The great annual loss of life, and the utterly
inefficient condition of many of the comparatively
few life-boats possessed by so extensive
a line of coasts—some of the most dangerous
of which have not a single boat—has at length
aroused the energies of the National Shipwreck
Association, and during the last two or
three years they have given great attention
to the subject. But the final blow which has
caused the Duke of Northumberland (the
President of the Association) to bestir
himself so effectually, is a lamentable and
unprecedented disaster, by which no less than twenty
of the best pilots out of the Tyne were drowned.
It is thus narrated in the report:

"At South Shields, on the 4th December, 1849,
the life-boat, manned with twenty-four pilots, went
out to the aid of the 'Betsy,' of Littlehampton,
stranded on the Herd-sand. There was a heavy sea
from the eastward, but little wind, and a strong
ebb tide. The boat had reached the wreck, and
was lying alongside with her head to the eastward,
with a rope fast to the quarter, but the bowfast
not secured. The shipwrecked men were about to
descend into the life-boat, when a heavy knot of
sea, recoiling from the bow of the vessel, caught
the bow of the boat, and turned her up on end,
throwing the whole of the crew and the water into
the stem sheets. The bowfast not holding, the
boat drove in this position astern of the vessel,
when the ebb tide running rapidly into her stern,
the boat completely turned end over end, and went
ashore bottom up. On this occasion, twenty, out
of twenty-four of the crew, were drowned under the
boat. On seeing the accident, two other life-boats
immediately dashed off from North and South
Shields, saved four of the men, and rescued the
crew of the 'Betsy.'"

It was justly considered that an accident
like the above to any life-boat should be
rendered impossible. The Committee, therefore,
drew up, after long deliberation, the
list of one hundred points requisite to
constitute a perfect life-boat.

When the models for competition were sent
in, the committee divided them into five classes.
The first is that of boats formed on the
pontoon principle; the second, of boats formed
on the raft or catamaran principle; the third,
belong to the type of the troop boat, or broad
flat paddle-box boat; the fourth, are described
as partaking chiefly of the north-country coble
peculiarities; and the fifth, as composed of
modifications of the ordinary boat in every-
day-use; these modifications generally bringing
it, to a greater or less degree, within the
denomination of those which are commonly
known as whale-boats. The flat paddle-box
boat comes principally from the coal ports of
the North, and the best sailing craft of the
whale-boat species from Deal and the coasts
of Norfolk and Suffolk, in which localities
wrecks generally take place on outlying sands,
rendering it necessary for the rescuing boats
to make their way to the scene of disaster
under canvas. The coble form comes from
Yorkshire and Northumberland. The
committee consider boats of this class excellently
adapted for launching or beaching upon a
sandy coast in "not very stormy weather;"
but they are low in the stern, and otherwise
so built as to be liable to be swamped by the
curl of a following sea, when running before
the wind. Another class of craft is formed
by boats, which, without being properly life-
boats, are yet safe and handy vessels in a
tolerably heavy sea-way, and very fast both
in sailing and pulling. These appear to have
been formed upon the model of the galley
used by the Kentish boatmen for summer
service amid the Goodwin Sands, and are
invaluable for certain localities. The difference
of localities is very judiciously kept in view
by the committee, though their aim has been
to obtain as perfect a life-boat as possible for
general use.

The collection of life-boat models in the
Great Exhibition—most of which were
competitors for the prize—has afforded us
materials for many interesting reflections. No such
boats, as the majority of these are, could have
been produced by any incitements of a sudden
call, or mere question of lucrative demand, in
so short a period. The objects they are
intended to accomplish must have long
occupied the minds of most of the inventors, and
must be the result also of innumerable
experiments, each bringing with it some conviction,
some correction, or some additional care,
provision, and improvement. Several of them
present a very extraordinary appearance.

Mr. J. Francis exhibits a boat, in shape not
unlike an elongated gourd; or an hour-glass
cut in half. This shape is occasioned by large
air-cells fore and aft, which must give great
buoyancy. Mr. H. Bell, of Millbank, has
invented a very clever nest of boats for
emigrant or troop ships; one fitting into
the other, so as to occupy little more room
than a single boat. The invention of Mr.
Gilbert Bromley, of Sheerness, seems chiefly
to consist of adding to an ordinary good sea-
boat, a circulating air-case, like a great black
snake, lying coiled all round the inside of the
boat just beneath the gunwale. There is a
boat by P. van der Bosch, of Osterhout, in the
Netherlands, which resembles the body of a
black fish, and seems almost as buoyant and
pliable. It is both water-tight and air-tight;
and in it are seated three men in water-proof
dresses, united, as it were, to the deck of the
boat; which is quite covered over, so that the
whole boat seems of one piece, with the upper
half of three men sticking out of the uppermost
part. They are each provided with a
strong canoe-paddle, having a double blade.
It is evident they could live (boat and men) in
any sea. The provision for saving life consists of
a strong cord, which passes along each side of
the machine, formed into a number of loops or
divisions, for shipwrecked persons to hold on
by, or to which they might be fastened. For
any short period this would be excellent, but
if there was a high sea running, it is to be