SS «RIP*S LIFEBOAT. 



hardshipi tnd sufTftrings, than are to be met with in anj 

 other lin« in human life. 



While the labours of all others are moderate, and find 

 relief at stated intervals by day, and repose by night, the 

 teaman must contend with the storm so long as it lasts, and 

 encounter danger at a moment's warning, whether at mid- 

 day or midnight. Whilst the tempest rages, no respite can 

 be allowed hiq;^; he must keep hjs station without intermis- 

 sion, and after toiling above strength and above measure, it 

 is often his hard fate to be shipwrecked at last. 



The complicated distress attending th'^s freq^uent and 

 fatal disaster it would be in vain to attempt to describe in 

 any words; nor is \t possible to conjecture nearly the num- 

 ber, which is added annually to the innumerable multitude 

 of dead which the ocean contains. 



Scwnetimes several hundreds in pne ship are involved in 

 this direful calamity, where the misery of eagh sufferer is in- 

 creased, in proportion to the accumulated wo that surrounds 

 him; the cry of despair is heard on every side, and in dis-* 

 traction each exclaims. What shall we do ? 



Amidst overwhelming waves and vyreck, the mariner suf- 

 fers in his person all th^t a living man can undergo, and in 

 his mind all the anguish that despondence can create, 

 heightened by the agonizing thought, that he is never more 

 to behold wife, child, family, or friend; still however amidst 

 all his sqfierings an ardent loveof life preyails, and the hap- 

 less mariner, struggling hard to preserve it, clings to vfh&U 

 ever seems to promise a momentary reprieve. 



In the mean time the wreck is rapidly giving way, some 

 are washed away in one place, and others iq another ; those 

 trho remain redouble their efforts for life; but alas! they 

 strive in va'm; one decisive blow ha? dashed their last and 

 only support to pieces, and all are going down together— » 

 a general shriek is heard— to be heard no more! the me- 

 lancholy scene has closed, ap^ neither survivor i^or wreck is 

 left behind. 



Any plan then that has for its object to afford relief in 

 situations of such extreme distress, and which seeks to ex- 

 pend the same benefit to thousands of perishing men in 



futyr^ 



