The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-20 00:00:00

LOIVDOIV, TUESDAY, OCT. 20,
~1868.

Notwithstanding the strenuous efforts made by
the managers of the excellent institution which
superintends our lifeboat establishments round the
coast, the number of shipwrecks and disasters at
sea shows no diminution in the yearly record. On
the contrary, the returns for 1867 give a very large
number of casualties, the ships lost or damaged
on our coasts during the twelvemonth amounting
to no less than 2,513, being 224 more than in 1866,
and forming a larger number of shipwrecks than
has ever before been recorded in one year on the
British coasts. This fact is the more noticeable, as the
preceding year was by no means exceptionally fine.
The winter of 1866-67 was unusually long and
tempestuous, and the gales of the early months of
1866 will long be remembered. The loss of the
London in the Bay of Eiscay was not of course
reckoned among the disasters in our Wreck Regis-
ter, but the same storm which proved so fatal to
that overladened vessel and her passengers played
havoc round our shores, more especially on the
south-west coast, 61 vessels were lost or destroyed
in Torbay on the 11th of January, and 35 lives lost
in that neighbourhood alone. Thus when we com-
pare the losses of 1867 with those of the preceding
year, we are startled to find the number so much
above the average. Taking the last nine years
together, the annual losses we find average 1,961,
whereas, as we have stated, the returns of 1867
show no less than 2,513 disaters, accompanied
by a loss of 1,333 lives. It was the latter part of
1867 which proved so fatal to the mariner and the
fisherman. During the heavy gale from the Ist to
the 3d of December 326 vessels were lost or
damaged, with a loss of 319 lives, a most unusual
number from the gale. This particular storm, it
will be seen, was nearly as destructive as the memo-
rable gale of October, 1859, still known as the
Royal Charter gale, when 343 vessels were lost.
So far from those melancholy statistics casting
any disparagement on the services of the National
Lifeboat Institution, they enable us to discover how
much we owe to that admirable and efficient asso-
ciation. The number of lives lost, it is true, in
1866 amounted to 1,333, being the largest number
lost in one year, with the exception of 1859, the
Royal Charter year, when 1,647 perished at sea.
But, [in contrast to the 1,333 lives lost, we must
place the 1,086 saved during the year mainly by
its instruments and agents, and we shall then appre-
ciate the value of the services thus rendered to the
country by preserving so many valuable lives. If,
in place of 1,333 lives lost, we had to record 2,419,
we might well be startled; but had it not been
for the efficiency of our life boats and the
skill and courage of their crews, as well as the
stimulus which the institution has given to heroic
efforts for the rescue of life from shipwreck, we
should have had to chronicle very nearly that
amount of loss. Very often the lifeboats and their
crews are able to give such timely assistance that
the ship is saved as well as the men on board, and
thus much valuable property is preserved from
damage. The occasions on which the lifeboats
render such valuable aid are mostly those on which
no other kind of craft could get near the imperilled
vessels, and though the total number of lives saved
last year by all means„was 5845, yet the 1,000 saved
by the direct agency of the Lifeboat Institution
could hardly have been rescued in any other man-
ner. If we quote at random from the periodical
records of the lifeboat services we shall form some
idea of the perilous nature of the tasks undertaken.
On the 11th of April the Blackpool lifeboat pro-
seeded to the rescue of the crews of two vessels in
distress. One of them was not in much danger,
and it was thought sufficient to put a pilot on board
of her while the lifeboat proceeded to the other
vessel, which was rapidly becoming a total wreck
on the Salthouse Bank. "On arriving alongside,
after nearly three hours' conflict with tremendous
breakers, the whole of the crew, 14 men, were safely
got into the lifeboat. Owing to the ebbing of the
tide, however, on the banks, and the unabated
fury of the surf, the lifeboat could not land at
Blackpool, and was obliged to run before the sea to
Lytham, and there land the shipwrecked sailors."
Off Ilfracombe, on the 20th of April, an American
ship, bound from Cardiff to Monte Video with
coals, went on a lee shore owing to a sudden change
of wind, when the steam-tug towing her was
powerless to help her. Two other tugs went to her
tssistance, but were also unable to remove her from
her dangerous position. On signals of distress being
hoisted the lifeboat was launched from Ilfracombe,
Ind made for the ship through a heavy sea. The
first task, when the lifeboat was alongside, was to
sake off the capt min's wife, children, and servant
girl, a task of no small difficulty, as they had to be
,owered in a basket down the ship's side. Having
;anded them in safety, the boat returned to the ves-
sel and assisted to get her out of danger, when she
was taken back to Cardiff to refit. These are only
iamples of what goes on round our coasts con-
tinually, and there is no storm without its corres-
ponding history of successful courage and cuter.