LXVIII. HARWICH.—The Springwett, 45 feet by 11 feet, 12 oars.

HARWICH, standing on the extremity of a tongue of land or narrow peninsula pro- jecting into the estuary of the rivers Stour and Orwell, is said to have risen into note and importance from the ruins of Orwell, destroyed by the action of the sea. Traces of the lost city are reported to be still visible at low water, distant five miles in a S.E. direction from the shore, at a spot now indicated by the West Rocks. This is only one of nu- merous instances showing the extent of the ravages the sea has made on our coasts in the last four or five centuries.

Harwich was originally a fishing village, and never seems to have been a place of much note. Only in recent times has it become a parish separate from that of Dovercourt. It derives importance chiefly from being a convenient point of departure to and returning from the Continent, and also on account of the large and spacious harbour, which is rendered a safe and commodious anchorage to vessels from the furious easterly gales experienced on this coast, by the shelter of Landguard point on the Suffolk side of the river, the entrance to the harbour being quite land locked, except to the southward. The town has in consequence been constantly visited by the reigning kings and queens of England, for the purpose of inspecting their fleets riding securely at their an- chorage, and also as a place of embarka- tion for the Continent, no uncommon journey in the time of the first two Georges, whose frequent trips from Eng- land to their Hanoverian dominions gave great annoyance to the Commons and Privy Council of the realm. The earliest authentic historical event connected with the locality was the battle at the mouth of the rivers Orwell and Stour, between King Alfred's fleet and sixteen Danish ships, in the year 884, in which the Saxons were victorious. Isabel, queen of Edward II., landed here in 1326, with 2,700 men, in open rebellion against him.

Edward III., fourteen years later, sailed from the port, and, learning that the French fleet was near Sluys, engaged it with an inferior force, and gained a complete victory. Henry VIII. also came here in 1543, to inspect his navy, sta- tioned off Harwich; but a more notable visit was from Queen Elizabeth (1561), who accepted an invitation from the Burghers, and stayed several days at a house in the central part of High Street.

At her departure she graciously asked them what they had to request of her, and received from them the answer, "Nothing, only to wish your Majesty a good journey." On which Her Majesty, turning her horse about, and looking upon the town, said, "A pretty town, and wants nothing," and so bade them farewell. Charles II. made a stay of four days, but his object was to build men-of- war, the Dutch being particularly active, and threatening to invade the shores of East Anglia, or to sweep the seas of all English shipping. No wonder, then, he came here to look after his navy. The great sea-fight of June, 1666, between the English and Dutch, took place off this part of the coast, resulting in the com- plete defeat of Van Tromp, the Dutch Admiral, at whose main truck a broom was lashed, as a symbol of his intention to sweep the seas. William IIL was twice at Harwich, on his passage from Holland, and, as before noticed, George I.

and George II. were constantly passing to and fro en route to the Continent.

Harwich is a quaint old town, of some 6,000 inhabitants, and consists of three principal streets, parallel to one another, the church of St. Nicholas, dedicated to the patron saint of fishermen, occupying the site of an ancient building of the 12th century. Shipbuilding and fishing were the chief industries, but both, especially the latter, have declined of late years. In 1882 there were 130 vessels belonging to the port, with an aggregate tonnage of 13,630 tons. The harbour to which attention has been called has been much improved as a harbour of refuge, and the pier has been extended and fortified. Two lighthouses, the low near the beach, and the high at the S.W.

entrance to the town, guide vessels to the anchorage, and the channel is completely commanded by the fort at Landguard, and a smaller one above Harwich.

Improvements on an extensive scale have been made by the Great Eastern Railway Company, for the development of the traffic with the Continent, though a good deal has been transferred to the port of Hull. The Great Eastern Hotel was first built in the immediate vicinity of the quays, alongside which their steamers were moored. Latterly large sums of money have been expended in reclaiming land, and, in order to increase the convenience of passengers, quays have been constructed at Parkeston, the river Stour deepened to permit the company's steamers to come alongside, and a mag- nificent hotel has been erected. More- over, a side line has been made to the quay, so that the mail trains branch off to Parkeston after leaving Wrabness, without entering Harwich at all. Out- side the harbour the ocean is a perfect labyrinth of sandbanks, parts of which are dry at low water. Their position is clearly indicated by lightships, and the channels between them well marked by buoys; nevertheless, numerous shipwrecks have occurred, and many lives have been lost as well as much valuable property.

The ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTI- TUTION had for years desired to station one of its Life-boats here, but its offers had been continually declined, it having always been considered by those best qualified to judge, that the outlying banks on which vessels were liable to be wrecked were all so distant that before a Life-boat from Harwich could possibly reach them, the shipwrecked persons would have been taken off by one of the numerous travel- ling smacks which are almost always cruising about on the look-out for vessels in distress. Unfortunately this opinion prevailed until the close of the year 1875, when one of those sad disasters occurred which again and again remind us of the dangerous character of our shores. A few months before, the Ger- man passenger - steamer Schiller, was wrecked off one of the Scilly Islands with the loss of 331 lives, and now ano- ther emigrant ship of the same nationality shares the same fate off the coast of Essex, and 67 of her crew and passengers perish. The Deutschland, for that was the name of the steamer, was wrecked in the early morning of the 6th December, on the Kentish Knock, twenty-four miles distant from Harwich, and therefore at too great a distance for anything to be seen even in clear weather, and the only way by which news of the disaster could be made known in Harwich would be by the lightships moored off the different banks, at varying distances from the shore, repeating the signals from one to the other, and finally to the town if the weather is sufficiently clear—a distance of four miles only intervening between it and the nearest lightship off the Cork Sands. All the travelling smacks and pilot-boats had been driven into port by the fury of the gale, thus upsetting at once local reasons, certainly based on professional authority, which had been advanced against the establishment of a Life-boat station as a useless expense, viz., that the wrecked crew would always be rescued by smacks or pilot-boats long before a Life-boat could reach them. In consequence of the thickness of the wea- ther, accompanied with blinding snow- storms during the height of the gale, the signal of distress could not be seen-—they certainly could not be heard—even by the nearest lightship, and it was not until thirteen hours after, that is to say about 7 P.M., the first intimation was received at Harwich of anything being amiss at sea.

The only available means of succour in the harbour was a small but serviceable steam-tug the Liverpool, the property of a private individual in the town. Early the following morning the Liverpool put to sea, as the weather had slightly mo- derated, in search of the wrecked vessel, 4he risk of losing the tug during a win- ter's night, and gale of wind, among the intricate passages of the numerous shoals, being too great to justify the captain in starting before daylight. Proceeding to the Cork lightship he learnt that the Sunk lightship had been firing all night : ho then proceeded to the latter, and was informed there was a vessel on the Long- sand. He next steamed to the Long- sand, but found no vessel; i he then steered for the Kentish Knock, and when half-way to it saw the steamer on the sandbank. Being able to approach her and lay his vessel alongside, he succeeded in rescuing the survivors, 173 in num- ber. In passing, we would have our readers notice the delay occasioned by the captain having to make for each lightship in succession to gain infor- mation of the position of the unfortunate vessel; but all that is now changed.

After such a calamity, no time was lost in forming a Life-boat station at this port -with the full concurrence of the inhabitants, and it was determined to accept the Life-boat, the cost of which Miss E. BUBMESTER, of Park Square, W., was good enough to offer to the Insti- tution—the boat being named the Spring- well, at the donor's request. It was sent to its destination with a transporting-ear- riage and stoies in January 1876, without waiting for the erection of a boat-house, so that it might be ready for any emergency that might arise. The public inauguration of the Life-boat establishment took place on the completion of the boat-house in September of the same year, the Life-boat being drawn in procession through the town, which was decorated with flags for the occasion. In 1882, this boat, which had done excellent service under great disadvantages, through want of local co- operation with the harbour tug, which was private property, was found to be hardly large enough for the requirements of this important station, and it was re- placed by one of the finest self-righting boats ever built for the Institution, its dimensions being, length 45 feet, beam 11 feet. Like its predecessor it is named the Springwell, and has since been the means of saving 21 lives. The loss of time entailed in making known to the shore any casualty visible to those on board the lightships, that occurred on the outlying sands, led to the adoption of carrier pigeons, which were placed on board the Sunk light vessel a few years back. They were utilized on some few occasions, but it was found the birds re- fused to fly against the wind, and no reliance could be placed on them. Tele- graphic communication between the Essex coast at Walton-on-Naze and this light- ship has now been successfully accom- plished, and the neighbouring life-boats can be immediately warned should the one at Walton, through adverse winds or absence from the station, be unavailable.

The total number of lives hitherto saved by the Springwell since the establishment of the station, in 1876, is 82. The ma- nagement of the branch is in the hands of a strong committee of the leading in- habitants, including Dr. EVANS, the Hon.

Secretary, who is connected by marriage with the donor, Miss BURMESTER. In conclusion, we are confident that when increased facilities for proceeding to sea have been provided, as will shortly be the case, combined with the speedy in- formation now at command, the im- portance of this Life-boat station will be considerably increased.