Many of our readers are probably aware that Prince Albert, in his
capacity of president of the Society of Arts, Manufactures, and
Commerce, suggested that lectures should be delivered on the results
of the different classes of the Great Exhibition, by gentlemen
peculiarly qualified by their several professions and pursuits. This
suggestion has been admirably carried out; but we propose at present
to direct attention only to one of the twenty-four lectures in
question--namely, that on life-boats, by Captain Washington, R. N.;
our individual calling in early life having been such as to enable us
to understand thoroughly the technical details, and judge of the
accuracy of the views and opinions propounded by the gallant and
intelligent lecturer.[2]
First, we will speak of the wreck-chart of the British islands
prefixed to the lecture. Round the entire coast is a prodigious number
of _black dots_, of two kinds--one a simple round dot, and the other
having a line drawn through it. They all point out the locality of
shipwrecks during the year 1850, and the latter dot shews the wreck to
have been total. The English coasts are most thickly dotted, but this
is to be expected from the greater proportion of shipping; next in the
scale is Ireland, and then Scotland, which has comparatively few black
dots, the densest portion being on the west coast, from Ayr to Largs,
where we count eleven, nine indicating total wrecks. In the Firth of
Forth there are but three, one total. A sprinkling of dots is seen
among the Eastern Hebrides, but not so many as one would expect.
Turning to England, we count about forty-five wrecks in the Bristol
Channel alone, by far the greater number being total. On the Goodwill
Sands there are fourteen, all total but one. On the Gunfleet Sands
there are nine, four total. They are numerous on the Norfolk and
Lincolnshire coasts, especially off Yarmouth and the Washway. On the
Welsh coast, particularly around Beaumaris, Holyhead, &c., the number
is very great. In the firth leading to Liverpool, we count no less
than twenty-one, of which twelve are total. On the north coast of
England the numbers are appalling. Off Hartlepool are fifteen, eight
being total. Off Sunderland are twelve, all total but three. Off
Newcastle are fifteen, eight total. Ah, that fearful, iron-bound coast
of Northumberland! We have hugged it close in calm weather, with a
fair breeze, and the views we caught of its shores made us shudder to
think of what would befall a vessel on a stormy night and the shore
alee. The following is the awful summary of 1850:--'The wrecks of
British and foreign vessels on the coasts and in the seas of the
United Kingdom were 681. Of these, 277 were total wrecks; sunk by
leaks or collisions, 84; stranded and damaged so as to require to
discharge cargo, 304; abandoned, 16. Total wrecks, &c., 681; total
lives lost, 784.'
Certain peculiar marks on this chart indicate the spots where
life-boats are kept. In the vicinity of Liverpool we count no less
than seven, and not one too many; but in many parts of the coast,
where numerous wrecks occur, there are none. In all England there are
eighty life-boats; in Ireland, eight; in Scotland, eight. A most
portentous note on the chart informs us, that '_about one-half of the
boats are unserviceable!_' Think of Scotland, with its rocky seaboard
of 1500 miles: only eight life-boats, and some of these 'quite
unserviceable!' The boats at St Andrews, Aberdeen, and Montrose, have
saved eighty-three lives; and the rockets at eight stations,
sixty-seven lives. 'Orkney and Shetland are without any provision for
saving life; and with the exception of Port Logan, in Wigtonshire,
where there is a mortar, the whole of the west coast of Scotland, from
Cape Wrath to Solway Firth--an extent of 900 miles, without including
islands--is in the same state.' With regard to the chief distribution
of English life-boats, there is one to every eight miles on the
Northumberland coast; one to every ten miles in Durham and Yorkshire;
one to fifteen miles in Lincolnshire; and one to five miles in Norfolk
and Suffolk--a fact which, the lecturer well observes, is highly
creditable to the county associations of the two last counties. But
'from Falmouth round the Land's End, by Trevose Head to Hartland
Point, an extent of 150 miles of the most exposed sea-coast in
England, there is not one really efficient life-boat.' On the Welsh
coasts are twelve boats, some very defective. At the five Liverpool
stations are nine good boats, 'liberally supported by the dock
trustees, and having permanent boats' crews.' These Liverpool boats
have, during the last eleven years, assisted 269 vessels, and brought
ashore 1128 persons. As to the Isle of Man, situated in the track of
an enormous traffic, with shores frequently studded with wrecks, we
are told that there is not a single life-boat; for the four boats
established there by Sir William Hillary, Baronet, 'have been allowed
to fall into decay, and hardly a vestige of them remains!' The paltry
eight life-boats for the whole Irish coast of 1400 miles are stated to
be likewise inefficient.
On the whole, it appears to us that the present number of efficient
life-boats is not more than one-fourth of what ought to be constantly
kept ready for immediate service. Only think of the amount of wrecks
occurring occasionally in a single gale: On the 13th January 1843, not
less than 103 vessels were lost on the British coasts. In 1846, nearly
forty vessels were driven ashore in Hartlepool Bay alone. In the month
of March 1850, the wrecks on our coasts were 134; in the gale of the
25th and 26th September 1851, the number wrecked, stranded, or damaged
by collision, was 117; and in January of the present year, the number
was 120. The above are the numbers actually ascertained; but it is
well known that _Lloyd's List_ is an imperfect register, although at
present the best existing.
A secondary mode of communicating with a stranded vessel is by firing
rockets with a line attached to them, by which means a hawser may be
drawn from the ship and fastened to the shore. Mortars are likewise
used for the same purpose; the latter plan having been invented by
Sergeant Bell, and first tried in 1792. Bell's plan was very greatly
improved by Captain Manby; and all the mortars now in use for the
purpose are called after him. Mr Dennett, of the Isle of Wight, first
introduced the rocket-plan in 1825. Rockets or mortars, or both, are
kept at most of the coast-guard stations; but in numerous cases were
found worthless on trial, owing to the lines breaking, or the rockets
being old and badly made. Nevertheless, at twenty-two stations, 214
lives have been saved by them. The evil is, that neither rockets nor
mortars are of any use unless the wreck lies within a short distance
of the shore; for the maximum range attained is only 350 yards, and in
the teeth of a violent wind, often not above 200 to 300 yards. If a
ship, therefore, is stranded on a low shelving shore, she is almost
certain to be beyond the range of the life-rocket or of Manby's
mortar. The main reliance, therefore, is the life-boat, and to it we
return.
The Duke of Northumberland recently offered a reward for the best
model of a life-boat. This offer was responded to by English, French,
Dutch, German, and American boat-builders; and the amazing number of
280 models and plans was sent in. About fifty of the best of these
were contributed by the duke to the Great Exhibition; and he had also
a report and plans and drawings of them printed, of which he
distributed 1300 copies throughout the world. Baron Dupin, chairman of
the Jury of Class VIII., thus summed up the award of the jury
concerning them:--'These models figure among the most valuable
productions in our Great Exhibition, and furnish an example of
liberality in the cause of humanity and practical science never
surpassed, if ever equalled. Such are the motives from which we have
judged his Grace the Duke of Northumberland worthy of receiving the
Council Medal.'
The inventor of life-boats, as is well known, was Henry Greathead, of
South Shields, in 1789. His boat was 30 feet long, with 10 feet
breadth of beam, 3-1/4 feet depth of waist, stem and stern alike
nearly 6 feet high, and pulled ten oars (double-banked.) A cork lining
went fore and aft 12 inches thick, on the inside of the boat, from the
floor to the thwarts; and outside was a cork fender, 16 inches deep, 4
inches wide, and 21 feet long. 'She could not free herself of water,
nor self-right in the event of being upset.' She was launched in 1790,
and in the year 1802, the inventor was rewarded by the Society of Arts
with its gold medal and fifty guineas; and parliament voted him
L.1200, 'in acknowledgment of the utility of his invention.' Many
presumed improvements and modifications of the original boat have been
effected, with more or less success. James Beeching, a Yarmouth
boat-builder, has carried off the prize offered by the duke, and we
may therefore suppose his was the best of the models submitted.
Captain Washington thus describes Beeching's model sent to the
Exhibition: 'It may be seen from the model of that boat, that from her
form she would both pull and sail well in all weathers; would have
great stability, and be a good sea-boat. She has moderately small
internal capacity under the level of the thwarts for holding water,
and ample means for freeing herself readily of any water that might be
shipped; she is ballasted by means of water admitted into a tank or
well at the bottom after she is afloat; and by means of that ballast
and raised air-cases at the extremities, she would right herself in
the event of being upset. It will thus be seen, that this model
combines most of the qualities required in a life-boat; and the boat
which has since been built after it, and is now stationed at Ramsgate,
is said to answer her purpose admirably.'
M. Lahure, of Havre, sent a full-sized boat of _iron_; and Mr Francis,
of New York, also sent a model life-boat of corrugated galvanised
iron. Captain Washington thinks, that if metal is used at all, it
should be copper in preference to any other. For our own part, we can
only say, that we have helped to build boats, though not life-boats,
and we have helped likewise to man boats, but we should like to have
good sound timber beneath our feet in preference to any metal
whatever; and we should prefer cork for the floating substance to
air-tight cases, or copper tubing, or any of the other contrivances
that have been adopted to give buoyancy to a swamped boat. Air-cases
are very liable to leak, or may be stove in by the sea, or be crushed
by coming in contact with the wreck or rocks, but cork can never be
injured. And as to metal air-cases, it was found on opening the sides
of a life-boat at Woolwich Dockyard, that her copper tubes, supposed
to be air-tight, were corroded into holes; for copper will corrode
when in contact with sea-water, especially when alternately wet or
dry, as is the case in life-boats.
We cannot here follow Captain Washington through his critical and
technical details, but we think it right to express our strong
suspicion, that the much-lauded _self-righting_ power of certain new
life-boats is obtained only at the cost of greater liability to upset.
Doubtless a boat can be made to right herself after a capsize, but
this really seems to us something like locking the stable-door when
the steed is stolen; for even if she rights the very instant after
upsetting, three-fourths of the crew are almost certain to perish. We
think it far more important to construct a boat that will hardly
capsize at all, than to build one that will right itself _after_
capsizing; for we repeat our opinion, that the latter boat will prove
liable to upset just in proportion to her capability of self-righting.
Many fatal accidents have happened to life-boats; and the details of
some mentioned by the lecturer are peculiar and interesting. On the
coast of Northumberland, in 1810, one of Greathead's boats, after
saving several crews of fishing-cobles, was returning to the shore,
when a heavy sea overwhelmed her, and by its sheer weight and force
broke her in two, and the whole of the crew, thirty-four in number,
perished. In 1820, Greathead's original life-boat, after saving the
crew of the ship _Grafton_, at Shields, struck on a rock, and swamped;
nevertheless, the brave old boat--although she had not the boasted
power of self-righting--preserved her centre of gravity, and brought
both crews to land. At Scarborough, in 1836, the life-boat, in going
out to a vessel, turned completely end over end, 'shutting up one of
the crew inside, where he remained in safety, getting fresh air
through the tubes in the bottom, and was taken out when the boat
drifted, bottom upwards, on the beach: ten lives were lost.' In 1841,
the life-boat at Blyth, Northumberland, capsized, and ten men were
drowned. At Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire, in 1843, the life-boat
capsized, three men remaining under her bottom, while others got upon
it. The accident was seen from the shore, and five men put off in a
coble, fitted with air-cases like a life-boat; but she almost
immediately turned end over end, and two men were drowned. The
life-boat herself drifted ashore, and the three men under her bottom
were saved. In all, twelve lives were lost. But the most lamentable
disaster that ever befell a life-boat was at South Shields, on
December 4, 1849, when twenty-four men, all pilots, went off to rescue
the crew of the _Betsy_, stranded on Herd Sand. 'The boat had reached
the wreck, and was lying alongside with her head to the eastward, with
a rope fast to the quarter, but the bow-fast not secured. The
shipwrecked men were about to descend into the life-boat, when a heavy
knot of sea, recoiling from the bow of the vessel, caught the bow of
the boat and turned her up on end, throwing the whole crew and the
water into the stern-sheets. The bow-fast not holding, the boat drove
in this position astern of the vessel, when the ebb-tide, running
rapidly into her stern, the boat completely turned end over end, and
went on shore bottom up. On this occasion, twenty out of
twenty-four--or double the proper crew--were drowned under the boat.
On seeing the accident, two other life-boats immediately dashed off
from North and South Shields, saved four of the men, and rescued the
crew of the _Betsy_.' It is added, that the life-boats have been in
constant use at Shields since Greathead first launched his boat there
in 1790, and excepting the above accident, no life has ever been lost
in them, or from want of them. Between 1841 and 1849, they saved 466
lives. But good is frequently educed from evil, and it was this very
disaster at Shields that induced the Duke of Northumberland to offer a
premium for the best life-boat; and his Grace has now, with princely
liberality, undertaken to place a well-built life-boat at each of the
most exposed points of the coast of his own county, with rockets or
mortars at every intermediate station.
As to dimensions, the existing life-boats are of three classes: from
20 to 25 feet long, from 25 to 30 feet, and from 30 to 36 feet. Some
are only 18 feet long, and on thinly-inhabited coasts are the best, as
unless a regular crew is provided, it is often difficult to man a
large boat--at least efficiently. The largest boats are used at
Caistor and Corton, in Norfolk, and are 40 to 45 feet long, weigh from
four to five tons, and cost L.200 to L.250 each. They are said to be
admirable vessels of the kind, and well manned. The 36 feet boat is
used at Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Deal, &c., and always goes off under
sail. The 30 feet boat is used at Liverpool, Shields, Dundee, &c.; and
one of those at Liverpool brought sixty people ashore on one occasion.
Some of the models sent to the Exhibition were of boats that did not
weigh more than half a ton; but we fully agree with the lecturer, that
a boat so light as that would never be able to pull out to sea in a
head-wind. A life-boat ought to possess a certain weight, or momentum,
or it will be driven back by the winds, or sucked back by the sea,
like a feather.
It is exceedingly desirable that all life-boats should have regularly
trained crews, for an ordinary sailor or fisherman is by no means
competent to do properly the duty of a life-boatman. The cockswain,
especially should be well trained.
Captain Washington remarks, that 'a careful examination of the returns
of wrecks by the Coast-guard officers, forcibly impresses on the mind
the painful conviction, that the greater part of the casualties that
occur are not occasioned by stress of weather, but that they are
mainly attributable to causes within control, and to which a remedy
might be applied.' This has long been our own opinion, and we have
again and again expressed it. 'Wherever the boats have been looked
after, and the crews well trained, as at Liverpool, Shields, and on
the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, the most signal success has
rewarded their exertions. The first step is to insure a safe and
powerful life-boat, and this, we feel confident, has been
accomplished; the next is to build a sufficient number of such boats,
place them where required, organise and train the crews, and provide
for their supervision and maintenance.... There seems no reason why a
very few years should not see a life-boat stationed at each of the
exposed points on the most frequented parts of the coasts of the
United Kingdom; by means of which--with the blessing of Divine
Providence upon the endeavours of those who undertake the work--the
best results to the cause of humanity may confidently be anticipated.'