The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-28 00:00:00

Rewards to Lifeboats' Crews.

With " revolving years" the seasons of storm
again and again occur, and each season brings more
and more prominently into view "the lifeboat and
its work," whilst each seems to demand for that
work a greater and greater amount of public sym-
pathy and support. All honour to those brave
fellows who imperil their lives in its performance !

All honour to those whose philanthropy and libe

rality provide them with the means and the en-
couragement that enable them to execute this good

work !

That the bold spirit of our hardy seacoast men
will always be ready to undertake their share of this
noblo service, and that the warm blood of English
men and women will ever stir their hearts to aid
and encourage those generous men, are now settled
points. As, however, the proudest and strongest
barque may drift into danger if not controlled and
navigated with consummate skill, so the best and
bravest of human undertakings may fail to success-
fully effect its aim unless guided with judgment
and care, as well as directed with energy and zeal.
We, therefore, in these few remarks on the treat-
ment of our lifeboat men, propose to indicate two
dangers which " lie ahead," or rather, to use per-
haps a more correct metaphor, which bound on
either side the channel through which our noble
barque must steer.
The one of these dangers is palpable enough,
but the other, lying beneath the surface, like the
sunken rock, calls all the more for the watchful
pilot's care. Each danger is of a double kind ; but,
emerging from our metaphor, wo will at once
plainly state the actual dangers to which we
allude. They have aoie reference to the degrees of
pecuniary rinnuneration, and of the credit or blame
that. Are bestowed on the crews of lifeboats, in re-
turn for the important services which, frequently at
imminent risk to their own lives, they perform in
the interest of their fellow-creatures.
Now, at first thought, it may not unnaturally be
felt that the danger can only here lie on one side,
and that it would be impossible to over-estimate or
over-remunerate such services ; for what higher
act can a man perform than to risk his life to save
that of another ? It is, however, precisely because
we estimate at their highest value the splendid, the
heroic services of many of our lifeboats' crews, that
we desire to eliminate from them, so far as possible,
the dross of mercenary motive, and to hold forth
to the men, as far possible, the pure unalloyed
gold of disinterestedness and self-devotion, that we
include amongst the dangers to be avoided the
bestowal of an indiscriminate or exaggerated amount
of award, either of a pecuniary or laudatory nature.
The subject, however, requires delicate handling.
We will first consider the question of pecuniary
payments. Before the National Lifeboat Institu-
tion seriously undertook the work of surrounding
theintecnodai
ns tgs
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ioru
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la
nwaigthlifeboats,
m en titw annd sup
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com-
mon complaint
met
with amongstno
encouragement
the o
froma seacoast boatmen,other c
1 atshs ae
st
to induce them to risk their lives in endeavouring
to save those of shipwrecked sailors. A uniform
scale of payment was, however, then established by
the institution for its lifeboats' crews, viz., 10s. per
man for each occasion of proceedingdtoilh theeaeb
aid ofy
a wrecked crew in the daytime, an
night; double or even four-fold payments being
given for extraordinary services.
Without wishing these payments to be looked on
as equivalents to serious risk of life, itwas considered,
due regard being had to the safe qualities of the life-
boats, that they were sufficient to act as an encou-
ragement without being enough to establish a mer-
cenary motive, in lieu of the more honourable and
more noble one of a desire to save the life of a fel-

low-creature.
As a general rule, therefore, we consider that this