IN the columns of each number of this Journal we have had the pleasure to record numerous instances of our life-boats' services to shipwrecked crews. When it is remembered under what difficult and dangerous circumstances those services are often performed, we may well think it matter for congratulation and thankfulness that we have so rarely to narrate the occurrence of disaster to the life-boats themselves and their daring crews. In the nature of things, however, such must occasionally happen, however valuable may be the properties of the boats, and however skilful their management.

Such a disaster we have now to record, being no less than the destruction of a valuable life-boat and the death of two of her crew.

The life-boat to which we allude was stationed at Scarborough ; she was 'a new boat, having been sent there by the NATIONAL, LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION so late as the 26th September, 1861, and this was her first attempted service. She had been presented to the Institution by a philanthropic gentleman of London, and was one of the self-righting life-boats adopted by that Society. She was publicly exhibited, launched, and submitted to sundry tests in the presence of a large concourse of spectators, on the 28th of September last. It was little then thought how short was to be her career.

On the 2nd of November following, the fearful storm arose which caused so much loss of life and destruction of property on our shores. The catastrophe which forms the subject of this notice is thus narrated in the local papers ;— " At four p.m. on the 2nd Nov., the schooner Coupland, laden with granite, from Aberdeen, attempted to enter the harbour of Scarborough, but being taken aback on rounding the pier, her sails were disabled, and she rapidly drifted, and ultimately struck on the sand opposite the Spa, not thirty yards from the sea-wall of the promenade.

In her passage between the pier and the Spa she was carried along amid foaming billows that chased each other like so many huge cataracts until she struck. In the meantime the life-boat was manned and sent out to the relief of the schooner's crew, whose danger, however, was not now so imminent. The sea broke upon the- seawall of the Spa with such terrific violence that the stones of the parapet were- dislodged, and the rebound of the waves caused such a sea as no small craft but the life-boat could have borne.

Arrived at this point, where they were watched and even spoken to by the people on the Spa, amongst whom the most painful and agonizing excitement prevailed, the crew of the life-boat appeared terror-stricken by their awful position.

Suddenly a fearful lurch of the boat pitched out the veteran boatman, THOMAS CLAYBURN, the leading man in the boat, and one of great experience and good judgment. He was quickly washed up to the Spa wall, and was saved by a life-buoy. Again the boat was dashed up to the wall. Her position was awful in the extreme.

She was actually touched by a gentleman on the promenade; and down again she was precipitated into the foaming billows, her destruction and the loss of her unfortunate crew being apparently inevitable.

JAMES BANKS, THOMAS BREWSTER and ISAAC MORLEY, were now thrown out by the violence of the tossing to which the boat was subjected. BANKS, after a fearful struggle in the water, was rescued by the same means that had saved CLAYBURN a few minutes previously. MORLEY was drawn into the boat by JOHN BURTON, who, as the sequel will show, perished in the subsequent attempt to land. The oars of some of the crew were now dashed out of their hands, and they were at once rendered powerless. Th« boat was washed heavily up against the wall, and nothing but her great strength and excellent qualities preserved her from being instantly dashed to pieces. Ropes were then thrown from her to the promenade, and she was drawn through the surf to a landing-place at the southern end of the wall. Having touched the ground, the men jumped out of the boat before the water had receded, and, seeing the danger they were in, a rush down the incline was made by a great number of men to assist them. It was at this juncture that the dreadful spectacle of the destruction of human life was witnessed. In the momentary confusion that casued, another run of the sea came, and nearly all the party were thrown from their feet, and were now scrambling to save their lives.

Many succeeded in getting up, but another wave washed off those who were yet below. Two or three times were they carried out and back again.

Among these. Lord CHARLES BEAUCLERK was prominent. His Lordship and several others equally noble in heart had rushed to the rescue of their fellow-men, who were in such imminent peril. A huge wave was seen to lift the boat with fearful force against the wall, and, on her release, it was found that a man, supposed to have been THOMAS BREWSTER, one of the crew, having been between the boat and the wall, was killed by the collision. He instantly fell forward as one dead, and was washed out to sea. Lord CHARLES BEADCLERK was similarly treated, though he was not killed on the spot. He was washed to the foot of the cliff, where Mr. SARONY, the photographic artist, seeing his Lordship's great peril, ran down the incline to his assistance. Mr.

BARON? succeeded, single-handed, in fastening a rope round his Lordship's body, when Mr. RUTTER, superintendent of the engineering department at the Scarborough railway station, also went to his aid. He was drawn up the incline, the life just ebbing out of him. Two or three others were seen under the boat when she lifted with the waves. One of these was Mr. WILLIAM TINDALL, son of the late JOHN TINDALL, Esq., banker of this place. This young gentleman was one of the first in the death-scene, and he fell a victim to his philanthropic exertions. 'The crew of the stranded vessel were saved by the rocket apparatus.

" The life-boat, having broken away, drifted on the rocks under the cliff, a little to the southward of the Spa, where she was stove in, and rendered unfit for future use. This was her first experience, and a sad one it proved. It was only on the 28th of September last that she was placed here by the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, and was launched amid the prayers and good wishes of the inhabitants and visitors assembled on the occasion. Her conduct on Saturday justified every good opinion that had been expressed on her qualities as a life-boat. She was the admiration of every spectator and the seafaring men of the place—seeing her endurance of the terrific test to which she was subjected, when beating backwards and forwards, tossed up in every direction, and dashed up against the wall—have espoused the idea that she could not have been overturned. In all her upheavings she maintained an even keel, and her exceeding great strength enabled her to stand the immense trial to which she was put. The thumping she afterwards received on the rocks after the men had left her proved at last too much, and she was there disabled.

" On the intelligence of this sad disaster being conveyed to the Committee of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION in London, a new boat, kept in readiness for any such emergency, was at once ordered to be transmitted to Scarborough, to replace the wrecked boat. She arrived there on Saturday, the 9th of November, and was taken out on her first trial on the following Monday, so that in one week from the time of the accident, the life-boat establishment was again in a state of efficiency and readiness for service.

The cost of the new host, amounting to 2121., was presented to the Institution by Mrs. COCKROFT, a Scarborough lady.

"The Institution made double the usual payment to the survivors of the life-boat's crew, and gave 257. to the fund raised locally for the relief of the widows and orphans of the men who were lost. The generous donor of the wrecked boat presented a similar amount in aid of that fund, and 101. to be divided amongst the life-boat's crew and others who specially exerted themselves on the occasion. The Society also presented a memorial silver medal to the families of the late Lord C. BEAUCLERK, Mr. TINDALL, and Mr. J.

ILES as a permanent mark of its sympathy for them. The silver medal of the Institution was also given to Mr. SARONY, Mr. ROTTER, and Mr.

M. HICK, and the thanks of the Institution, inscribed on vellum, to Mr. SAMUEL RAWLING, Mr.

MATTHEW BYFIELD, and to Mr. WILLIAM BLAND." Painful as is the reflection that so good a work should have been thus marred, and that such devoted efforts for the good of others should have proved thus fatal to the doers of them, yet is it satisfactory to know that no blame whatever is attached to the boat—that her behaviour is reported to have been admirable, and that therefore the confidence of those who are provided with similar boats should be increased rather than diminished on their learning the particulars of this disaster. It is also, we think, matter for congratulation, when the fearful character of the accident is considered, that no greater number of lives were sacrificed.

Indeed, had not one of the crew who perished neglected to put on his life-belt, in conformity with the rules of the Institution, in all probability one only of them, who was crushed by the boat, would have been lost.