308 REPORT—1857. 
Report on the Statistics of Life-boats and Fishing-boats on the Coasis 
of the United Kingdom. By ANDREW HeEnpDERsON, F.S.A. & 
A.I.C.E. 
Tue importance of this subject has already brought it before the British 
Association, both at Hull and at Liverpool. In the latter case, a Committee 
reported, through their chairman, Major-General Chesney, as follows :—* It 
is manifest that, however zealous the existing Societies may be (the Life-boat 
and the Shipwrecked Fishermen's), neither they nor the Admiralty possess the 
necessary funds for this purpose ; these can only be adequately provided by 
Parliament ; but in order to effect this object, judiciously and economically, 
it appears most desirable that, as a preliminary step, the British Association 
should recommend the Government to institute such experiments as will 
enable the public to form a judgment on a subject which is beset with 
difficulties.” 
The papers and plans were published in p. 327 of the Report of the 
Liverpool Meeting of the Association in 1854. At that Meeting it was 
resolved, “ That Mr. Henderson and Colonel Chesney be a committee for 
the purpose of collecting the statistics of the design, arrangements and 
dimensions of Life-boats.” A preliminary report was made by Mr. Hen- 
derson, but not printed in the volume of the Transactions of Glasgow in 
1855. 
The General Meeting of the Association at that place appointed a committee, 
“consisting of Mr. Andrew Henderson, Major-General Chesney, Sir Edward 
Belcher, Mr. John Wood, Mr. James R. Napier, Sir William Jardine, Bart., Mr. 
W. Ramsay, and Mr. James Thompson, who were requested to continue these 
investigations as to the statistics and condition of Life-boats and Fishing- 
boats ; as'to the principles on which Life-boats should be constructed ; the 
essential conditions of their successful use; and the means of establishing 
them round the coasts of the British Isles, and on board British ships.” 
Difficulties were still found to exist in the want of funds for experiments, 
in the members residing in distant parts of the country, and from their having 
no establishment for the record of papers and models of the various life- 
boats and fishing-boats in use or improvements proposed. The latter diffi- 
culty was expected to be met by the resolution of the Association at 
Liverpool in 1854:—“ That it was expedient, for the advancement of naval 
architecture, that a portion of the intended Museum at Liverpool should be ap- 
propriated to thut purpose.” The Museum in question was only then pro- 
posed to be built by Mr. William Brown, M.P., whose impatience of delay 
has been shown by his generously erecting the Museum at his own expense, 
the first stone being laid in the winter of 1856. 
Meantime Mr. Arthur Anderson, Chairman of the Crystal Palace Com- 
pany, having obligingly placed the naval gallery of the Palace at the disposal 
of the Committee, for the exhibition of ships, life-boats, and fishing-boats, 
that difficulty may be considered removed for the future. 
At the meeting at Cheltenham, in 1856, it was resolved, that a Committee, 
consisting of Mr. A. Henderson, Mr. A. Anderson, Captain Sir E. Belcher, — 
R.N., Mr. J. R. Napier, Mr. J. Thompson, C.E., Mr. H. Ramsay, C.E., 
Captain J. P. Owen, and Sir W. Jardine, Bart., be requested to continue the 
investigation as to the statistics and condition of life-boats and fishing-boats ; 
as to the principles on which such boats should be constructed, the essential — 
conditions of their successful use, and the manner of establishing them 
round the coasts; with £5 at their disposal for the purpose. 
Unfortunately, these difficulties still exist; the only aid afforded by Go- 
Shee 
jaa eta eae: aeceoal 
dec lngin 
” 
