The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-29 00:00:00

[HE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 29, 1858.

LATEST NEWS

INDIA.

The following message has been received at the
East India House :

EAST INDIA HOUSE, TUESDAY,
SEPT. 28, 3.10 P.M.
Supplement to Mr. Secretary Edmonstonc's mes-

sage, dated August 26,1858.
OUDE.

On the 26th of August Sir Hope Grant sent a
force across the Goomtec at Sultanpore, and occu-
pied three villages in his front.
Benares Division—Capt. Mac Mullen, with his
Sikhs, fell in with rebels at a village near Reatiela
Ghazee, Pocken district, on the 23d of August,
drove them out, killing and wounding 60.
Allahabad. Division.—Captain Dennehoy, with
detachment of regulars and a party of military
police, came up with IVunjab Sing, of Rewa, at
Bearroh, on the 28th of August, and' killed about
200 of his men.:

WRECK STATISTICS OF THE UNITED

KLYGDOM FOR 1857.

The extensive and increasing commerce of the
United Kingdomr enders, unfortunately, shipwrecks
on its shores a -.natter of daily occurrence. Indeed,
their frequer_ey is so great that, in the aggregate,
the public .at large fail to realise the terrible con-
sequences arising from them ; but they are, never-
theless keenly felt in many a __home and counting-
house throughout these realms. As it is, the sad
tale of disaster at sea comes to us too often weak-
ened by the lapse of time and the distance of the
scene of the catastrophe ; instead of having thz
harrowing siaght of a shipwreck before our eyes,
we have only dry statistics, which raise no emotion,
and even rarely arrest attention.
The Liaterials from which the important Wreck
Regi'Aer of the Board of Trade is compiled are de-
rived from returns furnished by the officers of the
Coastguard service and the receivers of wrecks
stationed on the coasts of the United Kingdom.
After having been analysed and tabulated by the
Board. of Trade they arc printed, accompanied by a
Wreck Chart, and presented annually to Parlia-
ment. The register for the past year is a very com-
plete one, and reflects credit on its compilers, who
have evidently devoted much time to its excellent
arrangements. Among other information which it
contains are tables descriptive of the means adopted
for saving life on the coasts, and containing lists of
the stations supplied with the mortar and rocket
apparatus. _ _

Compared with previous periods the register in-
forms us that the wreck experience of the past year
is favourable ; yet if we analyse it carefully we
shall find that, without reckoning collisions, there
were no fewer than 384 vessels, or more than one
a day, totally lost on or near these islands last
year. The whole of the wrecks and casualties for
the year 18.57 may be thus classed:— _

-
Vessels.
Totally wrecked 384
Totally lost in collision 53
Seriously damaged 482
Damaged seriously by collisions

• Total 1,143
The number of disasters for one year th
rate of more than three per diem.
The number of wrecks in each molten of the yel
1857 is thus given :

Vessels.
January 2Bl
February
March
April
May
June . 34
July

,Rels.
Brought fonstard VAS
687
August ......,
September ... 66
October
November • .... 94
December
s B6

Tote L 0.4• 1,143

By these casualties 2,200 of our fe'
si
;AM-creatures
were placed in imminent peril of long their lives,
and 532 of them actually found a watery grave,
many of whom, it is believed, 'nigh 1.; have been saved
had the National Lifeboat Institut'
ion had the means
of placing additional lifeboats o'
the coasts. Be-
sides there can be no doubt that
the number of 532
persons drowned does not cor icctly represent the
actual loss of life during the
,inst year from casual-
ties on and around our coasf
of fishermen and other bo- asmuch as the loss
itmea is not included in
the Board of Trade retriis.
the sites of the shipwrecks
If we examine closelyy L---
we shall find that :no less than 600, or more than
one-half of the Whole Number (0 wrecks, occurred
between Dungeness and Pentland Frith. Along
this perilous 'ea, beset with sands, shoals, and
rocky
heLY:llands, no less the in 150,000 vessels,
manned 'probably by half-a-mill ion of men and boys,
pass arinually, a great part of them being ill-con-
strutted, deeply-laden-colliers, and the wonder is,
how they manage to survive a gale of wind. A
remarkable and sad case of this description occurred
only a few months ago an the Norfolk coast. Sud-
denly a gale of wind sprang up where one of these
rotten colliers was ricling ; she mttde a signal of dis-
tress; the National, Lifeboat Society's lifeboat was as
soon as.possible brought out of theiboat-house, but
before the boat was launched the ship had gone to
pieces, and every one of her r.nhappy crew had
perished. On examination of the vessel's timbers
they were found to be perfeeth rotten; otherwise,
it was said, she might easily have weathered out
the moderate gale of wind that /proved her destruc-
tion. A somewhat similar case occurred off Brid-
lington the year before last, when four or five poor
fellows perished—so rotten was the vessel that her
anchors pulled out her bows, 'consequently causing
her instantly to sink.
Again, the south coast, eYttending from Dunge-
ness to the Land's-end, is comparatively safe, only
84 wrecks having occurred, in 1857 ; while from
the Land's-end to Greenock,, where the influence of
the Atlantic gales and currents is most severely
felt, the numbers rise age.in to 286 ; and the Irish
coast contributes a total 0f'173 wrecks.
Uwe take a retrospective glance at the shipwrecks
which have occurred en our coasts during the past
five years, we shall find, that no less than 5,128
wrecks and collisions took place, being an average
of 1,025 a year—that the loss of life thereupon
amounted to 830 a year—and that the destruction
of property averaged a million and a half sterling
per annum. It is not an uncommon occurrence for
a single gale te strew our coasts with wrecks. In
the gale of the 25th Sept. 1851, as many as 117
vessels were w)recked, and for each of the earlier
months of the present year the returns of the Board
of Trade show that there has been from four to five
casualties a da3-.
These facts are sufficient to prove the appalling
loss of life and property, and the absolute necessity
that exists for the construction of harbours of re-
fuge, and for renewed exertions in the establish-
ment of additional lifeboats on some points of our
coasts.
As we have often stated before, wrecks will occur
notwithstanding all the precautions, experience,
and vigilance that may be exercised to prevent
them, but there can be no doubt that a very large
proportion of the casualties which happen must be
attributed to neglect and carelessness on the part of
those to whose special charge the vessels are com-
mitted, e- well as of those who send them to sea
ill-found and unseaworthy. It is a notorious fact
too many of those vessels have not a single appli-
ance, such as a lifcbelt or lifebuoy, to save life in
ease of an emergency. Besides, the masters of
colliers and coasters scarcely ever think of laying
down courses, or using the lead, or consulting
charts. Their motto is, as the register tells us,
" Follow the leader," until they get on a shoal or
sandbank, and thereby add to the number of wrecks
caused by negligence or inattention.
These remarks are funs- corroborated in the fol
lowing table, showing the nature and cargoes o
the vessels lost last year :

ls.
In ballast, not colliers.V.esse 138
Coal-laden
Colliers in ballast
Cotton
Fishing smacks
Fish or oil 2O
Grain and provisions
General cargo B5
An analysis of the tonr
thus given :
Vesseli tinder 50 tons.... 172 601 and under 900 tons .. 43
51 and under 100 tons.... 321 901 1,200 tons
101 „ 300 tons.... 473 1,200 tons"and upwards.... 13
1191 „ 600 tons.... 114
The site of each wreck can be easily traced on the
wreck chart. Let the reader pause for a moment,
and look again at this grim -wreck chart, and con-
sider what an amount of misery it unfolds. Let
him then-inquire whether or not it be in his power
to assist in mitigating the necessary evils resulting
from these sad calamities, causing as they do the
desolation of many a home, and many a wife to be-
come a widow and her children orphans. These in-
nocent sufferers from shipwrecks arc already too
numerous in our coasting towns and fishing
villages.
The following is a list of the principal sandbanks
on which wrecks have occurred during. the past
year :—Abertay, 2 ; Arklow-bank, 2 ; Barber, 2 ;
Blyth-sand, 1; Brake, 2 ; Burbo•bank, 1 • Cardiff-
sands, 1 ; Corton, 2 • Dogger-bank, 1 ; Dudgeon, 5;
Galloper, 4 ; Goodwin, 18 ; Gunfleet, 5 ; Has-
borough, 4 ; Head, 10 ; Holm, 10 ; Kentish nock,
3 ; Kish-bank, 1 ; Long, 18 ; Long Scar, 3 ; Maplin,
3 ; Middleton, 8';
Nash, 3 ; Newcombe, 2 ; Owers,
2 ; Scroby, 8 •
Sonk, 3; Shipwash, 5; Swin, 1 ;
Tetney, 1 ; Whitburn Steel, 1; Whiting, 1; Wool-
pack, 1.

Vessels.
Iron and other ores BB
Manure and kelp l5
Passengers 2l
Potatoes or fruit
Salt
Sugar, coffee, spices, tea,
molasses
Stone,slate,lime, or bricks 50
lage of these disaster—s is

Twenty-nine
vessels are recorded to have been
utterly lost last year. from unseaworthiness ; and
many others were lost from rottenness, imperfect
gear, carelessness, defective compasses or charts.
There are many
prolific causes of shipwreck, in•
dependent of storms, rocks, and sandbanks ; and
among the most glaring are—inconsiderate marine

vessels, found in anchors, cables, sails, defective
unseawortiiiness, the overloading of
insurances,
compasses, want of good charts, and incom-
petency of masters. If we analyse the cases. of col-
lision that occurred last year we shall find that by
far the larger portion of them occurred in the open
sea, and in clear bright water. Out of 277 colli-
sions, involving total and partial loss, bad look-
out was the cause of 61, and neglect of the rule of
the road of 33 collisions. Simple and easy of per-
formance as the casting of 'the lead is, it is almost
invariably found, when the causes of the wreck are
inquired into, that this precaution ha's been
neglected.
Sir S. Lushington, judge of the Court of Ad-
miralty :—t,
It is not of British vessels we speak
every day, but our ports, especially the port of
Liverpool, are so thronged with vessels from every
part of the world, and especially from the United
States of America, that Ispeak the truth when I
say that within the_ last two months of my time

one half has been engaged upon foreign vessels.
From the very mouth of the Mersey down to the
coast of Ireland, I regret to say, Iva have had some
of the most unfortunate collisions and the greatest
loss of life."

Still, it is satisfactory to find that collisions do
diminish, and that as compared with last year a
diminution of their number to the extent of 39 has
taken place. Moreover, 662 of the wrecks, apart
from collisions, that took place last year arose en-
tirely from stress of
,weather, and not from the
fault of any parties.
A most gratifying feature, however, is to be found
in the Register—viz., the large number of lives
saved from shipwreck by lifeboats and other mear
during the past year, which is given as follows :
By the lifeboats of the National Lifeboat Institution
and local bodies
By luggers, Coastguard-boats, and small craft
By ships and steamboats
By assistance from shore with mortar and
apparatus, ropes, &c.
By individual exertion

.ocket

243
8

Total

Although this number were en+ A 1,668
wrecks, yet it must be borne i- Jrely saved from
persons were in addition placed mind that 2,206
large proportion of whom v in actual danger, a
perished but for succour of sr iould probably have
great many instances, such .tee kind or other. In a
and founderings far at se as in cases of collisions
been due to the ships'_( a, escape has, of course,
fishing vessels and of Avn boats or to the many
.Y ml
crafts which are, fortu-
nately, constantly pl-
pill about • but 398 persons
during the, past
the
s actually' owe their lives
to the lifeboafeA of
4 e Royal National Lifeboat In-
stitution,
.0 those of local bodies. The life-
' boat, as ic•
well known, is chiefly used on
perilous
craft, emergencies, and when no other
blink can be made available. A lifeboat esta-
" anent is not, like a harbour of refuge on a
-6 agerous point, a matter of great expense; it
I easily surmounted, and its permanent efficacy
equally as practicable. We have no doubt in future
years, if the excellent system of management
adopted by the National Lifeboat Society be ad-
hered to—and a lifeboat soon becomes more than
useless if she is not well attended—that the ser-
-vices of its lifeboats will prove still more effective.
The pecuniary means to increase the number of
lifeboats is now really the only important point for
consideration. If there be any nation in the world
which should be honourably distinguished above
others for its appliances to save life in, cases of ship-
wrecks, England is emphatically thi it one. It is
the sea that has made us what we tai e, and which
has borne our countrymen to all parts of the world.
It is our naval preponderance whicli has raised us
to our present great position among; the nations of
the earth. It is upon the prowestt, and skill, and
adventure of our seamen that the fi 'brie of British
power at the present moment resins. One might
suppose, then, that all persons who could afford it
would only be too ready to lend a :helping hand to
an institution of the character of tin 3 National Life-
boat Society, whose annual income is out of all pro-
portion to its extensive sphere of ~ usefulness. We
therefore again appeal to the community at large
to help a society which has charged itself with this
great national work, and which has zealously and
satisfactorily endeavoured to discharge, its onerous
duties in the cause of Suffering humanity.