The Life-Boat, Or
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THE LIFE-BOAT, OR JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION. [PmCB 6n. VOL. V.—No. 52.] APEIL IST, 1864. ISSUED QDiETEKLT. AT the Annual General Meeting of the EOYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION held at the London Tavern, on Tuesday, the 15th day of March, 1864, the Eight Honourable Sir JOHN S. PAKINGTON, Bart., G.C.B., M.P., in the Chair, The following Eeport of the Committee was read :— boats of inferior description, or obsolete cha- ANNUAL REPORT. racter, by others embodying all the latest ON this the fortieth anniversary of the improvements. ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, To one of those gifts the Committee have the. Committee have the satisfaction to pre- much pleasure in drawing especial attention, sent to its supporters and to the British not alone on account of its large amount, people, the Annual Report of their pro- but as one springing from the very highest ceedings—once more have they to place order of motives on the part of a commer- on record the success which, with the cial firm, and which cannot but be appre- Divine blessing, has rested on their labours, ciated in this great mart of commerce, while and to express their gratitude to a liberal it is invested with additional interest as pro- public for its continued support. ceeding from members of one of the most In their last Annual Statement, the Com- highly respected native communities amongst mittee had to report a falling off in the our fellow-subjects in India. The splendid previous year's income, as compared with gift to which they allude, is that of 2,0001. that of the year before, consequent on the given by Messrs. CAMA and Co., Parsee mer- distress then prevailing in the manufac- chants, London, for the purpose of providing turing districts. They trust that the con- the whole cost, and the future maintenance of siderable increase on the income of the past a life-boat establishment, on the coast of the year, which they are happily now able to United Kingdom, in acknowledgement of announce, may be deemed to indicate that the success which had attended their busi- the cloud of misfortune which has so long ness transactions during eight years' resi- hung over a large, important, and industrious dence in this metropolis, and in testimony section of the community, is passing away. of the courtesy and kindness which they Perhaps the most striking feature in the bad invariably received from its inhabitants. history of the Institution during the past The Committee are likewise able to re- year is the large number of noble gifts, in port that the last remaining of the County the shape of the entire cost of new life- Shipwreck Associations, viz., that in Lin- boats, which have been presented to it by colnshire, has decided on coming into union philanthropic individuals, a list of which is with the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, enumerated in another part of the Report. and that a complete renovation of the four Through such assistance the Committee life-boat stations on the coast of that county lave been enabled to replace several life- will, as soon as practicable, be effected. LIFE-BOAT JODHNAI»—VOL. V.—No. 52. 374 ANNUAL KEPOKT. [APRIL 1,1864. New boats, carriages, houses, and equipment Eastbourne, Pembrey, Palling, and Green- will be provided, and the several establish- castle, near Londonderry. The whole of ments made thoroughly efficient in every these, except that at Greencastle, have gone respect, at a cost of about 2,000?., which to replace worn-out or obsolete boats. No will be defrayed jointly from the funds of the less than nine of them are gift boats. Parent and Branch Institutions. The life-boats of the Institution now num- The Committee have the gratification to ber one hundred and thirty-two; and some know that the Lords of the Admtresl^r are pf them were the means of saving no less taking steps to provide every ship-of-war thanybwr hundred and seventeen lives during, with an efficient life-boat, their Lordships the past year, nearly the whole of them under having paid the Institution the complttnent dangerous circumstances, amidst high surfs, to consult it on that important subject. when no other description of boats could Experimental life-boats are now in course of have been launched with safety. They construction, and the Committee trust that were also instrumental in taking safely into their general adoption m the Royal Navy port or materially assisting seventeen vessels, may lead to improvement in the life-boats which had stranded or otherwise got into of the Mercantile Marine. danger. On forty-nine other occasions the The Committee having now formed sta- life-boats of the Society were launched, and tions on almost every dangerous part of the proceeded to the assistance of vessels that United Kingdom where a life-boat can be had shown signals of distress, or that were effectively manned, contemplate entering on in evident danger, but which did not ulti- another sphere of usefulness, by introducing mately require their services. The crews an improved mode of fitting the interior of of the life-boats also assembled during the larger class of open and half-decked fish- stormy weather on many occasions, in readi- ing and hovelling boats on our coasts, so that ness to proceed to the aid of vessels. For they could at any time be made insubmergible. these services—and for saving 297 ship- Our fishing-boats number about' 40,000, wrecked persons by fishing and shore boats and are probably manned by 160,000 men or other means—the Institution has granted and boys, who are ever ready to risk their rewards amounting to 1,297Z. own lives to save those of their fellow- These valuable services have happily creatures on occasions of shipwreck. been performed without a single accident The Committee propose to accomplish this attended with loss of life occurring to those object by building and placing at some of the who have manned the boats. On such principal fishing-stations model or standard occasions, and on those of quarterly exercise boats, from which, after sufficient trial, others of the life-boats, about 6,000 persons were might be built in the several localities; and afloat in them. thus a permanent improvement be esta- lafe-boat Carriages. — Transporting-car- blished, which might lead to the saving of riages have been provided for the whole of many lives on occasions of such boats being the above-named life-boats, except those at overtaken by gales of wind when at long Tenby, Blakeney, Eastbourne, Teignmouth, distances from land. and Arklow. The general proceedings of the Institution JBoat-houses.—New boat-houses have been may be epitomized as follows, under the built at Budehaven, Lytham, Fleetwood, usual headings:— Teignmouth, Pembrey, and Greencastle, Lifeboats.—During the past year the whilst others are in course of erection at Institution has been enabled to send no less other places. than 15 new life-boats to the coast, and Shipwrecks. — The Committee regret to numerous others are in course of construc- have to report that the number of wrecks tion. The stations to which they have during the past year was, as usual, very been sent are Drogheda, Fishguard, Bude- large, and that the gales of October and haven, Tenby, Lytham, Hastings, Blakeney, December were perhaps the most destruc- Swansea, Teigntnouth, Filey, Arklow, tive that ever visited the shores and the (From the "Sunday at Home") APBIL 1,1864.] ANNUAL EEPOET. 375 seas of the British Isles. The widows and Those saved by life-boats, which are, as orphans, caused by the storm of the three it were, the " forlorn hope " of the army of early days of December, are to be numbered rescue, have, in nearly every instance, been by hundreds in the towns of Yarmouth, saved under perilous circumstances, when North and South Shields, and other places. they probably must have perished in the ab- It is, however, most gratifying to be able sence of such aid. The British public are to report, that during the time that storm now sensible of that fact, and their generous lasted, the life-boats were providentially the support to the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTI- means of rescuing no less than 250 ship- TUTION has been proportionately liberal. Our wrecked persons. Of these, 120 were saved countrymen in all parts of the world manifest by the Ramsgate life-boat in conjunction by their contributions their interest in its with the steam-tug Aid, and 48 by the Holy- welfare; and its successful operations on our head life-boat. Noble deeds of daring were coasts have awakened in foreign countries a also performed by the crews of the Institu- desire to provide similar means for saving tion's life-boats at Bacton, Fleetwood, South- life from shipwreck on their shores. port, Tenby, Llanddwyn, Skerries, and The total number of lives saved during other places.* On numerous occasions when the forty years from the establishment of services were equally perilous and gallant, it the Institution in 1824, to the end of the is difficult to select any particular cases for year 1863, either by its life-boats, or by narration, but they are all briefly detailed special exertions for which it has granted in the Appendix to this Report. rewards, is as follows:— With a shipping representing about sixty- No. of Lives No. of Live! one millions of tons, and 400,000 vessels In the Year Saved. In the Year Saved. which cleared outwards and entered inwards 1824 124 1845 235 1825 218 1846 134 from British ports during the past year, a large 1826 175 1847 157 number of shipwrecks has become almost 1827 163 1848 123 a natural sequence.