The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-08 00:00:00

PRESERVATION OF LIFE FROM SEIPWREOK.

Yesterday a meeting of the general committee of the
Royal National Institution for the preservation of Life
from Shipwreck, was held at the offices, John-street,
Adelphi. The Duke of Northumberland, K.G., Presi-
dent, in the chair. We also observed present Mr.
Alderman Thompson, M.P., chairman ; Admiral Sir
Thomas Herbert, M.P. ; Colonel Blanchard, R.E.,
C.B. ; Thomas Chapman, Esq., deputy chairman ; Cap-
tain Dames ; Captain Ellerby, R.N. ; Capt. H. W.
Hall, R.N. ; Captain Halsted, R.N. ; Edward Hurry,
Esq. ; Captain M'Hardy, R.N. ; Major Palmer ; Cap.
taro Lambert Perrott ; Captain Washington, R.N.; and
Captain Ward, R,N., the inspector of life boats.
Mr. LEWIS, the Secretary, having read the minutes
of the previous meeting, the Silver Medal of the In-
stitution was voted to Mr. Robert Sands, a black
man, master of the wrecking schooner, "Oracle," in
consideration of his noble exertions in saving,
under Divine Providence, 160 lives from the emi-
grant ship, William and Mary, of Bath, bound
from Liverpool to New Orleans, which was wrecked
on the 2nd May last, off the Bahama Islands. It ap-
pears that these islands are surrounded by extensive coral
reefs, situated at the mouth of the Gulf Stream, and are,
during the winter months, the dread of mariners bound
to and from New Orleans—no less than three emigrant
vessels having been wrecked there during the past win-
ter. The ship, William and Mary, having been ob-
served by Sands to strike on one of these reefss, he im-
mediately bore down to her assistance, and found the
poor emigrants using all their might to keep her afloat,
and discovered that they had been cruelly deserted by
the Captain and all the sailors, with the exception of two
men, and who, to add to the horror and consternation
of the unhappy people, had taken with them all the
ship's boats. Seeing the ship rapidly sinking, Sands and
his brave crew, who were like him, black men, without
loss of time set to work at the pumps, while a portion oi
the women and children were being embarked on board
his own schooner. This having been done, he placed
his vessel under the charge of his brother, giving direc-
tions to take her to the nearest land. Sands still re-
mained on board the sinking ship, his brother having
just returned in time, in company with another vessel,
to take off the remainder. Being unable any longer
to keep the ship afloat by means of the pumps, she
went down head foremost before them all, two men
narrowly escaping with their lives by jumping
into the schooner's boat. Had not Sands gallantly
gone off in the first instance, without having the
least knowledge of the inhuman conduct of the
captain and his crew, 160 poor creatures must inevit-
ably have perished. Sands' heroic conduct was brought
under the notice of the institution by Major D'Arcy,
commandant of the troops on the islands; and as it ap-
pears that the operations of the society are limited to
the coasts of the United Kingdom, an exception in this
instance was made in favour of Sands, who not only
deserves the warm approbation of the humane, but also
a suitable acknowledgment from the British and Ameri-
can Governments.

The silver medal of the institution was also voted to
John Storr, a fisherman at Whitby, in appreciation of
his frequent exertions, when able, to save life from
wrecks. Story and his family were proverbial for their
intrepidity. Some time since, when a sloop was seen
on Whitby bar to be in circumstances of danger, Storr,
undeterred by the sacrifice of a brother who had perished
in going off to a wreck, immediately put off in an open
boat to the assistance of her distressed crew. Sucb,
however, was the violence of the storm, that he was
dashed out of his boat, and had his leg severely fractured
in two places, and narrowly escaped a watery grave.
Several life-boats were reported to have been sent to
their stations during the past month, but we regretted
to observe that, in order to pay for them, a considerable
portion of the small funded property of the institution
was again ordered to be sold. The proceedings then
closed.

ACCIDENTS.—In the course of a few hours, on Tues-
day last, the sth instant, there was no less than five
cases of accident taken to St. Mary's Hospital,
Paddington. Between four and five o'clock, a man
named John Gait, a smith on the Great Western Rail-
way, while looking at the entrance of the royal train
into the station, on her Majesty's return from Virginia
Water, was knocked down by another train, which went
over both his legs. On being taken to the hospital it
was found that he had suffered a compound comminuted
fracture of the right leg, beside other injuries. The
leg was amputated the same evening.--A man named
Edward M‘George, who, while wrestling with another in
a drunken squabble at Kenton-park, near Harrow, fell,
and dislocated the ankle and fractured the fibula of his
left leg, was also taken to that hospital.—Shortly after-
wards a child was taken there, who, while swinging
from the shafts of a heavy stone cart, pulled them down
upon himself, and sustained severe contusions of the
chest and abdomen in consequence.—Subsequently, a
woman named Harriet Watts was removed to the same
hospital from the police-station, where she had been
taken in a state of inebriety. From her own account,
she had been pushed down, and it was found that she
had sustained a fracture of both bones of her left leg.—
Half an hour afterwards, the police took to that hospital
a woman between 50 and 60 years of age, who had
slipped down and fractured part of her left thigh. In
addition to the above, cases of minor accidents were
treated, and some urgent medical cases admitted under
the care of the phykicianfj,