The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-29 00:00:00

humane and generous intentions. Having said
thus much, it is almost unnecessary to add, that
allusion is here made to no other than the National

Life-boat Institution. Honour to that benignant

society ! Prosperity attend it ! May its friends
multiply, and its energies increase—until the perils
of shipwreck along the rock-bound coasts of the
British islands be reduced to an almost infinitesimal
consideration in the prosecution of the mercantile
enterprise of the most maritime among all the
world's great trading populations.
A cursory glance at " The Wreck Register and
Chart for 1858," reprinted in our columns as re-

cently as the evening before last from those of the
little Journal of the Life-boat Institution a

glance the most cursory at this encouraging though
still lamentable Chart and Register will be suffi-
cient to assure any one that about the aptest motto
that could well be chosen for this particular associ-
ation would be that familiar line of SHAKSPERE'S—

" Mum{ has been done, but MORE remains to do !"
It is something, surely, to begin with, to know
,hat already there are nearly 150 life-boats—to be

precise, exactly 149 life-boats—along our coasts :

eighty-two of which are under the management of
the Institution, and sixty-seven under that of local
authorities. But then, in the midst of our exulta-
tion at this fact—it is felt, after all, to be but a very
slight and inadequate provision for the perils to
be encountered any day or night out of the 365
in each succeeding twelvemonth, bearing in mind
the length and the involutions of our dangerous
and chequered coast-line. Again, it is wonder-
fully satisfactory and inspiriting to find, upon a
survey of the doings of the Association and its
collaborateurs, during one single year, the year,
for example, last passed, it is exhilarating to
find that during 1858 alone—as many as
1,555 lives were rescued by life-boats, by other
boats, by ships, and by the rocket and mortar ap-
paratus ! Yet—during that same year of our LORD,
1858, there were no less than 1,895 lives actually
imperilled by shipwreck along the coasts of the
United Kingdom, so that no fewer than 340 persons
were lost in that single twelvemonth, in spite of all
these humane efforts for their preservation.

During the last seven years, in fact—including
among them the year just specified—the average
number of lives lost by shipwreck immediately off
our own coasts, amounts, according to ascertained
and reliable statistics, to an aggregate very little
short of eight hundred ! According to the
" Wreck Register" the average is placed at
745, by what appears to us a very moderate com-
putation. A tabular statement, given a little later
on in the report, places the total of wrecks during
those seven years at 7,441, and the total of human
lives lost through the same casualties at 5,020.
Upwards of seven thousand vessels wrecked, up-
wards of five thousand lives lost during seven
years upon our own seas and along our own coasts !
According to which we have an average of more
than 1,000 wrecks a-year—and of nearly 800 lives
lost, as before intimated !
Besides the 149 life-boats, there are, it may be
observed, 216 mortar and rocket stations provided
at the several localities along the coast with all
the necessary apparatus. And the importance and
value of these provisions for the salvation, if pos-
sible, of the extraordinary number of lives annually
imperilled by shipwreck may be the most readily
estimated by a casual glance at the man-
ner in which the 1,555 individuals before particu-
larised were snatched from destruction. It will
be seen, then, that out of that aggregate of 1,555
—there were 26 who were saved by personal exer-
tions of a meritorious character—two hundred and
six were saved by " Life-boats"—two hundred and
ten were saved from shore by ropes, " rockets and
mortar apparatus"-394 were saved by ships and
steam-vessels—and 719 by small craft, ships' boats,
coastguard boats, and luggers. In regard to the
apparent disproportion between the results of the
services performed by life-boats, for example, and
those accomplished by ordinary boats and
luggers, it should be especially borne in mind
that the life-boats reserve themselves for the
most boisterous weather, when no other boat
could well " live " in the rolling surge five
minutes, leaving the ordinary boats, in facti for all
the efforts required under ordinary circumstances.
Hence the 719 saved by luggers, &c., bear no pro-
portion whatever in the perils encountered and
vanquished to those represented by the 206 saved
by means of those glorious little floating harbingers
of mercy, the life-boats. It was stated in the
report quoted by us the other evening that " the
life-boats of the National Life-boat Institution were
manned last year by about 3,000 persons on occa-
sions of service and exercise." And it was imme-
diately thereupon added —" They were often afloat
during the heaviest gales and in the darkest nights;
and it is satisfactory to be able to report that not a
single life was lost from them on those occasions.
This happy circumstance," continues the report,
" is principally, no doubt, attributable to the safety
of the boats themselves ; but this immunity from
fatal results has been owing in some instances to
the excellent cork life-belts, one of which each man
forming the boat's crew is required, by the rules of
the society, to put on before he is allowed to step
into her." Why should not similar precautions be
incumbent upon other seagoers than life-boatmen ?
Why should not shipowners be compelled to supply
each person afloat in their employ with a cork life-
belt as an essential part of the seafarer's kit—and
the one especial part of that kit to be supplied by
the employer? Why should not the seaworthiness
of every vessel be ascertained and proved before its
being allowed to quit port—the completeness, fit-
ness, strength, and general efficiency of anchoring
gear, sails, and rigging being also at the same time
fully proven and clearly ascertained? Similar
queries might apply not unreasonably to three other
all-important and sufficiently obvious particulars—
the ship's-1. Life-boats. 2. Life-buoys. 3. Life-
belts. If reasonable precautions like these were
but taken systematically— say under the surveil-
lance of the Board of Trade—less would be left to
be accomplished by one of the noblest and most
patriotic and humane associations in the land, the
truly admirable and beneficent National Life-boat
Institution.