The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-08 00:00:00

THAMES.

A MISTAIL—A poor and decent woman, who was
much agitated, and who gave the name of Anne Frances
Mackenzie, was brought before Mr Paget, charged with
being drunk and incapable of taking care of herself.
A police-constable, No. 181 K, stated that at two o'clock
this morning he found the prisoner of retched on the ground
in Sutton-street, St. George-in-the. East. She was quite
insensible, and he concluded she was dead drunk, and con•
veyed her to th e station-house. She continued cold and
senseless. She was put before the fire and warmed, and
the inspector and himself chafed her hands and revived
her. Siva had two or three fits, and the divisional surgeon
of police was hastily summoned, who prescribed for her,
and said she was not intoxicated, but ill, and subject to
epileptic fits. He ordered her removal to the workhouse,
and she had just left there to answer the charge—
Mr Paget—Not of drunkenness. She was not drunk.
No, Sir, it was a mistake. She was treated kindly at the
station-house, and we paid her every attention.
Mr Paget—l am glad to hear it. It is a very natural
mistake indeed. She can go back to the workhouse.
Witness—She has a home to go to. She is a very respect-
able woman and works in a pickling warehouse.
The prisoner—I am subject to fits. lam very glad he
did find me.

Mr Paget—lt was very fortunate for you the policeman
did find you. You ought to be much obliged to him.
The prisoner then left the court.

The Yarmouth Beachmen and the Lifeboat.

The following communication has been addressed by the
secretary of the National Lifeboat Institution to a contem-
porary, in reply to some comments by it on the recent dis-
creditable conduct of the Yarmouth beachmen in refusing to
go off in the lifeboat to the rescue of the crew of the wrecked
steamer Ontario on the Hasborough Sands :
As you invite, by your interrogatives, some replies on the
system of management of the lifeboats at Yarmouth, I trust
you will insert the following remarks on that subject.
The lifeboat system which has hitherto prevailed there
has been rather peculiar, There are, I believe, at that port
between 200 and 300 beachmen. These are divided into
six or seven companies, each company comprising from 30
to 40 men. These companies are banded together in some-
thing like a union, so that one company cannot undertake
to work the lifeboat without the sanction of the rest.

Hitherto the practice has been that one company under-
takes to work the lifeboat during a year, at the end of
which period the boats are shifted to the charge of another
corn pany.

Again, when the lifeboats are launched to the help of a
shipwrecked crew the men who have actually gone off in the
lifeboat are compelled, by their own private rules, to share
their reward with those " who have tarried at home to
divide the spoil."
It is clear, therefore, that there can be no great induce-
ment among men so situated for individual exertion or risk
of life in cases of shipwreck.
As the Young company had undertaken to work the life-
boat for a year, Mr Butcher, the local honorary secretary of
the institution, had a reasonable right to expect that the
beachmen would, at his direction, man the lifeboat on the
19th ult., and particularly as the men had never expressed
to him any dissatisfaction with the institution,
The question, then, naturally arises, can such a state of
things be remedied ? It can only be brought about by the
good sense of the beachmen themselves ; and it is hoped that
on further consideration by the parent and branch Lifeboat
Institutions a better plan than that which has hitherto ob-
tained at Yarmouth for manning the lifeboats will be
adopted. Indeed, two of the companies have already con-
sented constantly to work the small surf lifeboat, which
is intended to render assistance to the crews of vessels
wrecked close to the shore.

But the large lifeboat, 40ft long, is exclusively employed
for sailing, and is nearly unmanageable in rough weather
under oars, She is engaged to go off to the rescue of the
crews of vessels wrecked on the numerous outlying sand-
banks, some of which are many miles from Yarmouth.

In 1857 the two Yarmouth lifeboats were brought into
connexion. with this instituti.m. Since then the large life-
boat has saved six lives from the brig Zephyr, of Whitby.
The boat was towed out by a steamer. It was a noble ser-
vice, and the Yarmouth beachmen showed then what they
oould do in such cases. For that service the lifeboat's crew
received from the institution £23, and £2O was also given
to the steamer. This same lifeboat has also gone off since
1857 to 13 other vessels in distress, but the services of the
boat on these occasions wore happily not required, because
the vessels had either got out of danger or their crews had
been rescued by other means. For these latter services the
men received altogether from the National Lifeboat Institu-
tion £l4l lOs tad.

Again, it should be stated that during the past six years
their small surf lifeboat has saved 26 shipwrecked persons,
and that fur these and other services the institution has
paid the men .CB6 16s.
In conclusion, I trust you will allow me to add a few
words on the general system of management on the coast of
this society's lifeboats.
With the exception of those at one or two places, our
boatmen and fishermen, be it said to their great credit, are
ever ready in cases of emergency to man-the lifeboats of the
institution. It is true that the lifeboats are the first of
their class, that their crews have the utmost confidence in
their qualities, and that, in addition to the inexpressible
satisfaction of aiding to save a fellow-creature from a pre-
mature death, the crews are new certain of a stipulated
amount for their laudable services. Their pecuniary rewards
for such services consist of 108 to each man comprising the
lifeboat's crew for day service, and 20s per man for night
daty, those rewards being totally irrespective of the num-
ber of lives saved as you supposed.
Indeed, it occasionally happens that the lifeboat puts off
sometimes during a midnight storm to a vessel which was
showing signals of distress. By the time the lifeboat has
arrived at the spot the vessel has got out of danger. The
lifeboat's crew are, of course, paid precisely the same as if
their boat had returned freighted with a shipwrecked crow.
In the report of the meeting of this institution in the news-
papers of this day it will be seen that the crew of the Teign-
mouth lifeboat received £l3 for saving one man. On the
recommendation of the local committee the lifeboat crews
are paid double the amount of the usual scale if they incur
extraordinary risk or exposure, either in saving or attempt-
ing to save life ; and in the event of a fatal accident occur-
ring to a lifeboatman it has been the practice for the insti-
tution immediately to undertake to make temporary provi-
sion for his widow or those dependent on him. As soon as
the return of the service is received at the institution a chock
to pay the men is usually sent off by that night's pest.
Altogether the system of manning the society's lifeboats
has hitherto worked admirably on the coast, the men
thoroughly understanding the nature of their implied con-
tract with the institution.

Last year the boat aware manned on all by about 6,000
men, and providentially not a life was lost from them.

Wherever a lifeboat has been established the object of the
National Lifeboat Institution is by means of the quarterly
exercise of the boat, to accustom the ablest boatmen or
fishermen of the place to its use in cases of shipwreck.
These are all volunteers, for it would be absolutely imprac-
ticable to keep throughout the yegr so large a body of men
in the permanent pay of any charitable institution, in addi-
tion to the fact that in the event of any member of a puma-
nc;nt paid crew on an emergency being absent from illness,

or any other cause, it would perhaps be difficult to supply
his place.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
RICHARD LEWIS, Secretary, Royal National
Lifeboat Institution.
14, John-street, Adelphi, W.C., Nov. 5.