The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-03-10 00:00:00

DOCK COMMITTEE.-THURSDAY.

After the alterations made by the Council in the Dock
Bill had been read, Mr. TOBIN took objection to the word
" instruction" in the resolution, as inserted in the Stand-
ard of last week. He said if they admitted the power of
the Council to instruct the Dock Committee, that would
be putting the rate-payers and the Dock Committee also
under the control of the Council, and this would be quite
a new thing. A long conversation ensued, after which
a resolution was passed that the resolution as to the word
" instruction" should be received under protest.
Mr! gORSFALL said, if the Council had a right to in-
struet the committee to apply for a bill, or get a clause
inserted, the ratepayers at that board were a mere nonen-
tity. A resolution was adopted approving of the altera-
tions in the bill relative to the erection of warehouses,
subject to such modifications as it might be necessary to
make on consultation, and not to endanger the bill.

Mr. MANN called the attention of the committee to an
article which appeared in the last Courier, respecting the
loss of the Bencoolen, and the efficiency of the life-boat
establishment. After reading the article, Mr. Mann pro-
ceeded. He said, in the first place, it was stated that the
Dock Committee had not an efficient life-boat establish-
ment. Now be balieved the life-boat establishment at-
tached to this port had no parallel. They possessed nine
life-boats—two at Liverpool, two at the Magazines, two at
the Point of Ayr, two at Hoylake, and one at Formby.
The crews were a most efficient set of men, and on every
occasion when called upon had proved themselves to be
so. The cost to the estate exceeded altogether £2,600 to
£2,700. There were £llOO for wages, and £BOO for other
expenses, independent of the sum paid for steam-power.
They paid £420 to the Steam Tug Company, for having
one of their first-class steam-boats always ready for the
purpose of towing cut their life-boats, and £25 for each
service, which last year amounted to something like £3OO
or £4OO, making altogether about £2,700 a-year. That,
he thought, was a sufficient :answer to that part of the
statement which alleged that the Dock Committee had
not a sufficient life-boat establishment. The next charge
was that the crew of the Bencoolen might have been saved
had there been a life-boat on board the Formby Light-
ship. Now he (Mr. M.) had seen the roaster of the light-
ship, and he said that if the life-boat had been alongside
of the ship when theysaw the Bencoolen touch the ground,
even in such a case it would have been impossible to have
saved the lives, the vessel having within ten minutes gone
to pieces after they saw her aground. With regard ti
keeping the life-boat on beard the light-ship, the light-
ship was too small for the purpose, and they could not,
under any circumstances, when it was blowing a gale of
wind, permit the men to leave the light-ship, because, if
they left her, they would be unable to get back to her, and
much more serious mischief might occur if any accident
happened to the light-ship, and no one on board of her.
Even supposing it was found necessary to place life-boats
on board the light-ships, full crews must b.t kept there,
and full crews also on shore, because the men could not
always live on board the vessel, and reckoning the ex-
penses of the three light-ships, the additional cost to the
estate would be £3,000 a-year. But there was another
consideration—would it be well to place a life-boat in that
particular place? He found that in the year 1845, the
number of lives saved by the Liverpool boat was 180; the
Magazines boat 171 ; the Hoylake boat 182; the Point of
Ayr 122, and the Formby but seven lives; whilst in 1841-
42.43-44 the Formby boat saved no lives. It was very
rate that any accident took place within the range of the
Formby light-ship. The accidents generally took place to
the westward. It would be seen that the Point of Ayr
boat had saved the lives of nearly double the number of
any other life-boat, being to the westward. He (Mr. M.)
did nor think it necessary to say anything more on this
subject, except that having been a member of the sub-
committee for sixteen or eighteen months, he never heard
the subject mooted, or any resolution moved in that com-
mittee, although the statement alluded to said that the
owner of the Bencoolen (Mr. Ripley) had advocated for
years the necessity of a life-boat and crew being kept on
board the Formby Light-ship.
The CHAIRMAN said the answer to the statement might
be summed up in one word,—the committee were not
called upon to provide a boat in that particular station,
for in this particular instance it was proved that the ves-
sel was lost through the blundering of the pilot.
Mr. TOBIN said any one acquainted with nautical mat-
ters would see it was not the fault of the pilot, but an er-
ror of the man at the wheel, who put the helm starboard
instead of port.
Mr. KENDAL said that was the opinion of the captain
of the light-ship.
The committee then proceeded to private business.