The Life-Boat

THE LIFE-BOAT, OR JOTJBNAL OF THE NATIONAL SHIPWRECK INSTITUTION. No. 10.] IST OCTOBER, 1853. [PEICE 2D. THE PREVENTION OP WRECKS AND 2nd. The employment of every available SAVING LIFE FROM SHIPWRECK. means on board merchant vessels for saving WE have on different occasions in this the lives of their crews, and effecting com- Journal remarked on'what we conceived to munication with the shore, in the event of be the imperfection, when taken as a whole, their getting stranded. of the present system for rescuing ship- 3rd. The establishment all along our wrecked persons from drowning; that coasts of the most perfect system which can whilst, in some localities, most creditable be devised, for affording them timely succour exertions have been made, and much success from the land. has attended those exertions, yet that at The first of these heads, indeed, embraces no place perhaps has as much been done as a wide field for cultivation, in which much was possible ; and that at many, little or has been already done and well done, but nothing has been attempted—where the where more yet remains to be accomplished. storm seems to have been regarded as a It includes all that can facilitate the safe monster who, as a matter of course, will prey navigation of our coasts.—The exact sur- on those that have the temerity to venture veying of every part of them, and the pub- upon his domain; or as the Deity of the lication of charts, on which shall be clearly watery wilds who needs to be propitiated portrayed and defined every danger which by this periodical sacrifice from amongst lies in the mariner's way.—The establish- his votaries. ment of the most perfect system of light- The consequence has been, that a waste houses, buoys, beacons, and sea-marks. of human life has taken place, which, even —The creation of harbours of refuge, and in a single year, presents a melancholy the improvement of natural harbours, and picture to the view; but which if con- the mouths of navigable rivers.—The enact- templated in the aggregate, over a lengthened ment of a rigid system of surveillance which period, will be found to have been the should prevent the sailing out of port of work of a power far more devastating in its vessels that are leaky or unseaworthy, effects than the cannon and sword of the half-manned, or ill-found; and which should enemy. require sufficient proof of the qualifications We do not mean to imply that any of masters and superior officers, as seamen, human efforts could have subdued this navigators, and commanders of others.— power, or altogether have neutralized its The improvement of the mode of calculating effects, but that much more might be done the tonnage of vessels, and of the scale under the working of a well-organized according to which the levying of tolls, and comprehensive system which should harbour and dock dues, &c., are calculated; insure— which systems have hitherto acted as 1st. The adoption of all practicable pre- premiums on the construction of bad sailing cautionary measures which might lead to ships, and have by that means been prolific the prevention of shipwreck. sources of shipwreck; since a fast-sailing Ho. 10. 50 THE LIFE-BOAT. [OCTOBER, 1853. clipper vessel can readily beat off a lee- the salvation of a man's life if upset from sliore, when one of the more prevailing form his boat in attempting to land through a of colliers, coasters, and other merchant surf. craft, would infallibly drift bodily on to it. Lastly. She should also be furnished with On the second head, but little or nothing some means for conveying a line to the has been yet done.—It has possibly been shore, in the event of her getting stranded considered that the owner of a ship, if not sufficiently near to make it practicable. The actuated by motives of humanity, or a sense rocket and mortar apparatus are unsuitable of duty to those in his employ, would at least for the purpose, as they would probably be prompted by self-interest, to provide as seldom be ready for immediate use; and as far as possible for their safety as well as for a vessel on taking the ground is in general that of his vessel. The legislature of the immediately subjected to such violent con- country has accordingly hitherto scarcely cussions by the waves striking her that it interfered in the matter; and, strange to say, would in most cases be unmanageable. The public opinion has not been directed to it. flying a kite from the vessel to the shore The shipowner has therefore had, as his sole has been suggested by Colonel DANSEY, R. A., motive power, his own sense of the moral and it might sometimes be available, although responsibility resting upon him to urge him there would probably often be difficulty in to do unto others, and those his own servants, getting it to ascend in the first instance as if similarly circumstanced he would have clear of the rigging and of the eddy winds wished them to do unto him. under the vessel's lee. The most feasible The manner in which this provision for plan would at first sight appear to be to the safety of ship's crews might be effected float a buoy with a line attached to it to may be shortly defined as follows:— the shore; but it is generally found that 1st. Every merchant vessel should carry the drawback of the retiring waves, toge- one or more boats, so far fitted as life-boats, ther with the weight of the line, prevents that they should have a sufficient amount of a buoy from quite reaching the beach. We extra buoyancy to support the whole of the think it probable, however, that a very light ship's crew in the event of getting filled by buoy, which should expose a large surface a sea; and of a form calculated for land- to the wind, and have but little hold on the ing through a surf. Such a boat can readily water, and having a small manilla or other be thus fitted without materially interfering floating-line attached to it, would, if the with her stowage-room or disqualifying her wind were sufficiently on shore, be in general for all the ordinary uses to which ships' boats carried so close to it that it might be are put. grappled by those on the beach: it is at 2nd. She should be provided with an all events a matter worth making further efficient life-buoy;—and one of the best experiments upon. A buoy of this cha- description of circular cork ones can be pro- racter, formed of waterproof cloth, which cured for the small sum of 12s. 6d. folds up and self-inflates on being distended, 3rd. She should likewise be provided was some years since invented by the Rev. with as many good cork life-belts as there JAMES WILLIAMS, Rector of Llanfairyng- are persons in her crew, which should be hornwy, in Anglesea—an old friend and kept secured to the bulwark, or other con- zealous coadjutor of this Institution, and venient situation on deck, where they could we think it would be admirably adapted for be readily got at in the event of the vessel the purpose. getting ashore, or her crew having from By the general use on board merchant any other cause to take to their boat. A vessels of such means as those we have belt of this kind, having sufficient buoyancy recommended, we believe that numberless to make it impossible for a person having it valuable lives might be saved. The adop- on to sink, and yet not interfering with tion of them, however, cannot be secured by the free use of his limbs, may be also had any power of less magnitude and authority for a small sum, and which might often be than the legislature of the country. The ADMIRALTY REGISTER OF WRECKS FOR THE TEARS 1850-51. 51 voices of societies or individuals have no ADMIRALTY REGISTER OF WRECKS weight whatever in such cases; we may FOR THE YEARS 1850-51. raise them as loudly as we will, it is of no SUCH is the title of an interesting blue-book avail; ships and boats will continue to be recently presented to Parliament by the badly built and ill-suited for the work they Harbour Department of the Admiralty. have to perform ; they will still be ill-fitted, The register is necessarily dry and bald. ill-manned, ill-found as hitherto, unless self- From the number of columns (22) through interest, or some other power more cogenl which the information relative to the wrecks than humanity and love to their fellow- and casualties which occurred on the coasts creatures shall urge those possessing this and in the seas of the United Kingdom kind of property to see the necessity for a during the years 1850-51 is interspersed, change. we scarcely know how to convey an adequate As a striking instance of the heartlessness idea of the curious contents of the book. which exists on this subject, we have been In addition to a Wreck Chart for the year informed by respectable boat-builders in this 1850 and a Chart of the Lights and Light- metropolis that on more than one occasion, houses, it contains 289 pages folio, each line when old worn-out boats have been brought of which being the record of a disaster.

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