ALL SAVED! 



261 



hunting about, came upon the very last and ninth man of the crew, lying, half in the 

 water and half out, upon the beach among a quantity of wreck. His supposition had 

 been correct in regard to his position on the rocks, but while assistance was being procured 

 he had been washed ashore, with shattered limbs bruised, helpless, unconscious, but alive! 

 The poor fellow, who remained unconscious, was carried to the farm, where some old whisky- 

 jars were filled with hot water and placed to his feet. The little whisky in the house was 

 divided among the benumbed men, and more solid provision set before them. 



And now Ronayne's house contained over twenty inmates, most of them standing 

 round the turf fire wringing the water from their clothes and warming their frozen limbs; 

 the few beds, too, had their occupants. For Ronayne the work had but barely commenced. 

 Saddling his young mare, he started to lay information of the wreck before Lloyd's Deputy 

 Receiver at Tramore, some twelve miles distant, for eight shillings were to be earned, and for 

 this trifling reward he was prepared to ride some twenty-four miles on a cold winter night. 



On his road he passed the doctor's house, and sent him to attend the injured men, 

 arriving at Tramore a few minutes before the telegram from the coastguard station. 

 Two of the sailors were afterwards removed to the hospital, and recovered, and they and the 

 remainder cared for by the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society's agents. Ronayne was indemnified 

 for any expense he had incurred by the same Society, and the Life-boat Institution shortly 

 after rewarded him. 



CHAPTER XX. 



SHIPS THAT " P.VSS BY ON THE OTHER SlDE." 



Captains and Owners- Reasons for apparent Inhumanity A Case in Point The Wreck of the Northfleet Run down by 

 the MurilloA. Noble Captain The Vessel Lost, with a Hundred Ships near her One within Three Hundred Yards 

 Official Inquiry Loss of the Schiller Two Hundred Drowned in one heavy Sea Life-saving Apparatus of little 

 use Lessons of the DisasterWreck of the Dcutschland Harwich blamed unjustly The good Tug-boat Liverpool 

 and her Work Necessity of proper Communication with Light-houses and Light-ships The new Signal Code and 

 old Semaphores. 



FROM time to time there appear in the public journals accounts given by sailors who 

 have been saved from imminent peril from drowning by passing ships. Many and many 

 an honourable case could be cited ; but there are, alas ! ships that " pass by on the other 

 side." An article in the journal* issued quarterly by that grand society the National 

 Life-boat Institution explains some of the reasons for this sad state of affairs. The writer 

 generally denies that the majority of the masters of ships who would pass another vessel 

 in distress are brutal or callous, and thinks that were many of them brought face to face 

 with an isolated case of probable drowning, they would not hesitate to expose their own 

 lives to preserve the one endangered. There must be some strong causes operating on 

 the minds of the men who act in the inhuman manner indicated. Among them are the 

 following : 



" 1st. That the loss of time which the most trifling service of this kind causes would 

 * The Life-boat : a Journal of the Life-boat Institution. November 2nd, 1874. 



