The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-10-31 00:00:00

CASUALTIES AT SEA.

--T
A terrible story is told loan abstract, just published
of the official returns made to the Board of Trade of
wrecks, casualties and collisions which occurred on and
near the coast of the United Kingdom last year.
Between January and December, the number officially
reported was no less than 2, 090, which was 230 more
than in the previous year, and 390 in excess of the
average of the six years ending in 1867. No doubt
this result is to a considerable extent attributable to
the increased number of ships navigating our coasts
and the adjoining narrow seas; but the excess is so
large as to indicate special and exceptional causes.
Indeed the heavy gales that prevailed in January,
March, April, October, November and December added
no fewer than 980 wrecks and casualties to the list,
about three-sevenths of this number having occurred
in the first and last months of the year. The most
serious gale of the year is that which commenced on
the 14 December and continued until the 3rd, during
which 319 lives were lost and 326 vessels were lost or
destroyed. The number of vessels lost in 1867 was
2,513, which is in excess of the number of disasters,
recorded, for the obvious reason that in cases of col-
Ision two or more ships are involved in one casualtey.
These vessels represented a registered tonnage of 464,000
tons. Of the total number 2,113 are known to have been
ships belonging to Great Britain and its dependencies,
with British certificates of registry; 338 were foreigners,
and of the remaining 62 none survived to tell of coun-
try or employment. Of the total number of disasters
414 were collisions, 1,676 were wrecks and other
casualties, the number of deaths resulting in total loss
being 656. Of these, 65 arose from defects in the ship
or her equipmtnts— 45 having foundered from sheer
unseaworthineas—and no less than 106 appear, from the
reports made by the officers on the coasts, to have
been caused by inattention, carelessness, or neglect.
Nevertheless it is a somewhat remarkable fact that, in
the nine years ending in 1867, the disasters to compara-
tively new ships bear a veryhigh proj.rtionto the whole
number. By far the greatest number of disasters
occurred on the east coast of England, there having
been 1,101 ; while on the west coast there were 411,
south coast 259, and Irish coast 214.
With regard to the actual loss of life, the facts
recorded in these returns are still more deplorable.
The aggregate number of victims was 1,333, which was
in excess of any year excepting 1859, "the Royal
Chartcr year," when the number reached 1,667. Of
the total number, 637 went down with ships that
foundered, 160 lives were lost on board vessels in colli-
sion, 445 in those stranded or cast ashore, while nearly
300 were lost in fishing boats alone.
There is, however, some consolation to be found in
the returns given of the lives that have been saved, in
a large measure no doubt through the agencies pro-
vided by the Board of Trade and the National Life-
boat Institution. In thirteen years the total
expenditure paid out of the Mercantile Marine Fund
for life-saivng apparatus has been £89,591 13s. 3d., the
the vote of lastyear alone amounting to £16,780 10s.
43. This philanthropic provision has contributed to
the gratifying result that whereas &ruing last year alone
1,333 lives were lost, 5,846 were saved by these and
other means employed.