San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-09-10
FEARFUL SHIPWREcKS.
Terrible Loss of Human Life in
Some of the Disasters
at Sea.

loss of merchant and other ships by
disasters at sea, amounted to an
average of one per diem.
In 1880 no fewer than 677 British
ships appear by Lloyds' lists to have
been totally lost. The year 1928
was an especially disastrous one, tor
no fewer than 4 ,1l6 vessels were lost
on the British coast alone, with 920
lives.
In 1859 there were 1915 wrecks and
casualties on British coasts, with a
sacrifice of ,545 lives, while in 1S76-77
there was the enormous number of
4, 1874 wrecks and casualties, but only
IT'S lives were lost. The three heav-
lest years in the loss of human life on
our coast were 1854, with 1919; 1859,
with 1915 and 1867, with 1888 lives
lost.
In the twenty-five years from 1854
to 1879 there were $4,000 odd wrecks
and casualties on the British coast and
these were attended with the socrifice
of Is, 3l9 lives. If this dismal record
could be added the full tale of wrecks
losses on other coasts, some idea of
of the tribute paid to the hungry sea
might be formed.
In proportion, however, to the
mum Der of ships sailing the seas, and
their size, and the number of pas
sengers that they carry, there can be
no doubt that-whether it be due to
the advent of steam, and with it the
greater power of battle with adverse
winds and waves, or to better legisla-
ton, or more perfect training of
separate or continued-the loss of
shipping and of human life, per cent,
shows most satisfactory reduction.
For instance, the Disasters to British
shipping during the twenty-five years
ending with 1872, Notwithstanding
the comparatively small marine of
those days, included at least twenty
one in which the loss of life was over
100. In the like period of 1860 to 1885,
though with vastly increased
marine, and much closer and more
reliable means of information, the
record includes only twenty of equal
in loss of life.
The first great disaster at sea re-
corded in British history was the
wreck of the Blanche Nef in Novem-
Der, 1120, by which the children Of
Henry 1, and their suite and servants,
in all 1858 persons, were drowned. AS
William, the heir to the throne, was
among those who persisted, and the re-
suit was the accession of Stephen, it
may be said that this catastrophe
changed the whole course of English
history. 1t is probably the want of re-
cords rather than immunity from great
disasters which now causes a gap of
many hundred years.
The tale of the merchant navy's
tribute over many years must still be
told, but of ecessity briefly.
In 1906 the King George, a packet
running from the now defunct port of
Parkgate, on the Dee, to Dublin, was
lost with 125 persons, and in the fol-
lowing year the Prince of Wales, run
ming between the same ports, was lost
with even greater sacrifice of life.
The year 1915. that of the great bat
tie of Waterloo, was one of the very
few which passed without any great
British disaster at sea. In 1872 came
the first reported loss of steamer;
the unfortunate vessel was the Elles-
mere, and four lives were lost.
1t is also at least remarkable that
up to this period not a single mari
time dispster of magnitude is at
tributed to collision. Since then
some of the most appalling accidents
have been due to that cause. as wit
ness the Governor Fender and Not
tingham of Holyhead in lS4l, with 10
lives lost; Lady Elgin and Augusta,
on Lake Michigan. in 1850, with 2S7
lives lost: Oneida Bombay, off Yoko-
hama in 1870, with lis lives lost; the
Northfieet and Murillo, off Dungeness
in 1873, with 800 lives lost; Avalanche
and Forest, in the English Channel,
in 1877, over 100 lives lost; Princess
Alice and Byweil Castle, in the
Thames in 1873, nearly 700 lives lost;
Cimbria and sultan, off the Dutch
coast, in 1888, and 454 lives lost, and
the state of Florida and POnema, off
the coast of Canada, in 1854, 123 lives
sacrificed. There were, of course,
many other collisions involving equal
loss of property, but fewer lives.
The most disastrous losses in the
merchant navy otherwise than by
collision, were the following: The
Royal Adelaide in 1850, off Margate,
with 400 lives; and the Annie Jane
and the Tayleur, both emigrant ships,
in 1858, with over 100 lives. The
Austria, an emigrant steamer, was
burned in the mid-A tlantic in 1858
and nearly 500 lives were sacrificed;
and 1859 brought the loss on the
Anglesea coast Of the Royal Charter
and AS lives.
In 1865 the steamer London foun-
dered in the Bay of Biscay with 220
persons on board. In 1873 the emil
grant steamer Atlantic went ashore
on the American coast and $50 persons