But as we have no accurate and continuous official record, even of the wrecks happening on our own coasts, till 1856, when the Board of Trade for the first time published its return, and, as there is no official record of the wrecks of British ships in other parts of the world until 1865, little reliance, beyond an approximate comparison, can be placed on the full extent of the casualties at sea till that period. In some measure they were guess work, and, as numerous vessels were no doubt lost of which no record of any kind had been kept until about the year 1836, the probabilities are that the loss of life was greater than the estimates of it made out by the Committees of 1836 or even of 1843.
Loss of life and ships, 1862
We have, however, a return[242] for the three years previously to 1863 much more complete and accurate than any earlier ones, on which reliance may be placed, showing that, on an average in each of these years, 1004 ships, of 251,000 tons, belonging to the British Empire, and 1316 lives were lost. The average number of ships on the register in these years belonging to the whole Empire was 38,932, of 5,882,565 tons, and the British ships entered and cleared in the foreign trade of the United Kingdom were 56,997, of 15,094,105 tons.
and 1873.
Percentage of loss of life, 1833 to 1873.
The last return,[243] made for 1871-3 inclusive shows that the average number of ships lost in each of these three years was 1095, of 319,790 tons, and of lives was 1952; the number of ships belonging to the British Empire being then 37,086, of 7,168,618 tons, and the entries and clearances of vessels engaged in the foreign trade of the United Kingdom being 73,783 vessels, of 27,275,339 tons. No doubt this return shows a sacrifice of life which every humane or right-minded person must wish to mitigate, as to desire to save life has now happily become one of the highest objects of ambition among nations who are truly civilised, but, considering the number of vessels afloat, and the enormous increase in the entries and clearances, it, at the same time, shows a very considerable comparative reduction on the losses of previous years so far as they can be ascertained or estimated, more especially when we consider that previous returns included only the vessels belonging to the United Kingdom, whereas the later ones embrace the tonnage of the whole of the British Empire then greatly increased, and that, too, by steam vessels, increasing the risk of disaster to a serious extent by the rapidity of their movements.
Further recommendations.
But to this important question I shall more fully refer hereafter. In the meantime I may state that, among the various other recommendations offered by the Committee of 1836, may be mentioned the formation of a Mercantile Marine Board; the compilation and consolidation of a Code of Mercantile Marine Laws; the improved classification of ships; nautical schools; courts of inquiry into shipwrecks; tribunals for the settlement of disputes; savings-banks for seamen, and asylums for them in old age or when unfit for duty; and, above all, “discouragement of drinking on board,” while attention was called “to the vast superiority in officers, crews, and equipments, and to the consequent superior success and growth of American shipping.”
To remedy many of these evils various Acts of Parliament were passed, to most of which I have already referred, and, presently, I shall refer at length to the great changes for the better made since then in the classification of our ships by Lloyd’s Register and other private associations; but some years elapsed before the more important of these recommendations were carried into effect. In the meantime, the new organisation in connection with the classification of ships, which had been established in 1834, stirred up, no doubt, by the report of the Committee, was laying the foundation for that career of success which has since attended its efforts. Other similar associations followed; one in Liverpool, which was afterwards amalgamated with Lloyd’s Register, and the Veritas, a foreign association, still carrying on its useful work in this country, though to a limited extent, but largely in Canada, as well as on the Continent and in the United States of America.
The Committee of 1843, confirming the recommendations of its predecessor in 1836, added to them the survey of passenger ships; amendments in the law of pilotage, the establishment of signals by sound at the principal lighthouses, and of rocket and mortar apparatuses for the saving of life on different parts of the coast; the supply of life-buoys and belts in case of shipwreck; the carrying of life-boats in all passenger vessels; a revision of the laws and administration for the protection from plunder of wrecked property; international regulations for vessels meeting at sea, and a code of laws for the guidance and protection of seamen. All of these recommendations, and many others for the protection of life and property at sea, have since been carried into effect.