Return of lives lost and saved between 1855 and 1873.
The following table shows the number of lives saved, and the number of lives lost on and near the coasts of the United Kingdom, 1855-1873.
| Year. | Lives Saved. | Lives Lost.[274] | |||||||
| By Life Boats. | By Rocket, and Mortar Apparatus, Lines, &c. | By Luggers, and Coastguard and other Boats. | By Ships and Steam Boats. | By Ships’ own Boats. | By Individual Exertion. | By other means. | Total Lives Saved. | ||
| 1855-6 | 336 | 499 | 1351 | 489 | .. | 22 | .. | 2,697 | 485 |
| 1856-7 | 634 | 383 | 606 | 587 | .. | 21 | .. | 2,231 | 521 |
| 1857-8 | 120 | 149 | 683 | 244 | .. | 17 | .. | 1,213 | 539 |
| 1858-9 | 220 | 154 | 878 | 622 | .. | 16 | .. | 1,890 | 353 |
| 1859-60 | 367 | 407 | 681 | 769 | 951[275] | 9 | .. | 3,184 | 1,647 |
| 1860-1 | 771 | 415 | 467 | 858 | 1,499 | 14 | 362[275] | 4,386 | 537 |
| 1861-2 | 322 | 415 | 371 | 919 | 1,425 | 27 | 396 | 3,875 | 884 |
| 1862-3 | 291 | 252 | 414 | 1,319 | 1,289 | 9 | 531 | 4,105 | 690 |
| 1863-4 | 472 | 256 | 424 | 1,533 | 1,465 | 10 | 439 | 4,599 | 620 |
| 1864-5 | 293 | 347 | 338 | 1,003 | 1,459 | 22 | 232 | 3,694 | 516 |
| 1865-6 | 480 | 490 | 462 | 1,000 | 2,195 | 7 | 374 | 5,008 | 698 |
| 1866-7 | 378 | 527 | 385 | 986 | 2,728 | 13 | 765 | 5,782 | 896 |
| 1867-8 | 377 | 310 | 843 | 1,060 | 1,902 | 6 | 660 | 5,158 | 1,333 |
| 1868-9 | 504 | 333 | 317 | 719 | 2,062 | .. | 561 | 4,496 | 824 |
| 1869-70 | 532 | 354 | 383 | 714 | 2,067 | 8 | 443 | 4,501 | 933 |
| 1870-1 | 473 | 203 | 500 | 1,062 | 2,795 | 2 | 459 | 5,495 | 774 |
| 1871-2 | 403 | 293 | 265 | 990 | 1,737 | .. | 245 | 3,933 | 626 |
| 1872-3 | 548 | 715 | 582 | 647 | 1,888 | 6 | 388 | 4,774 | 590 |
| Total | 7521 | 6502 | 9950 | 15,522 | 25,462 | 209 | 5855 | 71,021 | 13,466 |
[274] The figures in this column show the number of lives lost between the 1st January and 31st of December in each year. The number of lives lost during the first six months of 1873 is 728.
[275] No record kept for former years.
[276] We expended between 1555 and 1873 143,660l. (see ‘Wreck Returns, 1874,’ p. 11) in providing apparatus for saving life, and in rewards to individuals as well as awards of the National Lifeboat Institution (apart altogether from the efforts of that noble Society, about which see ante, note, [p. 315]), and Her Majesty was graciously pleased (12th April, 1867) to issue her warrant instituting two decorations, the “Albert Medal of the first class,” and the “Albert Medal of the second class,” to reward brave men, who have been conspicuous for saving life at sea or on the coast.
[277] The total number of vessels and their tonnage, including their repeated voyages, that entered and cleared at the ports in the United Kingdom with cargoes and in ballast from and to foreign countries and British possessions for the year 1873 was 130,075, of 44,439,986 tons; the entrances and clearance coastwise with cargoes only, 332,148 vessels, of 40,632,014 tons. If I add to these the coasters in ballast and those with the description of cargo of which no note is taken at the Customs, as also the vessels frequenting the Channel, and bound for Hamburg, Bremen, and the Northern ports of Europe, which do not enter any of the ports of the United Kingdom, of which no return is kept, it will be found that I have not over-estimated the number which now annually pass along or frequent our coasts.—‘Navigation and Shipping of the United Kingdom for the Year 1873.’ Presented to Parliament, 1874.
[278] This point involves many grave questions. Happily, men do not altogether live for the purpose of making money—they have other and far nobler objects in view. Some, indeed, but they are rare and grand characters, live altogether for the benefit of mankind and the progress of the human race. There are others who follow a business or profession, not altogether because it yields them profit, but because it affords them pleasure. Such is the case to a large extent in this country. We are a seafaring people, and we pursue occupations in connexion with it frequently as much for pleasure as for profit. We enjoy the business of Shipowners, because it is natural to us, and we take a delight in improving the forms of our ships. I have seen a captain whose heart was in his ship, caress her!—yes, caress her, by clapping the taffrail where he stood when she was performing her work to his satisfaction, as if she had been a living thing, and heard him exclaiming, “Go a-head, my beauty!” just as many persons may have been heard extolling the performance of a favourite horse. Care must, therefore, be taken not to interfere by unnecessary legislative enactments with what is not merely our business but our pride and pleasure, or we may be driven, to the serious loss of the nation, to seek other investments for our capital. We have now arrived at that point where competition has become so close that if we tax our Shipowners to any greater extent than they are now taxed, directly or indirectly (interference with their affairs is the heaviest as well as the most obnoxious of all taxes), we shall most assuredly drive their ships from the trades in which they are now engaged, or compel them to submit to the humiliation of seeking a Foreign register, and hoisting a Foreign flag.
[280] The year previous to 1873-4 was a much more disastrous one than the year before it, as there were 728 lives lost in the six months ending 30th June, 1873, which is in some measure accounted for by the wreck of the ship Northfleet, when 293 lives were lost.