YEAR after year the Board of Trade draws public attention to the shipping catas- trophes occurring on our rock-bound shores, as though to remind us that a large proportion of the luxuries and comforts we daily enjoy are obtained at the cost of a terrible sacrifice of human life, and to impress upon us the duty of doing everything in our power to diminish such sad mortality. The statistics for the year ended the 30th June, 1886, have been recently published, and from the carefully tabulated statements ab- stracted from the Register we gather a vast amount of important and interesting information, which may be said to be closely connected with the work of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION.

, We find that in the year in question there were no less than 3,596 vessels which met with accidents, of one sort or another, on the coasts of the United Kingdom; but although we cannot but feel that this number is far larger than it ought to have been, it is satisfactory to know that it fell below that of the pre- ceding year by 168 cases, and, what is far more important, that the lives lost, as a result of the casualties, were less by 82, the total having fallen from 478 to 396.

We cannot be far out, we imagine, in attributing this decrease partly to the efforts of the Life-boat service and other life-saving appliances, and partly to the improved construction of vessels and the development of education and of temper- ance principles among the crews.

The casualties which befel the 3,596 vessels were, as we have stated, very various, but may roughly speaking be classified under the following headings— total loss, serious casualties, and minor casualties. Of the total losses and more serious casualties there were 1,290—a somewhat alarming increase of 84 as compared with the previous year, but the minor casualties fell from 2,558 to 2,306.

Loss of life resulted in 116 of the total losses, or in two less cases than in the year 1884-85.

Notwithstanding that in the year of which we are treating accidents happened to 168 less vessels than in the preceding year, the proportion of vessels involved in collision — 1,232 — was unusually large, while there was a considerable increase in the number of total losses and serious casualties, the former having increased from 291 to 310, and the latter from 528 to 651, the minor casualties having fallen from 1,571 to 1,403. Of the total 3,596 casualties, 3,284 befel British and Colonial ships and steamers, and 312 Foreign vessels.

The localities of the casualties, exclud- ing collision cases, were:—east coast of England, 618; south coast, 498; west coasts of England and Scotland, and east coast of Ireland, 854; north coast of Scot- land, 102; east coast of Scotland, 99; and other parts 193. Total 2,364.

The number of lives lost in the total casualties (3,596) was as follows:—east coast of England 93, or 9 more than the year before; south coast of England 62, or 23 less than in the previous year; west coasts of England and Scotland, and east coast of Ireland, 90, being an increase of 21 as compared with the year 1884-5; north coast of Scotland 13, or 11—nearly one half—less than in the year preceding; east coast of Scotland 24, or 8 more than in the previous twelve months; other parts, 114. Total 396.

The accompanying chart gives at a glance a good idea of the principal ship- ping casualties which happened on our shores during the year ended the 30th June, 1886, showing the total losses from all causes and serious casualties from causes other than collisions; the collisions not resulting in the loss of one or both of the vessels concerned, and other minor casualties, not being shown. The -places where the serious casualties occurred are marked with a black dot, and no thought- ful observer of these dots can fail to appreciate the enormous importance of the coast being environed with a chain of Life-boats.

Between 1861 and the 30th June, 1886, there were 4,199 British, Colonial, and Foreign vessels wrecked on the coasts of the United Kingdom, resulting in each case in the loss of life, the total number of lives so perishing being 19,347.

It is with no little satisfaction that we have been able to record a further decrease in the number of lives lost in the year under consideration, as compared with the preceding years. In our wreck-article last" year we pointed out that the total lives .lost during the years 1883-4 and 1884-5 were respectively 661 and 478, whereas for the year 1885-6 the total was only 396 from 116 vessels. Of these 396 lives lost, 340 were from British and Colonial vessels, and 56 from Foreign ships; 45 perished in foundered vessels, 91 in collisions, 112 in stranded .vessels, and 88 in missing vessels. The remaining 60 perished in various ways, such as explosions, being washed overboard, &c.

It is curious to note how the number of vessels meeting with casualties on our coast fluctuates from year to year. Our readers will see that this is the case by looking through the following interesting table, in which we give the totals for the thirty years between June, 1856, and July, 1886 :— 1856 (last six months), 591; 1857, 1,143; 1858, 1,170; 1859,1,416; 1860, 1,379; 1861,1,494; 1862,1,827; 1863, 2,001; 1864,1,741; 1865,2,019; 1866, 2,289; 1867,2,513; 1868,2,131; 1869, 2,594; 1870,1,865; 1871,1,927.; 1872, 2,381; 1873 (first six months), 1,206; 1873-4, 2,191; 1874-5, 4,259; 1875-6, 4,554; 1876-7, 5,017; 1877-8, 4,436; 1878-9,3,716; 1879-80,3,138; 1880-81, 4,297; 1881-2, 4,367; 1882-3, 4,363; 1883-4, 4,405; 1884-5, 3,764; and 1885-6, 3,596. Total 83,783.

The total number of lives lost on our shores from shipwrecks in these thirty years was 22,191; but, appalling as this total is, it cannot but be a matter for the liveliest satisfaction that in the same period as many as 22,500 were saved through the instrumentality of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, so that the number of lives saved by this means alone was in excess of those lost. Up to the 31st December last the Institution had been instrumental in rescuing, since its establishment in 1824,33,243 persons —a splendid record.

Capital service was rendered in the year 1885-6 by the rocket apparatus of the BOABD OP TRADE, 171 lives having been saved by this means at the 298 stations furnished with the apparatus.

The facts and figures which we have given emphasize the necessity, not only for the existence of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, but also for the maintenance of its service in the highest possible state of efficiency; but it must be remembered, tha,t this cannot be effected unless the Institution is properly and liberally supported.