342 Observations on the Loss of Lives through Shipwreck. 
eminent amongst nations for its regard to every thing that con- 
cerns humanity. As islanders, and as adventurous islanders, we 
are compelled to resort to the ocean as affording the means of 
sustaining our greatness ; and that spirit of adventure has of 
course exposed our countrymen to divers and most afflicting 
dangers. Often within gunshot of our own shores, have hundreds 
upon hundreds of our brave countrymen perished ; and not be- 
cause they wanted courage to buffet the waves, but because they 
had not any means to make use of on which they could rely to 
secure their deliverance.—Various individuals have at different 
times suggested measures for the rescue of persons exposed to 
destruction in consequence of shipwreck ; and amongst the rest, 
Captain Manby has been the most conspicuous. He devised me- 
thods for opening communications between the shore and the 
vessel. This, of course, might accomplish much ; but it will be 
readily conceived to how much uncertainty it'exposed the crew. 
The vessel might be in danger where there was no ‘ station,” 
as wind and tide wait for no man—so it still remained to invent 
means of communicating with the shore from the ship. To ef- 
fect this istoaccomplish every thing ; for if a distressed vessel have 
an established communication with the shore, by which means 
the persons on board can*be forwarded to land, the means of 
safety are at hand. This destderatum, an earnest, and humanely 
disposed individual, named Henry Trengrouse, of Helston, con- 
siders himself to have supplied; and we must own that he has 
accomplished much more than we deemed possible to effect by 
such simple means. 
“* Yesterday his experiments were tried on the Serpentine River 
in Hyde Park, from the Royal Humane Society’s Station, in pre- 
sence of the Duke of Sussex, many members of that laudable In- 
stitution, and Mr. Pettigrew, its secretary. The experiments 
greatly surpassed expectation; and the select party present ex- 
. pressed their unqualified approbation of the leading principle of 
the invention. The first object of the invention is to establish 
a communication with the shore from the ship—(the opposite of 
what has yet been effected,) and this is done by firing off a rocket 
placed at the top of a gun, carrying at its tail a line from the 
ship. This. was effected across the Serpentine, 140 or 150 yards 
wide, by means of a common musket, A strong line was then 
drawn over by persons on the opposite shore, and by it a hawser 
— previously to the hawser being dragged ashore, a person sup- 
plied with a convenient cork jacket (or *¢ sailors’s life-spencer’’) 
was hauled over with the greatest ease and convenience ; and so 
useful was the jacket, that two other persons might proceed by 
clinging to it. The hawser having been fixed to the shore, a 
species of swing chair, with admirable invented pulleys and rollers 
at 
