spection before they put out to sea, in order that it may be accurately ascertained whether they are well found and provided with life-boats and with such a proper and suitable equipment as will enable them to combat successfully with the elements. We cannot help laying great stress on this point, because the loss of life from shipwrecks on the coasts alone of the British Isles within the last eleven years is really frightful to contemplate: it amounted to 6,883. The districts where this immense sacrifice of human life took place inflicted, we fear, not solely by the visitation of God, but in a great degree through the obstinacy and perverseress of man-are as follows: St. David Head and Carnsore Point to Lambay Island 879 Skerries and Lambay to Fair Head and Mull of Cantire 1,453 Cape Wrath to Buchan Ness 197 Buchan Ness to Farn Islands 271 All other parts of the coast 842 Total lives lost 6,883 Between the Farn Islands and the North Foreland there are sixtytwo lifeboat establishments, and as many life-saving rocket and mortar stations. Here every winter some of the most daring and persevering life-boat services are performed. The poor sufferers are often snatched from the very jaws of death; and, on the lowest calculation, to this large number of 1,480 persons who have perished in this district, onethird more would have swelled the death-roll had it not been for the services of the life-boats and the life-saving apparatus. From the above account of the loss of life on the coasts it is seen that the most serious wrecks, resulting in the greatest loss of life, do not happen on the N.E. coast of England, as is generally supposed, but on those parts of our coasts most frequented by large foreign ships. A few months ago a large American ship, the Danube, was coming up the Irish Channel. Mistaking her position, she found herself on some rocks in Cardigan Bay. A fearful storm was raging at the time. Her signals of distress were observed late in the evening. The Portmadoc life-boat, belonging to the National Life-boat Institution, was immediately launched to the rescue of the crew, who had taken to their boats. After a night of great hardship and ceaseless toil, the life-boat brought on shore seventeen poor creatures, who were more dead than alive. Similar services are constantly being rendered by the Institution's life-boats to foreign ships' crews, and frequently to those belonging to the United States of America. ง During the past nine years the total number of all casualties on the coasts and in the seas of the British Isles are thus given :-in 1852, there were 1,115; in 1853, 832; in 1854, 987; in 1855, 1,141; in 1856, 1,153; in 1857, 1,143; in 1858, 1,170; in 1859, 1,416; and in 1860, 1,379: making a total of 10,336 vessels lost in nine years, or 1 lost in every 210 British ships, and 1 in every 232 foreign vessels, and giving an average annual loss of 1,148 vessels on the coasts and in the seas of the United Kingdom. 1 We regret to find that the sacrifice of life from this great multitude of shipwrecks amounted to 7,201, or an average of 800 lives that meet with a watery grave from shipwreck every year on the coasts and in the seas of the British Isles. In our narrow seas it is only natural that a large number of collisions should constantly take place. The number of British and foreign vessels entering British ports, including repeated voyages, every years amounts to upwards of 204,945, representing a tonnage of 29,176,196. Vessels clearing outwards under the same circumstances every year number 209,402, having a tonnage burden of 29,530,906. We must, therefore, be prepared for a considerable number of collisions, although happily it is not increasing. During the past six years they have amounted to 1,788, giving an annual average of nearly 300. No calamity is greater than that of a collision at sea during a dark, stormy night. It is often instantaneous in its destructive effects; and in less than ten minutes afterwards it frequently happens that not a vestige of one of the ships is to be seen, a large number of persons frequently sinking with her. Having dwelt on the dark side of our picture so long, we must now briefly turn to the brighter and more encouraging side of it. It appears that during the past five years the number of lives saved on the coast by life-boats, life-saving apparatus, shore and ships' boats, and other means, amounts to 11,496. We cannot refrain here from giving a few examples of noble life-boat services: On the 10th of February last, in the fearful gale from the East which caused such destruction to shipping and terrible loss of life on our East coast, the brig Providence, of Shields, coal laden, was driven on the Long Scarr Rocks, between the mouth of the Tees and Hartlepool. The Seaton Carew life-boat, belonging to the National Lifeboat Institution, was quickly launched, and proceeding to her assistance through a high surf, took off her crew, eight in number, and landed them in safety. She had scarcely done so when she was again called to the aid of the brig Mayflower, of Newcastle, also coal laden, which had gone ashore on the East Gaze Sand, off the Tees mouth. The life-boat also took off her crew of eight men, and safely landed them. On the previous day this boat had, in conjunction with the West Hartlepool life-boat, endeavoured to save the crews of the brig Alliance, of Guernsey, and schooner Warnsbeck, of Shields, which were wrecked on the Long Scarr Rocks, but although every effort was made, they were unsuccessful, owing to the difficult position into which the vessels had driven on these dangerous rocks. As it was, the boat was herself injured and partially disabled thereby. "I wish NO. 11.-VOL. XXX. 4 @ you had been here on that disastrous Saturday and Sunday (9th and 10th February)," writes the Honorary Secretary, the Rev. J. Lawson, of the Seaton Carew Branch of the National Life-boat Institution, "I am sure you would have been gratified to see the gallant way in which our crew worked, though composed, as you know, chiefly of landsmen. They were going from 9h. a.m. on Saturday until 11h. a.m. on Sunday, without rest, and not only attending to our own lifeboat, but helping to man the West Hartlepool boat when short of hands." Again, on the 1st January, five men were saved on the Doomed Bar Bank, Padstow, from the brigantine Nugget, of Bideford. From January 1st to the 6th, thirty-two men were saved by the Institution's boats, and one vessel was brought safely into harbour. But sometimes darkness is added to the perils which the life-boat men encounter in their exertions on the stormy deep. At Lyme Regis, for instance, the word was given during one of the winter nights that a vessel was in the offing in distress. It was "pitchy dark." A strong gale was blowing and a heavy surf beating on the shore, but the life-boat men felt that duty called, and they did not hesitate. They went to sea as if it were to their fire-sides they were going; and they were successful in saving a ship's crew. The brief narrative of this adventure tells us that very few on shore believed the life-boat "would ever return," the night was so awful; "it was sufficient to appal any one entering the life-boat." The payments to the crews of the life-boats are placed in the Annual Report of the Life-boat Institution, opposite the services thus rendered. For instance, the sixteen men belonging to the brigs Providence and Mayflower, mentioned above, were saved for the sum of £25. At Portmadoc, in a heavy gale with a terrific surf, seventeen men were saved for £14. This is about 17s. a head, and flesh and blood is certainly cheap at that rate. The Carnsore life-boat saved nineteen persons, at a cost of £22 14s. Suppose the average expense of saving a man by means of the life-boat is a pound, this is the way to put it before the public,-Will you give 20s, a year to save a fellowcreature from a horrible death? Perhaps you save more than one by that gift. You may save a family from an irreparable loss, you may restore a darling boy to his widowed mother, a father to his young and helpless children. Here is a strong claim upon the national benevolence, and fortunately it is becoming day by day more openly acknowledged, just as the merits of the National Lifeboat Institution become more widely known. Public and private gratitude calls for the support of this institution, and some instances have been recorded which show how beautifully gratitude works, and how sweetly its work is repaid. The Carnsore life-boat, mentioned above as saving nineteen people from shipwreck, was the "thank-offering" of a lady who was saved from drowning. One sees a striking appropriateness in that thank-offering, as an example of the ruling which brings good out of evil. There is another instance recorded of a similar character. Two ladies, in memory of a departed sister, place a life-boat at Llandudno, in North Wales, and call it the Sisters' Memorial. The memory of departed worth, or departed affection, could not be preserved in a more fitting manner. The memorial is all goodness and all mercy, and has as little of the taint of the world in it as anything else that could be mentioned. It is to keep these benevolences in active operation-to endow them for ever, as it were-that the Life-boat Institution appeals to the public. It is an appeal that will stand any test-a cause that all can assist in-and a cause that only requires to be known to insure a sufficiency of help to keep up its large life-saving fleet of 115 life-boats, and gradually to increase their number.-The Life-Boat. ON THE OFFICERING OF THE ROYAL NAVY AND MERCHANT SERVICE. [The following claims careful attention as containing the first outline of the means of practically connecting the Mercantile Marine with the Royal Navy of England.-ED.] Mr. Editor,-After carefully referring to the Nautical Magazine for 1858, and reading over Captain Sheringham's valuable suggestions therein contained, I cannot find that there is any similarity between the plans for manning the fleet which he there proposes and those which I had the honcur to submit to the profession in your number for last month. Had I been able to discover any resemblance I should have considered myself fortunate in following so able a leader. But as that is not the case, I must hope that Captain Sheringham will not refuse his approval under the changed circumstances to the means which I have proposed for accomplishing our common object-the good, first, of our country, and, secondly, of our noble profession as its best defence. I have now to speak of another subject intimately connected with the former, the best means of providing good officers for both navy and commercial marine at the least expense to the country, and also in such a mode as to meet the wishes of the mercantile officers for a closer connection with the Royal Navy. In the French navy a system has for many years been followed which requires that all persons aspiring to command merchant ships calculated for long voyages, i.e., of about 400 tons and upwards, shall have served a certain number of years in the Imperial Navy. They are called "Capitaines au Long Cours," enter as "Aspirants de Seconde Class," and serve, I believe, about six years in that capacity and as "Enseigne." They then receive certificates of competency, and, as I can vouch, generally do credit in their after life to the discipline and training thus obtained. I would propose, therefore, that some analogous system should be adopted in this country. An Act of Parliament would be required of course not retrospective, and therefore not interfering with any "vested interests,"providing that in future, i.e., after the expiration of a certain number of years, no young man should be held competent to be brought forward for the command of ships over a certain tonnage unless he had served four years in the navy. To do this he must enter the navy at the age of thirteen, and leave it at seventeen to join the merchant service as a mate. The advantage of this to the boy is that he obtains almost gratis a good education in his profession, whether as regards naviga tion, seamanship, discipline, or gunnery and steam-machinery, one which will enable him to take his place again in the navy, should his services be required at a later period by the state, during war, with credit to himself and his profession. The advantage to the father is that instead of sending a son into the merchant ship as a pseudo midshipman, paying a heavy premium for doing so, in a situation where, in many cases, if the boy learns seamanship, he learns little else that is good, and far too much that is evil,-where his education is neglected, his manners and morals alike ruined; instead of all this, he is sent where a careful education, strict discipline, and gentlemanlike association will seldom fail to produce their legitimate effect on character and conduct in after life. Add to this that the premium which he would have given in the merchant ship, of about £160, at a single payment, will in this case be made to the boy himself in a yearly allowance of £40 for four years,-a sum which, with the pay given to naval cadets and midshipmen in the navy, is amply sufficient for their proper maintenance. So much for the advantages derivable to the individuals most concerned. We will now see what advantages are obtained by the state and the commercial marine.⠀⠀ For a very long period difficulties have been felt as regards the entry and advancement of officers in the navy, and this has in a great measure arisen from the fact that for one lieutenant about ten sublieutenants and mids are required; for one commander or captain about four lieutenants. But if the entry of naval cadets be so increased as to give this proportion of midshipmen and sub-lieutenants, it soon happens that sufficient advancement to the higher ranks cannot be provided for them, and we have what I well remember-socalled "young gentlemen" in the position of sub-lieutenants or mates, as they were then entitled, forty years of age, and having passed their examinations for the rank of lieutenant, ten, fifteen, or twenty years, yet still without promotion. How was this remedied? Great efforts were made, and the upper lists were remodelled further entries were closely restricted. Thus, gradually, and at considerable expense to the state-I fear at some injustice to individuals, the lieutenant's list has been cleared. But in the meanwhile, there having been so few fresh entries, midshipmen first, then sub-lieutenants, and now young lieutenants, or, indeed, lieutenants of any age, became scarce. So the door must be |