Loss of Lives through Shipwreck. 341 
“ Ship Owners’ Society, July 14, 1818. 
Sir,—I have received your letter of the Sth of May, and the 
several papers since placed in my hands, on the subject of your 
invention for preserving lives and property in cases of shipwreck ; 
and having laid the same before the Committee of this Society, 
they have considered them with great attention, as also the ap- 
paratus sent for their inspection ; and I have the pleasure to make 
known to you, that the Committee do highly approve of your in- 
vention, as possessing all the merit which is ascribed to it by the 
respectable gentlemen of Falmouth, in their certificate, and alike 
creditable to your ingenuity and humanity ; and the Committee 
will avail themselves of every opportunity of recommending the 
adoption of it on board of merchant vessels, 
I am, sir, your respectful and obedient servant, 
Mr. Henry Trengrouse. (Signed) §S. Cock, Secretary.” 
Report of the Committee of the Elder Brethren, to whom was 
referred the Invention of Mr. H, Trengrouse, for saving Sea- 
men from shipwrecked Vessels, 
“* The several letters, certificates, reports, and observations on 
Mr. Trengrouse’s invention for saving seamen from shipwrecked 
vessels being read, the Committee touk into consideration the 
utility of the apparatus, and believe it to afford a very probable 
means of saving lives from vessels driven on shore or stranded, 
in situations where being within reach of communication with the 
shore, its adoption would be practicable on board the unfortunate 
vessel that may be wrecked; and from the material of commu- 
nication being carried within the vessel itself, they think it highly 
preferable to any other mode yet proposed, as it thus must be al- 
ways at hand, ready to be applied the moment when wanted ; 
and the projected instrument would be easily and certainly dis- 
coverable, even at night, by persons on shore, so as to establish 
the wished-for communication of an hawser ; and the cost of the 
whole being but trivial, the Brethren do therefore recommend 
that all vessels be furnished and provided with the apparatus of 
the rocket and other articles exhibited, 
Trinity-House, London, Sept. 3, 1818. (Signed) Js. Courr.” 
The following is copied from a Morning Paper, and is the report 
of a gentleman who witnessed the experiment,—an utter 
stranger to me, and whom I never saw before then; conse- 
quently he could have been only influenced by the merits of 
the apparatus. 
“ There are no calamities that have befallen human beings, 
especially if the evils are likely to recur, that have not aroused 
Englishmen’s minds to ponder whether remedies against them 
could not be provided; and hence may we trace the numberless 
institutions that grace this country, and make it stand pre- 
3 ' eminent 
