SAVING LIFE AT SEA. 



THE number of ships, the aggregate armament, steam 

 power, tonnage, crews, and equipment throughout, that 

 comprise the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom ; the 

 number of vessels, and the aggregate power, tonnage, and 

 crews of the English Mercantile Marine, the number of 

 persons it conveys, and the quantities and values of the 

 freights and cargoes it carries to and from all parts of the 

 globe, combine to place England at the head of the mari- 

 time nations of the world. The feeling of national pride 

 that this supremacy naturally inspires, is tempered by a 

 sense of humiliation because of wanton waste of human 

 life in connection with it ; of culpable neglect on the part 

 of shipowners in failing to supply, and of the responsible 

 authorities in failing to enforce, such provisions and con- 

 ditions for saving life at sea, in certain emergencies, as 

 passengers and crews may reasonably claim, and as 

 Government authority alone can prescribe and enforce. 



The subject of saving endangered life at sea is one that 

 enlists the sympathies of men of all classes and conditions ; 

 it commands great and ever-growing interest and attention ; 

 its discussion, like "a good maxim, can never be out of 

 place ; " reference to the subject in the permanent records 

 of "The Great International Fisheries Exhibition, 1883" is 

 deemed fit and appropriate, in its relation to the important 



