“MONTHLY MAGAZINE. | 
No. 211.} APRIL 1, 1811. [3 of Vox. 31. 
As long as thofe who write are ambitious of making Converts, and of giving their Opinions a Maximum of 
Influence and Celebrity, the moft extenfively circulated Mifcellany will repay with the greatet Effect the 
Curiofity of thofe who read either for Amufement or Inftruction.— JOHNSON, 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. hooks to it, attached toa rope) froma 
; sti, mortar, directly over the vessel; on the 
ITHOUT referring to the preten- line being drawn in, by the persons on 
sions which have appeared in the shore, the shot had taken secure 
your periodical publication of Dr. Carey hold, and fixed on some part of the 
and others, to the merit of saving ship- hull, the whole of the rigging having been 
wrecked seamen on a lee-shore, [ shall carried away the day previous to the 
beg, through the same channel, to state, vessel being stranded. By this means 
that those who consider how much power a boat was soon hauled to the vessel 
and glory this kingdom owes to its ma- from the shore, and the helpless sailors 
ritime commerce, will readily acknow- brought in safety to the land, when every 
ledge, that the person who facilitates , other effort to save them proved ineffecs 
the means, by lessening apprehension, tual. Every various form in which 
‘in providing against the dangers attend- a: accident could be supposed likely to 
ing it, is not only deserving the thanks, present itself, seemed to be provided 
but remuneration, of the country. The against; and I was strongly impressed 
proportion of vessels lost on the coast is, with the unequivocal sufficiency of this 
to those that founder at sea, or perish admirable invention, 
on reefs, at a distance from the land, as Few of the objects which we- desire 
nineteen to twenty; and of these, from are attained at once, and by a single 
_ the disposition of a large extent of the cause, the same wants offer themselves 
coast of these islands, many are lost so under various features of difficulty, and 
near the shore, that a boat cannot be require to’ be met with different. means, 
used for their assistance, for want of a The life-boat invented by Mr. Great. 
suificient depth of water to float it, the head is of effect in those shipwrecks 
beach being covered only as the waves that happen at a distance from the land ; 
~ roll in; and the sailors, if they commit Captain Manby’s invention is adapted 
themselves from their vessel, either are to those that happen under cliffs, or so 
drowned in struggling against the regur- near the shore that. no boat can be 
gitation, or killed by the violence with brought into use; where the beach gra. 
__ which they are dashed against the beach. dually declines (as I have already ob- 
Under these circumstances, which have served), it is covered with water only as 
hitherto precluded the possibility of ren- the waves roll in; and in the resorbency, 
_ dering them any assistance from the supposing that there is a sufficient depth 
shore, how many ships have perished, of water to float the boat, and force it 
year after year, with their wholecrews! out towards the sea fora moment, it is. 
I congratulate the country, therefore, again driven back by the next wave, to 
_ that the means bave at length been pro. the fury of which the action of the oars 
_ duced that completely meet and over- does not offer a sufficient resistance ; and 
_ come the complicated difiicuities and dis. these obstacles, in a violent storin, are. 
tresses of such situations. I was pre- of themselves enough to render all 
sent lately, when a large foreign galiot efforts to get the life-boat off to the dis-’ 
_ was driven by a violent storm on the tressed ‘vessel ineffectual, even if*it be 
beach at Yarmouth; the weather was not upset in the attempt; an accident, 
_ severely cold, and the sailorson board which is almost certain to bappen, from 
60 totally benumbed, as to be incapable . the extreme difficulty of keeping the boat 
_ of using the smallest exertion for their with the head to the waves, through 
deliverance; repeated endeavours to want of sufficient power on the action’of 
launch a boat from. the shore to their the oars, or depth of water to use them.’ 
Assistance were tried, but in vain; when, Under these arduous circumstances it 
on every effort proving fruitless,Captain appears to me, that the person who. 
Manby projected a shot (with barbed should invent a means of launching the 
' Moypury Mag, No, 211, 2c life. 
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