320 THE SEA. 



" On the other hand, great and noble work was accomplished during- the same period, 

 4,795 lives having been saved from the various shipwrecks. In bringing about that most 

 important service, it is hardly necessary to say that the craft of the National Life-boat 

 Institution played a most important part, in conjunction with the Board of Trade's rocket 

 apparatus, which is so efficiently worked by the Coastguard and our Volunteer Brigades. 



" Nevertheless, the aggregate loss of life is very large, and so is the aggregate destruction 

 of property. The former is a species of woe inflicted on humanity ; the latter is practically 

 a tax upon commerce. ' While the art of saving life on the coasts is understood (thanks to 

 the progress of science the earnestness of men and the stout hearts of our coast population), 

 the art of preserving property is as yet but imperfectly known amongst us, and still 

 more imperfectly practised. 



"On reviewing the Wreck Register Abstract of the past year, we are bound to take 

 courage from the many gratifying facts it reveals in regard to saving life, which, after 

 all, is our principal object in commenting upon it. Noble work has been done, and is 

 doing, for that purpose ; and is it not something, amidst all this havoc of the sea, to help 

 to save even one life, with all its hopes, and to keep the otherwise desolate home unclouded ? " 



Among the useful works undertaken by the National Life-boat Institution is the 

 discussion in its journal of all matters connected with the art of swimming, and swimming 

 and floating apparatus. The Society also issues a valuable circular on the "Treatment of 

 the apparently Drowned," to which further allusion will be hereafter made. The writer 

 is so satisfied that no humane or charitable institution in the wide world is better or more 

 economically managed than that under notice, that he would urge all readers of THE SEA 

 to contribute to its funds. And although every reader may not be able to afford his guinea 

 or guineas, he can contribute his shillings or half-crowns, and his influence in aiding one of 

 the local branches, or in forming new ones. A number of life-boats stationed on various 

 parts of the coasts were the gifts of other associations and bodies. The Civil Service. 

 Corn Exchange, Coal Exchange, Freemasons, Odd Fellows, Foresters, Good Templars, and 

 other orders, have contributed nobly. Several boats and stations, generally named after the 

 particular fund, were contributed by London and other Sunday-schools, Jewish scholars, 

 commercial travellers, workmen, yacht, boat, and other clubs ; while three were the result 

 of an appeal to the readers of the Quiver, two are credited to the Dundee People's Journal, 

 and one each to the British Workman and English Mechanic. And in concluding the 

 second volume of THE SEA, the writer considers that he has a special right to urge the 

 claims of the Society on his readers, the subject-matter of its pages being taken into 

 account. 



END OF VOLUME II. 



CASSELL PETTEH & OALPIS, BELLE SAUVAGE WOEKS, LONDON, B.C. 



