SUCH is the title of an interesting blue-book recently presented to Parliament by the Harbour Department of the Admiralty.

The register is necessarily dry and bald.

From the number of columns (22) through which the information relative to the wrecks and casualties which occurred on the coasts and in the seas of the United Kingdom during the years 1850-51 is interspersed, we scarcely know how to convey an adequate idea of the curious contents of the book.

In addition to a Wreck Chart for the year 1850 and a Chart of the Lights and Lighthouses, it contains 289 pages folio, each line of which being the record of a disaster.

We will, however, abandon the tabular form of the original, and group together a few cases in our usual manner, illustrative of its contents.

Jan. 10, 1850.—The brig Adele was wrecked near Wexford during extremely thick weather, and four hands perished.

Neither life-boat, rocket, nor mortar in the neighbourhood.

Feb. 6.—The sloop Lord Duncan of Dartmouth, was driven OB shore at Morgan Forth, near Padstow, and went to pieces.

All hands perished without the slightest possibility of assistance being afforded to them.

May 7.—Name unknown, wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. The Inspecting-Commander of the Coast-guard, in reporting the case, states, that so many wrecks are washed from these sands after a gale from the east, that it is impossible to say whether this was one wrecked on this date.

June 15.-—The brig Hamond, of Shields, was wrecked off Hartlepool, in consequence of the want of sufficient ballast to carry sail, or keep the vessel from capsizing in a stiff breeze. Estimated value of vessel 800?. Insured for 800Z.

June 28.—The schooner Three Brothers, of Cork, was wrecked in Dingle Bay. Her loss was attributed to want of buoys and beacons. Value of vessel 1001.—that of cargo (wheat) 1000?., which was insured.

Aug. 20.—The brig William Rushton was ran down, near Point Lynas, by the steamer Minerva. 1 of the brig's crew perished.

Sept. 24.—The steamer Superb, of Jersey, wrecked near the Minquiers Rocks. 19 per- sons supposed to have perished. Had boats, but, like all other steamers, not sufficiently large to carry all the passengers.

Oct. 7.—The schooner Edith, of Montrose, ran ashore near North, Esk, Montrose,— through ignorance and want of seamanship.

Vessel insured for 1000Z.

Oct. 24.—The sloop Jane, of Frazerburgh wrecked on Black Middens through stress o: weather. Crew saved by life-boat.

Nov. 14.—The ship Adeline, of Kennebunk, and the Strabane of Glasgow—both wrecked on the Blackwater Bank in thick and foggy weather. Inspecting-Commander of Coast-guard states,—" It is my firm conviction that these two unfortunate vessels would not have been lost or even stranded had there been a light-vessel moored seaward —half-a-mile from the dangerous Blackwater Bank." Nov. 19.—The brig Medusa, of Sunderland, forced on a lee-shore near the Old Church, Smerwick. The crew of the vessel must all have perished for want of a rocket, had not the tide been high when she stranded. No life-boat.

Nov. 19.—The brigs Hella and James Hay, of Cork, both wrecked near Tenby, and both might have been saved had there been a life-boat near the place. Estimated loss of both vessels, 1050Z.

Dec. 5.—The schooner Enterprise of Stornoway.

Wrecked at Tavay near the Birkin Island. One passenger drowned. Not sufficient means for saving life in the district.

Jan. 2. 1851.—The billyboy W. and M.

Drove on the Stony Binks, Spurn. Crew saved by the life-boat.

Jan. 15. — The brig Wilsons, of Cork.

Went on shore north of Five-mile Point Station House, Dublin, and almost immediately became a total wreck; four hands lost.

May 2.—The screw-steamer Mars, of Dundee, struck on a rock near Crail. Wreck caused by negligence and keeping too close to the land, and not casting the lead. A little girl, 9 years old, a passenger, drowned.

June 4.—The sloop Mary Ann, of Newcastle, sprang a leak, and was ran on shore 2 miles north of Whitby; two men drowned. A bad leak and stormy weather.

Vessel had no chart on board. Rockets were fired and life-boat was out, but could not reach the place in time.

Such are a few promiscuous cases taken from this Wreck Register, which give some notion of the nature of its contents. But to realize the magnitude of the disasters at sea during the year 1850, one must glance at the wreck chart for that period annexed to the return. The map in question is of the same appearance as an ordinary map of the British Isles, except that the whole line of coast, from the Orkneys to the Lizard, is dotted with a series of black marks. These marks are not uniform in number, but vary from one to twenty, at different places.

Each mark indicates a shipwreck, and its too frequent, corollary, as will have been observed from the above extracts, the loss of life. A most melancholy effect has the chart when this key to its character is given, and startling revelations does it present of the loss of life and property which annually takes place off our iron-bound coast.

The whole of England bristles with these ominous dottings ; whilst on the Scotch and Irish coasts the wreck-marks are comparatively few in number; but this, to some extent, is to be expected from the greater proportion of shipping frequenting the English ports. Commencing at Berwick-on-Tweed, and running down the north-east coast of England, each point and promontory is found to furnish its quota, until we approach the great emporiums of the coal-trade, when at Newcastle some fifteen wrecks open to view. Off Sunderland are twelve, all total but three;—and off Hartlepool are fourteen, eight being total. They are numerous off the Lincolnshire and Norfolk coasts, especially off the Washway and Yarmouth. On the Gunfleet Sands there are nine, four total.

On the Goodwin Sands there are fourteen, all total but two. The steep headland at Dungeness has also a dark fringe, calling up in the mind a fearful picture of that promontory, and of the fate of those who, on dark wintry nights, are dashed against its rocky breast. It appears that six wrecks took place on this point in 1850, and 5 in 1851.

Of this number the first was the Glencairn, a homeward-bound Chinaman, and the estimated loss on ship and cargo was 13,000/.

Again in the year 1851, out of the five vessels wrecked here, one was the brig Melpomene from Constantinople to London, with a cargo of wheat, when 10 men out of a crew of 13 were drowned. The Inspecting Commander of the Coast-guard of the district, in reporting this case, adds, " Had there been a life-boat here, these men might have been saved." Last winter the German emigrant barque Louise Emelie, was also wrecked on this dangerous point, accompanied by the fearful loss of 45 lives.

We may here state that a new and powerful life-boat is about to be stationed at this fatal spot by the Royal National Institution for Preservation of Life from Shipwreck.

But to return to the wreck chart: along the more protected south coast a diminished number of wrecks appear, until on rounding the Lizard and the Scilly Islands, as we fall into the great westerly stream of trade, we again catch a glimpse of a dark mass at the entrance of the Bristol Channel, where we count about 45 wrecks, by far the greater number being total. Further north, off the island of Anglesea and Liverpool, they extend in triple lines, and are between 50 and 60 in number. Around the Scotch and Irish coasts may be traced the same painful evidences of the work of destruction, although, as before remarked, in diminished numbers.

The following is the awful summary of 1850:—the wrecks of British and foreign vessels on the coasts and in the seas of the United Kingdom were 681. Of these 277 were total wrecks; sunk by leaks or collisions, 84; stranded and damaged so as to require to discharge cargo, 304; abandoned, 16 ; total wrecks, &c., 681; total lives lost, 784.

In the year 1851, the wrecks on our coasts were 701. Of these, 353 were total wrecks or sunk, or abandoned,—and 348 stranded and damaged so as to require to discharge cargo. The number of lives lost (as far as could be ascertained) was 750. The most disastrous portion was the month of September ; and in the heavy storm of the 25th and 26th of that month, 117 vessels were stranded, while during the whole month the number amounted to 153, or more than 5 a-day; thus affording additional proof of the necessity for making the utmost efforts to avert so much calamity.

But the past year (1852) has far exceeded in respect to shipwrecks the two former periods in amount and fatality, no less than 1100 vessels having been wrecked on the shores of the British Isles, and the number of lives lost (as far as could be ascertained) being about 900. The greatest havoc took place about the latter end of last October, and the beginning of November. In this interval no less than 600 ships sought refuge in the Humber. Many more, however, could reach no shelter; and thus in the course of a few days the unprecedented number of 300 vessels were lost or damaged with the fearful loss of 217 lives. The greater part of this terrible work of destruction took place on the east coast of England, off Flamborough Head.

One of the results of this great sacrifice of valuable life and destruction of property has been the enormously high price of coals at this period of the year, in the metropolis and elsewhere. In ordinary times about 1100 vessels are employed in the coal-trade of the country. Last winter, as we have shown, about 300 of these were totally wrecked on the east coast, and about 300 of the best class of them are now, as usual, engaged in our foreign trade; so that the number of colliers this year has been reduced to about 500 vessels. While we write, the Shields correspondent of the Times, whose letter is dated September 6th, states, " Coal freights are unprecedented!}- high. During yesterday and Saturday, about 10s. Qd. per ton seemed to be the price for vessels loading for London, 12s.

to Southampton and Plymouth, and 15Z. 10s.

per keel to Hamburg and Havre. So much as 11s. 4%d. per ton was given to one of our Shields vessels to load for London yesterday.

Such freights as these have not ruled for many years previously in these trades, and they are not exceptional, for vessels going on more distant voyages are freighted at proportionate rates. Seamen are as scarce as ships, and the wages they demand are extraordinary." It is true that there are several causes at work to make Jack act somewhat independently in this matter of wages. Vessels are so crammed with cargo that the berths are worse than ever they were, and the prosperity of the shipping in- terest is found to have some unsalutary consequences ; and it is clear that if our merchants and shipowners wish to keep their present prosperity, they must take more care in preserving the lives and health of the men by whose toil and risk it is obtained.