The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-12-18 00:00:00

LIFEBOAT WORK AND LIFEBOAT

DANGERS.

THERE is no nobler association than that
of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution;
no benevolent work in connection with our
sea-girt country that excites a keener and
more sympathetic interest than that accom-
plished by the lifeboats which stand ready
all round the coasts to be launched out into
the gale-lashed surf and save life in time of
peril. The crews of the boats are a brave
lot of manly fellows, who never fail to evoke
the admiration of all. No thought of self
is ever sufficient to deter the big-hearted
mariners who man the lifeboats from the
danger-surrounded. work of ir ercy,in which
they have enlisted. When a lifeboatman
meets with death amid the storm he is
braving, the sad event moves many a lands-
man with a pang of sincere regret. Happily
a fatality of this kind does not often occur.
Every care is taken to guard as much as
possible against accident, hence, doubtless,
the comparatively slight mortality by mis-
adventure among the crews of the lifeboats.
Nearly the whole of the coasts . lifeboats be-
long to the National Lifeboat Institution.
Forty-one cases of capsizing only have oc-
curred during the thirty-two years past; and,
including the twenty-seven brave fellows
who the other day were drowned near teeath-
port, the, total sacrifice to the sea of employes
of the Institution for all that lengthy period
was eig-hty-seven lives lost only. The boats
have been- oat at rescue moth in this space
'me fie thousand times, and an immense
number of persons wrecked or washed over-
board have in consequence been delivered
from a watery grave. An extract min a
French journal apropos of the recent ee. ible
lifeboat fatality will show that the heroic
acts of the boatmen- do not go unrecegnised
even over, seas. Ina special article on the
calamity in a Paris paper, we read :—"To
those who despair of our poor humanity,
and only-estimate it by the impurities which
paiade them-elves under our eyes in Paris
and London, we Must show the example of
these flue fellows, whom neither the night
nor the mountain waves could for a moment
daunt. They know better than any one else
the danger to which they are exposing them-
selves, yet they hasten to their boats, their
only anxiety being to arrive in time. Eng.
land goes into mourning for the twenty-
seven sailors of the Ribble who perished
victims to their spirit of self-sacrifice." Her
Maj -sty,
.ever foremost to express the opinion
and sympathy of the people, sent a gracious
met-iage of condolence to the bereaved, and
the families of the "brave who are no more,"
w. I doubtless be provi:led for, as far as
ni-mey can cover their aid loss, by public
sul)seriptions. While we are deplo:ing this
disaster, and seeking to alleviate the distress
Ivhich has rtsnitedtherefrom, however, it
behoves us to seek to avoid its recurrence

by every available moles. The ingairy ia-
s; itnted by the Board of TI a le was an indis-
pbnsable one under the cireau ances. If
we had prided ourlzh es ,upon one thin-4
_ _

'non than another in connection with life-

boat work, it was in the essureptidetliat the
caer.iziri4 of the cat a Jed lad I.)cea rende!ed
al! bat impos-ible. The ra n themselves had
great confidence in the bnoyent and- speLtly
properties of Vieir boat:, and
perhaps ia no cases I aye this confidence
been greater than tiose of the two Lanca-
shire craft whieli came te'g.rief in last week's
gale. The evidence r the sarvivore of tl,e
crews proves this. Every effort that harnan
ingenuity can suggest must be exerted to
restore ttie reliance thus rudely s!laken.
The case was doubtless an exceptional one,
but the exception is -one of those sad ones
which goes far to upset a theory which has
been thought established. The facts of the
case, as far as the inquiry seems to have
elicited, would appear to be a want of per--
fection in the handling of the boats tinder
circumstances which were certainly very
trying; and a fault in control of neighbour-
ing stations, an absence of concerted action,
so to speak. There should certainly, we
think be arrangements made by the Life-
boat Institution for signalling, or telegraphic
communication between contiguous boat-
houses, thereby for the • future preventing
needless risk. Some effectual plan of this
sort ought to present no insuperable obstacle.
_ Had an understanding of this suggested
character been effected in the case more
particularly in point, the one beat which
did the rescue work so well need have been .
the only one imperilled; and we might
have been spared the fatal upsetting of two
crews who were venturing their existence in
a noble endeavour -which I.d already been
accomplished. Then as t) air spaces which
_ gives much of the bu:va.uev to the boats,
- Their very . construction rnkc them an ele-
ment of danger, and a enetliieg more than
7. has been already done render them ab-
solutely impervi ,as to water will have to be
bit upon. The excessive weight of the
anchor now considered requisite for an or-
dinary lifeboat is anet!ler source of peril
which it is to be hod marine architectural
- skill will be able to
,do away with. These
points will of course, with others of relative
character, engage the serious attention ot
he Board of Trade and the Lifeboat Infra.
tutiou. Captain Tipping, an experienced
lifeboat inspectinr, official, is of opinion that
the anchor over the bow of the boat would
. have much to do with preventing it righting.
after it had unfortunately overturned, how-
ever stiff • and. buoyant the craft might be,
. and in the ease of the accident to the Eliza-
beth Fernley, the clinging of some of the
men to the thwarts tendedto keep the boat
from getting back keel downwards. There
cannot possibly, this 'would suggest, be too .
- much drilling of lifeboatmen as to how to
act
,:or joint safety in every variety of
emergency, so that complete confidence may
_ Obtain among the crew. Above all, the cox.