owners and underwriters have all the length of tether they desire, but if they cause loss of life or limb, then "let them have justice without mercy." We say so now with reference to this Mary. A father and son -first and second engineers-drifted about on the Bay of Biscay from 4 p.m. till 7 a.m. following, on a piece of wreck, the top of a watercloset. At 7 p.m. they took on, beside them, another victim who had been floating for three hours, and had lost a thumb by the mast falling on his hand when the steamer broke in two. Let us picture to ourselves these three men as they were that night-one with his thumbstump wrapped in his cap; the father without his jacket. He said the boat broke under his feet, and he stooped to call his son to come up, as she was breaking-up, and when he rose up, his jacket had been caught in the break, and he ran and left it. If that picture does not suffice, try another: not far from these, but out of reach of sight or hearing, is the lifeboat, smashed by the mast, but floating by its cork buoyancy; the water inside on a level with the water outside, and with one oar raised with a jacket on it for a signal. There are five brave men in that thing, and they have no food and no drink. On the second day one of the number dies from exhaustion, then a second one becomes delirious and jumps overboard. On the next day a third one of the number becomes delirious and jumps overboard twice, and is twice pulled back by his two miserable fellow waifs; a third time he jumps, and this time he is beyond their reach; they have no oars, and he sinks, and they have another night by themselves, signalling and hailing every vessel that came in sight, for they still had their sight and their reason, although they had had neither food nor water for sixty hours. They were then rescued by a passing vessel, and the above is their story. They say the Mary was bending like a fishing-rod from the very first. She had to put into Belfast and then to Kingston for shelter; and then the Mary, a river-boat of the lightest construction, intended to draw only 27 inches of water when on her station, with decks only ths inch thick of sheet iron, and no wood on it to stiffen it, this boat, with no additional strengthening for the voyage, only 200 tons of coal added to her normal load to keep her from being blown away, was actually steamed into the Bay of Biscay all a-crumpling as she went; and, after exciting the wonder of the engineers that "she must be of good iron, that boat, to bend so far without breaking," she then broke to show them she could break as well as bend; and in fine weather, on a long gentle swell, the steamer Mary broke in two, and went below. This is a statement of the account; it is an account that is now waiting for settlement.

If a jury of twelve honest men and true will decide that such things are all the legitimate risks of a fair trade, then seaworthy ships are

not wanted by the public mind, and a popular Government ought not to interfere with the unseaworthies. If, on the other hand, they bring home the responsibility to those who were pecuniarily concerned in the venture, the " flimsies" will have received their death-blow far more effectually than could have been accomplished by the appointment of all the self-styled experts, and all the half-pay captains in the country as surveyors of unseaworthy ships.

W

LIFE-SAVING ROCKET APPARATUS.

E have a distinct suggestion to make to the Board of Trade concerning the present occasional unsatisfactory state of the mortar and rocket life-saving apparatus on the coasts of the United Kingdom. The Board of Trade are empowered to spend, and do spend, very wisely and liberally out of the Mercantile Marine Fund all expenses for providing and maintaining this apparatus in a state of efficiency, and for ensuring that it shall be used at wrecks with the utmost promptitude in emergencies. That the money is spent and that the apparatus is still, in many cases, useless is what we think demands attention. At North and South Shields, and at some other places, the coastguard and volunteers have their hearts in their work, but at very many stations this is not so. A lavish expenditure in providing the apparatus, and a niggardly expenditure for inspecting it and using it, are the present fashion. For our own part, we think it would be better, as it would be infinitely cheaper, for many stations to be broken up at once. At present the apparatus is, through parsimony and absence of co-operation, a rotten reed that will lead to great disaster.

In the first place, owing to Admiralty arrangements, the coastguard men are sometimes sent bodily away scores of miles to drill in a coastguard ship in harbour when their presence is most needed on the coast, and thus it came about at the wreck of the Chusan, at Ardrossan, from which every life might have been saved with the utmost certainty and the utmost ease had there been any sufficient number of coastguards on the spot to use the rockets, that they were lost because the coastguard were snugly stowed away in a drill-ship in an inland harbour. The one solitary coastguardsman left at Ardrossan could do nothing. He could not use the apparatus by himself and no one else could help him, and the result was as the Board of Trade might have expected, had they thought about the matter at all. Then the lifeboat, a beautiful, but heavy

self-righting contrivance, was only capable of being bumped about inside the harbour, while a little skiff went out to the wreck with great gallantry. That she saved no life was not the fault of those who manned her, as the Board of Trade payment of £3 to each of the crew testified. In the second place, the boats of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution monopolize the coastguard at many stations, so that the rocket apparatus is sometimes left useless. Where there is a lifeboat as well as a rocket apparatus at a station the coastguard naturally man the lifeboat and leave the rockets, and they do this for two reasons. The Board of Trade pay almost nothing for services of Coastguard with the apparatus, and make no reference to them by publishing the cases in newspapers, so that the men are neither well paid nor publicly recognized; whilst the Lifeboat Institution pay liberally, and advertise, and publish effectually. When a lifeboat does not go out or fails, no official notice is taken (the lifeboats at Ardrossan, Fraserburg and Shields, failed absolutely recently; but there is no public inquiry and no condemnation); but when the rocket apparatus fails, or is not used, public inquiry and public censure follow. When a gallant rocket rescue is effected no one hears of it; but whenever a lifeboat goes off, whether there is danger or not, it is like a fire to a fire insurance office, and means advertisements, more publicity, and more subscriptions. To such an extent is the lifeboat mania carried, that people seem to have come to look upon the presenting of a lifeboat, as an act as meritorious as, in the superstitious ages, was thought to be the endowing of a monastery, a nunnery, or a chapel, or eternal provision for candles and masses for a soul.

Everyone knows that for capturing slavers on the coast of Africa and freeing blacks the sum of £5 is paid for each man freed, while for saving the life of British seamen from shipwreck on our coasts by the rocket apparatus, 5s. is about the sum paid by the Board of Trade. The coxswain of every lifeboat has a salary paid by the Institution. The same man often, for taking charge of the rocket apparatus, gets nothing but a deal of official form filling. The payments is 10s. to £2 to each man who goes out in a lifeboat. The Board of Trade pay for using the rocket apparatus-to the officer, 2s. when life is not saved, and 48. when it is; and to the men from 2s. to 5s. It does not require great acumen to see why the men go in the lifeboat and leave the rocket apparatus alone. We know of a case where a coastguard at great risk saved ten lives, even by going out in a boat, and was paid by the Board of Trade 158.-that is to say, 1s. 6d. a life. The risk was infinitely greater than lifeboat service, because the boat was a common one, and neither buoyant nor self-righting.

Again, the coastguard officers, in many cases, take but little interest in the apparatus; they are not paid for inspecting it, and for seeing to

periodical drills. The lines are, in many cases, in a bad state, and the apparatus. seems to be stowed away, and as far as possible forgotten. Some of the inspecting officers do not even know what the stores are, and they are wasted and neglected.

All this goes to show three things as regards the rocket apparatusFirst, that better inspection is wanted.

Secondly, that better payment and due acknowledgment and publication of services are wanted.

Thirdly, that some rigid rule is wanted whereby the coastguard, as public servants, are to attend to the rocket apparatus, which is public property. Fourthly, that the practise of sending the coastguard bodily away, when they must be wanted at wrecks, requires reconsideration.

We recollect how all things went well in the good old days, when the Commodore of the coastguard had a separate office, and was responsible; and we hear with delight, of the determination of the present Government to incur the wise expenditure of again establishing that separate command. It is the true economy of judicious expenditure. We have no doubt that as soon as Admiral Sir Walter Tarleton is installed in his new office, in Spring Gardens, he will co-operate in these matters as he did of old; and we hope that by a little more liberal expenditure on the part of the Board of Trade the present very unsatisfactory state of things will be remedied. The rocket apparatus is the best that human ingenuity and lavish expenditure can provide, and it is galling to think that it is so far rendered useless by parsimony and absence of command at the last moment. The good ship is spoiled for want of the proverbial halfpennyworth of tar.

DOCKS AT SHARPNESS.

HE rage for new dock-works seems to be extending, and has seized the rather somnolent populations on the banks of the Severn. In order to meet the want felt for accommodation for the larger class of vessels now frequenting our seas, the Gloucestershire people commenced, in 1871, to build larger works at the opening of the "Gloucester and Berkeley Canal," at Sharpness Point, situated on the southern bank of the Severn river. The works were completed about the beginning of November last, but, owing to an accumulation of silt at the mouth of the new basin, they were not formally opened until the 25th of that month

at 9 a.m., amid most unpropitious weather. The rain fell incessantly, and a cold, strong, southerly wind prevailed. Notwithstanding the cheerless prospect, a crowd of people assembled, amongst whom where the chairman and some of the directors of the company. The first vessel to be docked was the barque Director (600 tons), of St. John, N.B.; and the second the full-rigged ship Protector (854 tons), of Norway. Both were laden with timber. The former had some difficulty, owing to the set of the tide shearing her on to the curve of the north pier; but the latter entered with more ease. Guns were fired in honour of the event; and the chairman of the company (Mr. Lucy), together with Mr. Clegram, the engineer, were especially congratulated by those assembled on the success of the achievement so successfully carried out. A local paper observes:-"The ease with which the vessels entered placed the successful planning and construction of the entrance beyond a doubt. The slight hindrance caused by the Director getting over to the north pier was owing to a little miscalculation, which experience will easily prevent; while the quickness with which the second vessel followed shows that there will be ample time for a number of vessels to enter at each tide. The advantage thus gained is not likely to be over-estimated. One of the great drawbacks to the trade of the port has not only been the inability of the old entrance to admit large vessels, but the long and costly detentions at King Road, because of the small number of vessels which, owing to the difficulties of entrance, could get in at each tide. This is now obviated, and the splendid accommodation which is also provided in the discharging basin for vessels staying or proceeding to Gloucester, reducing loss of time, and, consequently, loss of trade, to a minimum, shows that all that was aimed at has been gained in the construction of Sharpness New Docks."

The dimensions of the new works are as follows:-Tidal basin, 700 feet long, by 300 feet wide; width of entrance, 60 feet; depth of entrance at high water, 26 feet; lock, 320 feet long and 60 feet wide; three gates in lock, 60 feet wide each; entrance to Canal from lock, 24 feet deep; discharging dock, 2,200 feet, by 350 feet, diminishing to 200 feet, or 13 acres. The cost amounts to about the sum authorised to be raised by the Act under which the works are constructed—namely, £200,000.

As our readers are aware, the Canal mentioned connects the Bristol Channel and the city of Gloucester. It is a ship-canal, and is considered, in some respects, one of the best in the kingdom. Practically, it has formed the port of Gloucester since its opening on the 26th April, 1827. The company have now acquired the Worcester and Birmingham Canal (opened 1791), and others allied therewith; the title of the amalgamated schemes being now changed to the "Sharpness Docks