CIRCUMSTANCES seem to combine in an extraordinary way for spreading very erroneous impressions as to the actual loss of life from shipwreck on the coasts of the United Kingdom. We constantly see in the papers "]ast week's wrecks," or "there were (so many) British -vessels wrecked last week." The natural conclnsion the aTerage reader will come to on perusing such a paragraph will be, that all these wrecks, or at any rate the wrecks of British vessels, all occurred on our own coasts. Then again the word " wreck" will doubtless have the tendency to place before his mind the harrowing picture of these unfortunate ve8sels storm-beaten and helpless, thrown on the treacherous sandbank, or the rocky, iron-bound merciless coast, to be dashed to pieces, with the consequent loss of most if not all the Jives of those on board them. If he goes to the official returns, he may again fall into error from the very common and natural failing, when consulting statistics or tables of figures for information, to go at once to the totals, without duly considering whether or no these are intended to give general 01 grand totals, irrespective of those details it is very accessary to master before a right conslufiion can be come to on the one particular point under consideration. We know from the actual experience of statements made, that this error has been repeatedly fallen into, as regards the loss of life from actual shipwreck on the coast of this eounliy, by which we mean vessels stranded or wrecked on the main shore, or on outlying sands so situated that the aid of the Life-boats from the shore can be summoned by signals from the neighbouring lightships or from the vessels in distress themselves.

Of course this is only one part of the whole subject of losses " on and near our coasts," dealt with as a whole, in another article in this number of the Journal, but we think it is one that the best interests and reputation of the two great branches of the life-saving service, viz. the Lifeboats and the Rocket Apparatus, require should be thoroughly understood by all interested in the saving of life from shipwreck.

The Official Returns of loss of life " on or near OUT Coasts " for the year included between July 1,1887, and June 30,1888, classify the numbers under five headings, descriptive of the causes to which the casualties are attributed, viz. Founderings, Strandings, Collisions, Other Causes, and Missing Ships.

Founderings can hardly be considered as casualties in which the aid of either Life-boat or Apparatus could be made available, for although it is quite easy to conceive a vessel foundering slowly, so close to the shore that the lives of those on board might be rescued by a Life-boat, if not by a Socket Apparatus, actual experience shows such cases to be most rare and exceptional, if they ever occur. The greater part of these casualties occur too far off shore for such help, and even when iaking place nearer land, are so sudden as to give no time for help to reach the unfortunate people in danger. A perusal of the complete list of casualties shows that all the founderings which occurred anywhere near the shore befel pleasure and fishing boats, doubtless nearly all of them open boats, and probably ballasted with stone or iron, with no extra buoyancy provided by enclosed spaces, air cases, or cork, to keep the boats afloat until assistance could reach them.

We next come to the class which may well look for aid from the Life-boat and Life Saving Apparatus, viz. Strandings.

Daring the year in question, 226 of these casualties entailing total loss occurred, and one attended by partial loss. These 227 vessels had 1675 people on board, of whom 138 only were lost out of twenty vessels, so that 207 standings resulting in total loss of the vessel were unattended by loss of life. Out of the 20 strandings attended with loss of life, all hands were lost in five cases only; two of these were large ships, the numbers on board being 27 and 29 respectively, one of which was lost on the ) j Seven Stones off the Lands End, and the other on the coast of Wexford, the other three being small vessels manned by 5, 4, and 2 men respectively.

Doubtless a proportion of the strandings unattended by loss of life occurred from other causes than stress of weather, and the lives of the crews were saved either by their own or other boats, but during this period the Institution, by its own Life-boats and rewards to shore boats and other means, contributed to the saving of 641 lives, and the Rocket Apparatus saved 282, making a total of 923, out of a possible 1061, saved by means of the two branches of the Life-Saving Service.

Collisions stand in the returns as the cause of 226 lives being lost. These again are casualties that occur under circumstances and with results that put aid from Life-boats or Life Apparatus as a rule quite out of the question.

Other Causes, again, which contribute 83 to the sad total, are also casualties beyond the aid of Life-boat or Life Saving Apparatus, including as they do, " Decks swept/' "Parting of foot rope," " Tackles gave way," " Capsized," " Loss of sails," " Loss of bulwarks," " Fire," and all the other minor ills vessels, and particularly small vessels, are liable to.

There is something very sad in the last division " Missing jYessels.'1 Happily the list for those " on and near our coasts " is not a long one compared with some of the others. It comprises 29 lives in eight vessels, to •wMcb./.of course, no help could be given, nor is it exactly known where the catastrophes happened.

The Official Belarus to which we have been referring are certainly very complete, and everything is given in the fullest detail.

They distinguish between steamers and sailing ships, show the trade in which the different vessels to which casualties occurred were employed, as well as the different parts of the coast on which they occurred, and are doubtless well calculated to effect the object for which they are compiled; bat they cannot with justice be quoted as criterion? of the efficiency of the life-saving services 011 the coast. Of course, an arbitrary limit must be laid down clearly defining what " on and near our coasts " means. A reference to the Wreck Chart accompanying the Returns, shows that this is done by laying down points at distances from the prominent headlands commencing from the Shetland Islands, coming round the East and South Coast of Great Britain, then across the month of the Irish Sea and Bristol Channel, from Scilly to Bantey Bay, and up the West Coast of Ireland and Scotland to the Shetlanda again. The points, wWeb. vary in distance from the land between ten and twenty-five miles, are then, connected by lines, forming the boundary for these Returns. The distances between the boundary line and the shore vary with the indentations of the coast, and in some places exceed fifty and even seventy miles, distances which, it will be at ouce obvious, are far beyond the touch of the life-saving services. If these facts were as wlde?j' demonstrated and realized as their importance deserves, they could not but go far towards combating successfully the wild and untenable assertions we meet with, "viz., that thousands of lives are lost yearly on the coast. These Returns themselves go far to refute these statements, because they show that the total number of lives lost on and near our coasts, i.e.

within the boundary lines above described, is 571, by all the five classes or causes into which the casualties are divided as before noticed, and that of these only 139 could possibly have been saved had Lifeboats or Socket Apparatus been at hand.

Even if all the lives lost" on the coasts of British possessions abroad " are added to the above number (571), both together will not make up a total of a thousand, and to do so it is necessary to add " coasts of foreign countries." In conclusion, we would earnestly impress upon our readers the iujustioa to the gallant men belonging to the life-saving services implied by such mistaken and inaccurate statements as those we have mentioned, because, were they true, they would show a state of affairs that of course would not be tolerated for a single day.