Stories of the Lifeboat. Frank Mundell
boats belonging to the National Lifeboat Institution are kept in roomy and substantial boathouses under lock and key. The coxswain has full charge of the boat, both when afloat and ashore. He receives a salary of £8 a year, and his assistant £2 a year. The crew of the lifeboat consists of a bowman and as many men as the boat pulls oars. On every occasion of going afloat to save life, each man receives ten shillings, if by day; and £1, if by night. This money is paid to the men out of the funds of the Institution, whether they have been successful or not. During the winter months these payments are now increased by one half.
MEDAL OF THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION.
The cost of a boat with its equipment of stores--cork lifebelts, anchors, lines, lifebuoys, lanterns, and other articles--is upwards of £700, and the expense of building the boathouse amounts to £300, while the cost of maintaining it is £70 a year. The Institution also awards medals to those who have distinguished themselves by their bravery in saving life from shipwreck. One side of this medal is adorned with a bust of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, who is the patroness of the Institution. The other side represents three sailors in a lifeboat, one of whom is rescuing an exhausted mariner from the waves with the inscription, "Let not the deep swallow me up." Additional displays of heroism are rewarded by clasps bearing the number of the service.
"When we think of the vast extent of our dangerous coasts, and of our immense interest in shipping, averaging arrivals and departures of some 600,000 vessels a year; when we think of the number of lives engaged, some 200,000 men and boys, besides untold thousands of passengers, and goods amounting to many millions of pounds in value, the immense importance of the lifeboat service cannot be over-estimated." Well may we then, "when the storm howls loudest," pray that God will bless that noble Society, and the band of humble heroes who man the three hundred lifeboats stationed around the coasts of the British Isles.
CHAPTER II.
LIFEBOAT DISASTERS.
Sir William Hillary, who may be regarded as the founder of the National Lifeboat Institution, distinguished himself, while living on the Isle of Man, by his bravery in rescuing shipwrecked crews. It was estimated that in twenty-five years upwards of a hundred and forty vessels were wrecked on the island, and a hundred and seventy lives were lost; while the destruction of property was put down at a quarter of a million. In 1825, when the steamer City of Glasgow went ashore in Douglas Bay, Sir William Hillary went out in the lifeboat and assisted in taking sixty-two people off the wreck. In the same year the brig Leopard went ashore, and Sir William again went to the rescue and saved eleven lives. While he lived on the island, hardly a year passed without him adding fresh laurels to his name, and never did knight of old rush into the fray with greater ardour than did this gallant knight of the nineteenth century to the rescue of those in peril on the sea. His greatest triumph, however, was on the 20th of November 1830, when the mail steamer St. George stranded on St. Mary's Rock and became a total wreck. The whole crew, twenty-two in number, were rescued by the lifeboat. On this occasion he was washed overboard among the wreck, and it was with the greatest difficulty that he was saved, having had six of his ribs broken.
In 1843 the lifeboat stationed at Robin Hood Bay went out to the assistance of the Ann of London. Without mishap the wreck was reached, and the work of rescue was begun. Several of the shipwrecked men jumped into the boat just as a great wave struck her, and she upset. Some of the crew managed to scramble on to the bottom of the upturned boat and clung to the keel for their lives.
The accident had been witnessed by the men on the beach, and five of them immediately put out to the rescue. They had hardly left the shore when an enormous sea swept down upon them, causing the boat to turn a double somersault, and drowning two of the crew. Altogether twelve men lost their lives on this occasion. Those who were saved floated ashore on the bottom of the lifeboat.
The Herd Sand, memorable as the scene of the wreck of the Adventure, witnessed a lamentable disaster in 1849, when the Betsy of Littlehampton went aground. The South Shields lifeboat, manned by twenty-four experienced pilots, went out to the rescue. While preparing to take the crew on board, she was struck by a heavy sea, and before she could recover herself, a second mighty wave threw her over. Twenty out of the twenty-four of her crew were drowned. The remainder and the crew of the Betsy were rescued by two other lifeboats, which put off from the shore immediately upon witnessing what had happened.
The advantages of the self-righting and self-emptying boats may be best judged from the fact, that since their introduction in 1852, as many as seventy thousand men have gone out in these boats on service, and of these only seventy-nine have nobly perished in their gallant attempts to rescue others. This is equal to a loss of one man in every eight hundred and eighty.
During the terrible storm which swept down upon our coast in 1864, the steamer Stanley of Aberdeen was wrecked while trying to enter the Tyne. The Constance lifeboat was launched from Tynemouth, and proceeded to the scene of the wreck. The night was as dark as pitch, and from the moment that the boat started, nothing was to be seen but the white flash of the sea, which broke over the boat and drenched the crew. As quickly as she freed herself of water, she was buried again and again. At length the wreck was reached, and while the men were waiting for a rope to be passed to them, a gigantic wave burst over the Stanley and buried the lifeboat. Every oar was snapped off at the gunwale, and the outer ends were swept away, leaving nothing but the handles. When the men made a grasp for the spare oars they only got two--the remainder had been washed overboard.
It was almost impossible to work the Constance with the rudder and two oars, and while she was in this disabled condition a second wave burst upon her. Four of the crew either jumped or were thrown out of the boat, and vanished from sight. A third mighty billow swept the lifeboat away from the wreck, and it was with the utmost difficulty that she was brought to land. Two of the men, who had been washed out of the boat, reached the shore in safety, having been kept afloat by their lifebelts. The other two were drowned.
Speaking of the attempted rescue, the coxswain of the Constance said: "Although this misfortune has befallen us, it has given fresh vigour to the crew of the lifeboat. Every man here is ready, should he be called on again, to act a similar part."
Thirty-five of those on board the Stanley, out of a total number of sixty persons, were afterwards saved by means of ropes from the shore.
One of the most heartrending disasters, which have befallen the modern lifeboat, happened on the night of the 9th of December 1886. The lifeboats at Southport and St. Anne's went out in a furious gale to rescue the crew of a German vessel named the Mexico. Both were capsized, and twenty-seven out of the twenty-nine who manned them were drowned. It was afterwards found out that the Southport boat succeeded in making the wreck, and was about to let down her anchor when she was capsized by a heavy sea. Contrary to all expectations the boat did not right, being probably prevented from doing so by the weight of the anchor which went overboard when the boat upset.
What happened to the St. Anne's lifeboat can never be known, for not one of her crew was saved to tell the tale. It is supposed that she met with some accident while crossing a sandbank, for, shortly after she had been launched, signals