20 3 



fatality. In addition to this defect of inadequacy in number 

 and capacity, the boats are little better than ghastly 

 " properties " in the terrible dramas enacted when ships 

 are lost by collision, fire, or wreck. The boats should be 

 always, but they seldom are, in perfect condition, readily 

 accessible and available. They are usually treated with 

 contempt and neglect, and as though they would never^be 

 wanted. 



Delay occurs, and difficulties, sometimes insuperable, 

 present themselves in attempts to lower, launch, and dis- 

 engage some of the boats ; to release others from the 

 chocks by which they are secured, from the tarpaulin under 

 which they are lashed ; to clear them one from another, and 

 to empty them of the stores, live stock, &c., that have been 

 placed in them ; to find plugs and rowlocks, and to launch 

 them haphazard by a tumble over the bulwarks. Got into 

 the water anyhow, and crowded with a living freight that 

 sinks the boat to the gunwales, the poor little craft, unfit 

 and frail, is often staved in, swamped, or turned keel up on 

 the crest of an angry wave. As providing means of saving 

 life in case of shipwreck, as offering refuge or deliverance, the 

 boat system has utterly failed and hopelessly broken down. 



A few illustrations of the inadequacy of life-saving appli- 

 ances hitherto provided for ships, in anticipation of distress, 

 conclusively prove, we venture to think, the first proposition. 

 The " o'er-true tales " are very sad, but some of them are 

 happily relieved, almost glorified, by the aureola, so to say, 

 with which the heroism of the expiring actors has invested 

 them. The noble and pitiful story of the loss of the 

 Birkenhead troopship is now rather old, but 



Oft should the tale be told, 

 E'en when our babes are old, 

 How calm went those soldiers bold 

 Down to their death ! 



