The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-12 00:00:00

MARKETS.

LIVERPOOL GIRTON MARKET, UTURI)AY. Opening
report.—lmport, as per bill of entry, 121 bales. There is an
smpression here that mediation by the neutral-Powers promises
eventual peace. There is less disposition to force sales of
cotton. Prices are steadier, though the sales will probably not
exceed 8,000 bales.
READING CORN MARKET, SATURDAY. —There was a much
larger attendance at this market this morning. The supply of
wheat was short, and trade ruled very dull, at barely the rates
of last week. Considering the wet weather of last week the
condition was fair. Barley, for which the demand just now is
on the increase, maintained last week's rates, but oats were a
little cheaper. Beans and peas remain unaltered.

GLOUCESTER CORN MARKET, SATURDAY.—There is a
smaller supply of English wheat on offer at this market to-day
than of late, and it sold at a reduction of is. per qr. Foreign
depressed, and 2d. lower. Oats, beaus, barley, and maize are
very dull.

LEITH CORN MARKET, SATURDAY.—At this market to-day
wheat was ls. to 2s, per qr. lower.—Flour was ls. per sack
cheaper. Barley was dull. Oats were ls. per qr. lower. Peas
and beans had a slow sale. The arrivals for the week amount
to 7,753 qrs. of wheat, 1,615 gra. of barley, 57 qrs. of oats, 16 qrs.
of beans, 47 qrs, of peas, 5,600 qzs. of Indian corn, and 1,350
sacks of flour.

KIRKCALDY CORN MARKET. SATIIRIVX.—At tills market
to-day there were moderate supplies of all kinds of grain, and
the demand was fair. Wheat was about 4s. under last week's
quotation, bringing from 445. to 60s. Oats brought from 18s. to
275., being also 3s. in decline. Barley fetched an advance of 4s.
per qr. over last week, namely, from 31s. to 375. per pr.
METROPOLITAN MEAT MARKET, SATURDAY.—The supply
has been moderate. The trade has been quiet. Prices as fol-
lows :—Beef from Ss. 4d. to ss. Od.; mutton, Bs. Bd. to ss. 2d. ;
veal, 4s. 0c). to 6s. Od. ; and pork. Ss. Bd. to 4s. Bcl. per 81b. by
the carcase.

METROPOLITAN HIDE AND SKIN HARKEN, SATURDAY.
—Market hides: 561bs. to 641b5., aid to aid. ; 641bs. to 721b5.,
nd. to 31d. ; 721ba. to 801bs., nd. to 4d. ; 801bs. to 881bs., 4d. to
4id. ; 881bs. to 901b5., 41d. to 41d ; 961bs. to 1041b5., 40. to 41d.
Horse hides, 10s. Od. to 12s. Od. : calf skins—light, 2.3. to 45.,
full, 7s. 6d. ; lambs, 2s. 3d. to 3s. 3d. : shearlings, 2s, 2d. to
3s. 2d.
CLYDE CRUSHED SUGAR MARKET. SATURDAY. —This
market closes With an excellent demand. Prices are slow.
Little change for the week.

WRECKS ON THE CORNISH COAST..

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,— The grandeur of a gale of wind is nowhere on
the British Isles to be seen in greater magnificence than on
the'rock bound coast of Cornwall, and I feel sure that no
heavier seas roll on that coast than between Hartland
Point and the little town of Bude.

Here I have often watched the long, impetuous swell
of the great Atlantic waves, as they fling themselves
on this rugged coast, breaking into seething foam, and
waking up a wild roar of a tempest full of majesty and
strength. . .

When to the tumult of the elements is added to the
struggle of some distressed ship, with her anxious crew,
in the very jaws of death, striving for life, the excitement
of the people, far and near, becomes indeed truly
agonising, and piercing is the prayer " God save the
Sailor," and ris less invoking is the ery "God speed the
Lifeboat."

At Bude, like happily now at many other places, is a
noble lifeboat This boat at Bude was presented in me-
mory of the late Mrs. Elizabeth Moore Garden by her
surviving and affectiontte children ; and a suitable stone
tablet recording this philanthropic gift to the National
Lifeboat Institution is placed above the door of -the
Lifeboat House. •

During the short period that I have been sojourning at
Bude I have succeeded in collecting some records of
several of the shipwrecks that hsve occurred of late years
on this bar, and of the noble deeds performed in saving,
or in attempting to save, the lives of their crews.
In the midst of the terrible and bloody war now raging
on the plains of France, and remembering that the storms
of winter will soon be upon us, I have thought that per-
haps you would insert in the Sun a brief narrative of some
of the fearful shipwrecks that have taken place in Buds
Bay, with the view of exciting increased interest in the
Lifeboat work.

One of these wrecks was witnessed by Dr. Acland, of
Oxford, and he states that while standing on the break-
water, with the waves dashing heavily on the rocks, he
saw the lifeboat of the National Lifeboat Institution, suc-
cessfully exercising her powers against the upright walls
of water. The crowd that had watched her were dispers-
ing, when a small schoondr and a sloop in the offing
chewed signs of approach. The danger signal
was hoisted. The wind off shore made entrance
in such a sea impossible. "By Heaven 1" said the
harbour master, " the sloop is coming in, in an hour
Captain Brown will be drowned." Inside the breakers
lay the " Hobbler's " boat, unable to approach. In creeps
the sloop till her sails shake in the wind. She drives now
slowly to the northwards, and we just see her rise on the
surf, then heel over, then fall on her broadside under the
opposite cliff. Roller after roller tumbles in heavily ;
now she rises, and then dashes down into the foam.
We, who have watched with pride the lifeboat, felt'a sore
aching as we saw the little sixty-ton sloop doomed.
The two sturdy fellows, who for an honest
but painful livelihood unceasingly navigate these rude
seas in their rickety craft, seem to deserve another fate.
The lifeboat cannot approach the reef. " A rocket might
save them." It is a mile round the bay to the opposite,
cliff. A cart is soon at the station house ; therockets and
their apparatus are put in ; the crowd follow as a fire
engine is followed. We reach the cliff. It is now dark.
From the surf, in the recoil of the wave beneath the cliff,
here some 70 feet high, Brown cheerily answers, "A y,
ay," and is then submerged uncles the next breaker.
Will she hold an hour as she crunches against the
rocks ? We lie down or strain over the rickety
edge. " Keep back," say the knowing ones, " lest the
cliff give way." Away Wes the rocket, lighting up the
cauldron below. The captain and his mate are clinging
to the masthead. " Have you the line ? " is shouted
cheerily ; but yet more faint " Ay, ay " reaches our
straining ears. The block is fixed. The' hawser is hauled
out, a few more anxious moments, and Brown is lifted
over the cliff. We feed—for we cannot see—the dripping,
battered, cheery little fellow, who, after shaking like an
old Newfoundland div, rushes to the cliff edge
to help in hauling up his mate, Joe, of
Clovelly. The excited crowd gives half-choking
hurrahs and retires inland. Scarce one hour from
the ill-fated entry to the sloop has completed all. In the
morning, at daylight, most of us return to see, washing
away by the incoming tide, the shivered timbers of the
luckless sloop. Brown, the industrious and ruined sea-
man, is there, too, and takes a last look at all his hard-
earned saving; his life only spared, he must begin all again.
Again, on a dark and stormy November day, the smack
Mary Elizabeth, of Padstow, was observed to be fast drift-
ing towards the rocky shore, west of Bude ; she was die-
masted and unmanageable. A high surf was setting into
the entrance of Bude at the time, but the lifeboat was
quickly launched, and rowed out through the high and
dangerous breakers. After an hour's hard pull, the life-
boat reached the vessel, and took off her crew of three
men, landing them through a very high surf in Wide-
mouth bay. The unfortunate smack shortly after was
dashed ashore on the rocks, and was almost immediately
in fragments. The lifeboat behaved admirably on the
occasion, and from that time to this her crew declare that
there is not a finer boat in the world.

On another occasion a large ship withoub masts, which
afterwards proved to be the Conflict, an old sloop of
war, of 2,000 tons, bound from Plymouth to Bristol,
in ballast, to be broken up, was observed in tow of a
steam tug of Bude. The wind was blowing a heavy gale
from the N.W. at the same time, and the tug having
hoisted a signal for assistance, the Bude lifeboat was
launched through a very heavy surf, and proceeded to
their aid. On arriving alongside, the gale having some-
what moderated, it was decided that the owner, who was
on board, should alone proceed to the shore in the
lifeboat, in order to proceed to Bideford, and telegraph
for the assistance of another steamer. This
was done, the owner landing safely at Budehaven
and the ship having been brought to an anchor, the tug
was enabled to leave her at high water, and run into the
harbour for a further supply of coal, and on the following
morning she again took the Conflict in tow, and proceeded
with her to Bristol.

During a fearful gale of wind, at another period, a largo
ship, dismasted, was observed at the north of Shark's
Nose, supposed to be about ten miles distant. A
heavy ground sea, consequent on the late gales,
was breaking along the coast, and it was anxi-
ously considered whether the lifeboat of the
institution stationed at Bude should make an attempt to
reach the dismasted vessel. Some, practically acquainted
with the terrible force of the sea on this coast, expressed
their doubts of any boat living through the successive
lines of breakers However, it was ultimately determined
to make the attempt, and a crew cheerfully volunteered,
accompanied by Capt J. It Ward, R.N., the Inspector
of Lifeboats to the Society, who took command of the
boat for the occasion. Hopefully the crew pulled along
the harbour to the reef of rocks in a line with the
point of the breakwater, and then a bold and
gallant struggle commenced ; wave after wave was
surmounted, each of more force than the p:ze-
lions ene, every wave driving the boat somewhat
shorewards : but the crew, with firm determination,
strove boldly.. to adranee. The breakers seemed at this
time to roll in with increased force, and the many faces
on the shore shewed anxiety for the issue. Gallantly, but
slowly, the good boat went on, until she was caught by
a huge wave just as it was toppling over. The boat and
her crew were browed by the breaking wave. For
a moment command was lost on her. Another
wave advanced, broke into the boat over her quarters,
smashed four oars on the port side, and knocked two
of the crew overboard ; one was immediately rescued,
but the other got entangled among some ropes, and was
saved with difficulty. As the heaviest seas had not been
encountered, and two of the crew had received severe
blows, it seemed hopeless to make a further attempt ;
and it was with a great sense of relief that those on shore
saw the boat returning. Everyone felt that the
crew had lane all that could be expected
of them, and that a further attempt to pass
the frightful line of breakero, with rocks everywhere to
leeward, except across the narrow entrance to theharbour,
could not be justified. The vessel proved to be the ship
Margaret Quayle, of Liverpool, and she successfully rode
out the gale.
I am afraid of occupying your space with further de-
tails equally interesting and thrillng; but I must add the
gratifying fact that the services of the Lifeboats of the
National Lifeboat Institution on other parts of our
dangerous coast are not less successful and numerous.
It has pow a noble life-saving fleet of 226 boats under
its char_ e, and they contribute every year to the
saving of hundreds of lives which, in the absence of these
boats of mercy would in all human probably inevitably
perish. Moreover, too much credit cannot be given to
the noble watchers of the tempest, the crews of our life-
boats, whose path of duty is a path full of danger and
anxiety, and who, to save others, will sometimes even
'are a? die themselves. —I have the honour to be, sir,
Your faithful servant,
• RICHAtID LEWIS.
. .
Lifebdat Station, Bude, Cornwall, 9th Sept., 1870.,.