LIFEBOAT DISASTERS.
We have already referred to the numerous disasters which did so much to
retard the progress of the lifeboat movement. Now let us see how these
disasters were caused. The early lifeboats, though provided with a
great amount of buoyancy, had no means of freeing themselves of water,
or of self-righting if upset, and the absence of these qualities caused
the loss of many lives.
Sir William Hillary, who may be regarded as the founder of the National
Lifeboat Institution, distinguished himself, while living on the Isle of
Man, by his bravery in rescuing shipwrecked crews. It was estimated
that in twenty-five years upwards of a hundred and forty vessels were
wrecked on the island, and a hundred and seventy lives were lost; while
the destruction of property was put down at a quarter of a million. In
1825, when the steamer _City of Glasgow_ went ashore in Douglas Bay, Sir
William Hillary went out in the lifeboat and assisted in taking
sixty-two people off the wreck. In the same year the brig _Leopard_
went ashore, and Sir William again went to the rescue and saved eleven
lives. While he lived on the island, hardly a year passed without him
adding fresh laurels to his name, and never did knight of old rush into
the fray with greater ardour than did this gallant knight of the
nineteenth century to the rescue of those in peril on the sea. His
greatest triumph, however, was on the 20th of November 1830, when the
mail steamer _St. George_ stranded on St. Mary's Rock and became a total
wreck. The whole crew, twenty-two in number, were rescued by the
lifeboat. On this occasion he was washed overboard among the wreck, and
it was with the greatest difficulty that he was saved, having had six of
his ribs broken.
In 1843 the lifeboat stationed at Robin Hood Bay went out to the
assistance of the _Ann_ of London. Without mishap the wreck was reached,
and the work of rescue was begun. Several of the shipwrecked men jumped
into the boat just as a great wave struck her, and she upset. Some of
the crew managed to scramble on to the bottom of the upturned boat and
clung to the keel for their lives.
The accident had been witnessed by the men on the beach, and five of
them immediately put out to the rescue. They had hardly left the shore
when an enormous sea swept down upon them, causing the boat to turn a
double somersault, and drowning two of the crew. Altogether twelve men
lost their lives on this occasion. Those who were saved floated ashore
on the bottom of the lifeboat.
The Herd Sand, memorable as the scene of the wreck of the _Adventure_,
witnessed a lamentable disaster in 1849, when the _Betsy_ of
Littlehampton went aground. The South Shields lifeboat, manned by
twenty-four experienced pilots, went out to the rescue. While preparing
to take the crew on board, she was struck by a heavy sea, and before she
could recover herself, a second mighty wave threw her over. Twenty out
of the twenty-four of her crew were drowned. The remainder and the crew
of the _Betsy_ were rescued by two other lifeboats, which put off from
the shore immediately upon witnessing what had happened.
The advantages of the self-righting and self-emptying boats may be best
judged from the fact, that since their introduction in 1852, as many as
seventy thousand men have gone out in these boats on service, and of
these only seventy-nine have nobly perished in their gallant attempts to
rescue others. This is equal to a loss of one man in every eight hundred
and eighty.
During the terrible storm which swept down upon our coast in 1864, the
steamer _Stanley_ of Aberdeen was wrecked while trying to enter the
Tyne. The _Constance_ lifeboat was launched from Tynemouth, and
proceeded to the scene of the wreck. The night was as dark as pitch,
and from the moment that the boat started, nothing was to be seen but
the white flash of the sea, which broke over the boat and drenched the
crew. As quickly as she freed herself of water, she was buried again
and again. At length the wreck was reached, and while the men were
waiting for a rope to be passed to them, a gigantic wave burst over the
_Stanley_ and buried the lifeboat. Every oar was snapped off at the
gunwale, and the outer ends were swept away, leaving nothing but the
handles. When the men made a grasp for the spare oars they only got
two--the remainder had been washed overboard.
It was almost impossible to work the _Constance_ with the rudder and two
oars, and while she was in this disabled condition a second wave burst
upon her. Four of the crew either jumped or were thrown out of the boat,
and vanished from sight. A third mighty billow swept the lifeboat away
from the wreck, and it was with the utmost difficulty that she was
brought to land. Two of the men, who had been washed out of the boat,
reached the shore in safety, having been kept afloat by their lifebelts.
The other two were drowned.
Speaking of the attempted rescue, the coxswain of the _Constance_ said:
"Although this misfortune has befallen us, it has given fresh vigour to
the crew of the lifeboat. Every man here is ready, should he be called
on again, to act a similar part."
Thirty-five of those on board the _Stanley_, out of a total number of
sixty persons, were afterwards saved by means of ropes from the shore.
One of the most heartrending disasters, which have befallen the modern
lifeboat, happened on the night of the 9th of December 1886. The
lifeboats at Southport and St. Anne's went out in a furious gale to
rescue the crew of a German vessel named the _Mexico_. Both were
capsized, and twenty-seven out of the twenty-nine who manned them were
drowned. It was afterwards found out that the Southport boat succeeded
in making the wreck, and was about to let down her anchor when she was
capsized by a heavy sea. Contrary to all expectations the boat did not
right, being probably prevented from doing so by the weight of the
anchor which went overboard when the boat upset.
What happened to the St. Anne's lifeboat can never be known, for not one
of her crew was saved to tell the tale. It is supposed that she met
with some accident while crossing a sandbank, for, shortly after she had
been launched, signals of distress were observed in that quarter. Next
morning the boat was found on the beach bottom up with three of her crew
hanging to the thwarts--dead.
[Illustration: NEWS OF A WRECK ON THE COAST.]
Such is the fate that even to-day overhangs the lifeboatman on the
uncertain sea. Yet he is ever ready on the first signal of distress to
imperil his life to rescue the stranger and the foreigner from a watery
grave. "First come, first in," is the rule, and to see the gallant
lifeboatmen rushing at the top of their speed in the direction of the
boathouse, one would imagine that they were hurrying to some grand
entertainment instead of into the very jaws of death. It is not for
money that they thus risk their lives, as the pay they receive is very
small for the work they have to perform. They are indeed heroes, in the
truest sense of the word, and give to the world a glorious example of
duty well and nobly done.