As the year rolls round, and in the midst of great storms, this sad tidings of disaster; at sea, the Wreck Register, makes its ap- pearance, and brings afresh to our recollec- tion the scenes of desolation witnessed on too many parts of our coast last winter.

And there -was probably never published by the Board of Trade a more doleful though instructive record of shipwrecks in one year, than the one that has been issuec within the past few days.

Yet it is satisfactory to find that no gales of remarkable duration and violence occurred during the past year, such as took place in 1866 and 1867; and that the nrnnbei of wrecks is accordingly less than in those years. The records of the fearful storms oi last January, when some half-dozen life-boat houses were demolished, are not included in this return; but we fear that the accounts oJ those gales, when published, will be found more sad than any that have occurred within living memory, not excepting the storms that wrecked the Royal Charter and the ship London.

It appears that the number of wrecks, casualties, and collisions from all causes OB the coasts of the United Kingdom, and in the surrounding seas, reported in 18C8, is 1,747. This is fortunately 343 less than the number reported in 1867 (2,090), and 113 less than the number reported in 1866 (1860). It seems that the number of ships lost or damaged in the 1,747 wrecks, casualties and collisions reported in 1868, is 2,131, representing a registered tonnage of upwards of 427,000 tons. The number of ships in 1868 is less than the number in 1867 by 382. The number of ships reported is in excess of the number of dis- asters reported, because in cases of collision two or more ships are involved in one casualty.

The following short statement shows the annual average of wrecks reported since 1850, divided into three periods of five and one of four years:—1850, 660; 1851, 1,269; 1852,1,115; 1853, 832—making a total in those four years of 3,876 wrecks and casualties, and giving an average each year of 969. In 1854, 987 ; 1855,1,141; 1856, 1,153; 1857, 1,143; and 1858, 1,170. Total in five years, 5,594, or an average annually of 1,118. In 1859,1,416; 1860, 1,379; 1861, 1,494; 1862, 1,483; and 1863, 1,664. Giving a total in the five years ending 1863 of 7,441, and an average in every year of 1,488. In 1864, 1,390 ; 1865,1,656 -, 1866,1,860 ; 1867, 2,090 ; and 1868, 1,747. Total for the five years to the end of 1868 of 8,743. The average number of wrecks annually in the same period being consequent1.}' 1,748.

It will thus be seen that the number of wrecks reported during 1868 is just below the average for the last five years, but is in excess e ? the average o? al the years pre- vious to that period. With the exception of the numbers reported in 1867 and 1866, the largest number of wrecks ever reported in one year is unhappily given to the past year.

Undoubtedly these 1,747 shipwrecks in one year on our coasts appear a very large number. Yet it should be constantly borne in mind that our great commerce receives every year fresh development. As the Registrar-General at Somerset House ac- counts for the increased number of deaths in the metropolis and other large towns by the increase of the population, so we may safely account for the large number of these disasters at sea, by tine great increase e ery year of ships frequenting our coasts and narrow seas.

The Register takes note of the most fearful gales that occur in given years. Thus what is called the Royal Charter gale of 1859, ivrecked 343 ships. In three months in 1861, there were 460 wrecks; in three months in 1862, there were 540 vessels lost; and in the gales of six months of 1863, )30 ships came to grief. Again in Novem- er, 1864, there were 264 wrecks; and yet the total number of wrecks in that year was 274 below those of 1863. In 1865, he gales of January, February, March, October, November, and December, gave '66 wrecks; in the following year (1866) he gales of the corresponding months onsigned 793 ships to destruction. In the West of England the gale of the 11th of January in that year will never be forgotten.

In Tor Bay alone 61 vessels were wrecked on that day, accompanied by the loss, as far as could be ascertained, of 35 lives. In 1867, the heavy gales of January, March, April, October, November, and December, added 980 wrecks to the list. Thus then it is manifest that whenever any storm takes place on our coasts, we can most safely con- clude that it is attended by fearful ship- wrecks and loss of valuable lives. It is, how- ever, consolatory to know, with equal cer- tainty, that at such periods every possible effort will be made by our noble life-boat crews and others to save life, whenever it is possible to approach the distressed sailor.

Some of us will remember that one of the most serious gales of the year 1868 occurred on the 22nd and 23rd of August, a month in which our inland population crowd at our sea sides, and in which our shores are seldom visited by heavy gales. The number of wrecks and casualties reported during that mouth was more than double the number recorded during the same month in any previous year.

The gales of 1868 were chiefly from the following directions, viz.:—January, from south-south-west and south-west; February, from the south-west and west. During the months of March, April, May, June, and July no heavy gales were experienced. The August gales were from the south-west, south-south-west, and north-west; Septem- ber, east and south-west; and December, from the west, south-west, south-south- west, and south-south-east.

Of the 2,131 ships wrecked in 1868, 1,801 are known, to have been ships be- longing to Great Britain and its depen- dencies, with British certificates of registry, and 272 were Foreign ships. Of the remaining 58 ships the country and employ- ment are unknown. Of the British ships 1,317 were employed in the British coast- ing trade, and 484 were employed in the ; (over-sea) Foreign and Home trade. Of j the foreign ships, 20 were employed in the British coasting trade.

Of the total number of wrecks (1,747) re- ported in 1868, 379 were collisions, and 1,368 were wrecks and casualties other than collisions. Of these 1,368 wrecks and casual- ties other than collisions, 527 were wrecks resulting in total loss, and 841 were casualties resulting in partial damage more or less serious. The whole number of wrecks and casualties other than collisions reported in 1867 was 1,676; and that number was more than the number re- ported in any year since 1858. But 1,368 —the number of wrecks and casualties i other than collisions in 1868—is less than, the number of wrecks and casualties in 1867 by 308.

Of the 527 wrecks—i.«., total losses from causes other than collisions—265 hap- pened when the wind was at force 9 or upwards (a strong gale), 71 arose from defects in the ship or in her equipments (and of the 71, no less than 46 appear to have foundered from unseaworthiness),—87 ap- pear from the reports made by the officers on the coasts to have been caused by inatten- tion, carelessness, or neglect; and the re- mainder appear to have arisen from various other causes.

Thus, excluding collisions, 158 total wrecks last year are clearly and directly traceable to the carelessness and indiffer- ence of man. It is also a remarkable fact that from these very casualties the greatest loss of life takes place, inasmuch as the wreck is sometimes instantaneous, arising from the rottenness of the ship, bad anchor- ing gear, and other prolific sources of mis- chief, rendering it hardly possible for any succour from the shore to arrive in time to save the lives of the crews.

We learn again that of the 841 casualties —i.e., partial losses from causes other than I collisions—487 happened when the wind | was at force 9 or upwards (strong gale), j 123 arose from carelessness, 82 from defects in the ship or her equipments, and the re- mainder appear to have arisen from various other causes.

It is really a disgrace to us as a nation, to learn from this authentic record that the total number of ships that foundered, or were otherwise totally lost on our coasts from unseaworthiness, unsound gear, &c., in the last ten years, is 482; and the number of casualties arising from the same causes, during the same period, and resulting in partial damage, was 531. We have no record of the loss of life from these wrecks, but it must have been frightful.

Again, there were 131 wrecks and casual- ties to smacks and fishing-vessels in 1868.

It is always a fatal proof of the severity of a gale when fishing-smacks are lost.

But excluding these 131 fishing-smacks, the number of vessels employed in the regular carrying trade that have suffered from wreck or casualty during the year was exactly 2,000. If this number be again subdivided, it will be found that about half of it is represented by the unseaworthy, overladen, or ill-found vessels of the collier- class, chiefly employed in the coasting trade.

For the six years ending 1868, the number is more than half, In 1863, of the collier class, 989 vessels were lost; in 1864, 844; in 1865, 934; in 1866, 1,150; in 1867, 1,215; and in 1868, 1,014; making a total, in six years, of 6,146 vessels lost, in too many cases, from clearly preventible causes. The loss of life from these very disasters can only be counted by thousands! It should, however, be borne in mind that the storm often proves destructive to ships of all classes and all ages. Thus, in the ten years ending in 1868, dis- asters to comparatively new ships bear a very high proportion to the whole number, for 176 wrecks and casualties happened to nearly new ships, and 297 to ships from three to seven years of age. Then there were wrecks and casualties to 420 ships from seven to fourteen years old, and to 653 from fifteen to thirty years old. Then fol- low 267 old ships, from thirty to fifty years old. Having passed the service of half a century, we come to the very old ships, viz., 35 between fifty and sixty years old ; 28 from sixty to seventy, 9 from seventy to eighty, and 8 from eighty to ninety, and the ages of 238 are unknown. In former years we have had, when unattended with the loss of life, to rejoice over the de- struction of ships of one hundred years old and upwards; but this year no casualties have been reported to vessels of known greater age than ninety years. The officers of Coast-guard and Customs in their wreck returns to the Board of Trade frequently call attention to the state of rottenness and of want of repair of some of the ships above twenty years old. Even at the age of twenty-five to thirty, it sometimes happens that a ship is so rotten as to fall to pieces immediately on touching the ground, with- out giving the crew the slightest chance of getting out their boats, or being saved by a life-boat.

The classification of these disasters in this Register is very clearly given, and calls for a public acknowledgment. We accord- ingly find that of the 2,131 vessels lost or damaged in 1868, 86 were rigged as ships, 150 were steam ships, 594 schooners, 312 brigs, 250 barques, 243 brigantines, and 197 smacks; the remainder were small vessels rigged in various ways. Of the 2,131 vessels referred to, 989 did not ex- ceed 100 tons burden, 772 were from 100 to 300 tons, 248 were from 300 to 600 tons, and 122 only were above 600 tons burden.

From the table showing the parts of the coasts on which the wrecks and casualties happened, it will be seen that as usual the greatest number occurred on the East Coast.

The numbers are as follow:— East Coast, 823; South Coast, 202; West Coast, 427; N.W. Coast of Scotland, 64; Irish Coast, 189; Isle of Man, 22; Lundy Island, 16; and Scilly Isles, 4.

From the accompanying Wreck Chart, the wrecks thus delineated can be brought vividly before the mind's eye. The same Chart also shows us the numerous life-boats that are now happily found in these scenes of desolation and despair, bringing succour, often under the most trying and perilous circum- stances, to hundreds of sailors who, in their absence, must inevitably have perished. Yet, notwithstanding all these noble and continued exertions on the part of our life-boats' crews, who in many instances are prepared to face death themselves, if a brother's life is to be saved, we record with the deepest regret that the loss of life on or near the coasts of the United Kingdom, in 1868, was 824 ! We appeal again to shipowners themselves to help the efforts and the noble work of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, and, no less meritorious, that of the Board of Trade, in. respect of its thoroughly efficient rocket apparatus, to reduce this death-roll by every means in their power. Riches gathered at the waste, apparently, of so much human life cannot, one would imagine, yield to the possessor any lasting benefit.

Apart from the untimely end of these 824 poor creatures, let us reflect for a moment on the widows and orphans and aged persons and relatives who were thus made desolate in one short year; and these would have been quadrupled had it not been for the unceasing and successful exertions of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, the Board of Trade, shore-boats, and other means, in saving last year alone the lives of thousands of shipwrecked sailors on our coasts.

Again, we observe that the number of lives lost in 1868 is 509 less than the number lost in 1867, but is, unhappily, in eicess of all other years excepting 1867, 1866, 1861, and 1859 (the Rayd Charter year), when the number reached 1,647.

The lives lost in 1868 were lost in 196 ships; 141 of them were laden vessels, 42 were vessels in ballast, and in thirteen cases it is not known whether the vessels were laden or light. 164 of these ships were entirely lost, and S2 sustained partial damage. Of the 824 lives lost, 262 were lost in vessels that foundered, 86 lives were lost on board vessels in collision, and 409 in vessels stranded or cast ashore. • Nearly 90 lives were lost in fishing-boats alone. We trust the loss of life from fishing- boats will be diminished year by year as the qualities of the safety fishing-boats of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION become known and appreciated by our fishermen.

The remaining 67 lives lost were lost from various causes, such as by being washed overboard in heavy seas, by explosions, &c.

Whilst the greatest number of wrecks happened on the east coast of England, the greatest loss of life during the ten years ending in 1868 occurred in the Irish Sea.

The number of lives lost in the Irish Sea during the ten years is more than double the number _lost on any other part of the coasts.

The winds most destructive to shipping during the past year were as follows :—N., 53 ; N.N.E., 46 ; N.E., 88 ; E.N.E., 56 ; E., 61; E.S.E., 35; S.E., 64; S.S.E., 56; S., 74; S.S.W., 160; S.W., 223; W.S.W., 144; W., 120 ; W.N.W., 108 ; N.W., 116 ; and N.N.W., 55. Showing that westerly gales are far more destructive than easterly gales ; the most destructive being from south-west.

The following table distinguishes the wrecks in 1868 according to the force of the wind at the time at which they happened: thus 661 happened when the wind was at force 6 or under, that is to say, when the force of the wind did not exceed a strong breeze, in which the ship could carry single reefs and top gallant sails; 154 happened with the wind at forces 7 and 8, or a moderate to fresh gale, when a ship, if properly manned and navigated, can keep the sea with safety; and 835 happened with the wind at force 9 and upwards, that is to say, from a strong gale to a hurricane.

Vessels.

Force of Wind.

1? 21 75 33 14S m 198 75 79 Calm.

Light air. Just sufficient to give steerage way. j ) With which a ( Light breeze I ,hip irith all sail 1 to 2 knots.

Gentle breeze set and clean / 3 to 4 knots.

Moderate breeze IM1- w°»ld «° " I 5 to 6 knots, I smooth water ! Fresh breeze Strong breeze smooth water 'Royals, &c. .

f In which she could just carry in chase full and by Single reefs & T. G. sails .

Moderate gale Fresh gale Strong gale Double reefs & jib, £c.. .

Triple reefs, £c.i Close reefs & ! 195 53 53 course*. , Whole gale, in which she could just bear close reefed main-topsail and reefed foresail . .

Storm. Under storm staysail Hurricane. L'are poles Variable Unknown 1,747 Total It appears that there are at present 210 life-boats on the coasts of the United King- dom belonging to the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, and 40 to local boards. The rocket and mortar apparatus stations now number 279, and are under the management of the Coast-guard and the Board of Trade.

During the year 1868,and the first nine months of 1869, 969 lives (besides 35 ves- sels) were saved by the life-boats of the National Institution alone, and 558 by shore-boats and other means, for which it granted rewards. A sum of £4,036 was expended by the Institution in the same period in rewards for saving life; and £33,000 on its various establishments round the coasts of the British Isles.

In the presence of facts like these the Life-boat Institution need have no misgiving in respect to pecuniary support whilst it pursues vigorously and successfully the great and national objects for the promotion of which it was established.

It is peculiarly encouraging to find that in proportion as the sphere of the operations of the Institution has increased, its Committee of Management and Officers become deeply sensible of their great and responsible duties, and of the high trust which the British public has reposed in them. Its local Branches, and the sailors who are ever ready to man the life-boats, fully participate in this feeling of responsibility ; and so long as this mutual feeling is maintained and fostered, the cause of suffering humanity cannot fail to gain by the well-directed efforts of the Life-boat Institution.