates money for a new lifeboat. There is a good fund-raising chapter, and it is interesting how very much the same today's appeals for the lifeboat service are, though of course today's lifeboat is a very different item to the lifeboats of over a hundred years ago. The frontispiece does not properly belong to this book, but comes from "The Lifeboat", also by Ballantyne. First published 1869.