THE pressure of work thrown on the Board of Trade last year was so great that the Department was unable to issue until the close of the year their very valuable "Abstracts of the Shipping Casualties which occurred on or near the Coasts of the United Kingdom during the year ended the 30th June, 1894." We were therefore prevented giving last year according to our practice a Wreck Chart and an explan- atory article. We have now, however, been furnished with the admirably arranged tables and statistics for the year in ques- tion, and have the pleasure of bringing them under the special notice of our readers.

In our last wreck article we were glad to be able to report that the statistics showed, not only a considerable falling off in the shipping casualties during the year 1892-3, but, which was more important still, a corresponding diminution in loss of life. We much regret that we are unable to give such a satisfactory report for the year 1893—4, although pleased to be able to show that the loss of life resulting from the shipping casualties during the year of which we are treating would have been considerably larger had it not been for the work of the LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION and the excellent and gallant services of the Coastguard with their Rocket Apparatus.

In the year 1893-94 the total number of shipping casualties round our coast was 4,951, an increase of 1,452 as compared with the previous year, although only an increase of 241 as compared with the year 1891-2, and the total number of lives lost as a result of the casualties rose from 275 to 821, an increase of 546.

The casualties for the year—4,951— included every description of casualty befalling every class of vessel, namely, collisions, founderings, strandings, etc.

As usual we classify them under the following heads:—(1) Total loss; (2) serious casualties; (3) minor casualties.

Under each of these heads an increase is shown, Nos. 1 and 2 having gone up from 1,282 to 1,706—an increase of 424, the total of the minor casualties rising from 2,217 to 3,245, an increase of 1,028. Life was lost in 179 out of the 4,951 casualties.

The collision cases contributed a large proportion of the casualties, the total being 1,429, an increase of 144 as com- pared with the year 1892-3. Collision cases being excluded, the cases of total loss rose from 189 to 417, the serious casualties from 673 to 843, and the minor casualties from 1,352 to 2,262, a change for the worse under each head.

As regards the nationality of the vessels suffering, the Board of Trade enables us to state that casualties befel 4,366 British and Colonial vessels and 585 Foreign vessels, total 4,951. The British and Colonial total was 1,193 larger than that of the previous year, and the Foreign total an excess of 259.

Considering the casualties from a locality point of view, we find the totals were as follows, collision cases not being taken into account:—East coast of Eng- land, 1,037; north coast, 600; west coast of England and Scotland, and east coast of Ireland, 1,180; north coast of Scot- land, 149; east coast of Scotland, 236; and other parts, 320 ; total 3,522, or 1,308 more than in the year 1892-3.

The lives lost as the result of casualties of all sorts, including collisions, were as follows:—East coast of England 213, or 177 more than in the previous year; south coast of England 78, or 42 more than in the previous year; west coast of England and Scotland, and east coast of Ireland, 117, an increase of 19 as compared with the year 1891-2; north coast of Scotland, 35, or 1 more than in the year before; east coast of Scotland, 37, or 25 more than in the year 1891-2; other parts, 341; total 821.On the annexed chart of the United Kingdom a black dot will be found against each spot where a serious shipping casualty took place on the coast during • the year ended the 30th June, 1894, so that it can at once be understood at a glance what parts proved most dangerous.

The chart further indicates the precise position of each of the 303 Life-boats of the Institution.

Between 1861 and the 30th June, 1894, there were 5,328 British, Colonial and Foreign vessels wrecked on our coast, all of which resulted in loss of life, the total number of lives so lost being 23,610.

Of the 821 lives lost in the year 1893-4, 720 were from British and Colonial vessels, as against 228 the preceding year, and 101 from Foreign vessels, the number in 1892-3 being 47. These totals show therefore that the number of persons perishing from British and Colonial ves- sels was 546 in excess of the total for the previous year, and those from Foreign vessels 54 in excess of the corresponding total for the year before. Of the 821 lives lost 128 are credited to foundered vessels, 61 to collisions, 287 to stranded vessels, 218 to missing vessels as against 45 in the year 1892-3, and the remain- ing 127 to explosions, washed over- board, etc.

The following Table, which gives the figures for forty-one years, shows that there has been a considerable fluctuation from year to year in the number of vessels meeting with casualties on the coast of Great Britain and Ireland, partly perhaps due to the varying number of vessels coming and going, and partly to the differing conditions of weather.

It will be seen that the total for the year 1893-94—4,951—is the highest in the record excepting the year 1876-7, when the total was 5,017:—1854 (last six months), 458; 1855, l,14i; 1856, 1,153; 1857, 1,143; 1858, 1,170; 1895, 1,416; 1860,1,379; 1861,1,494; 1862, 1,827; 1863,2,001; 1864, 1,741; 1865, 2,012; 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; 1880-1, 4,297; 1881-2, 4,367; 1882-3, 4,363; 1883-4, 4,405; 1884-5, 3,764; 1885-6, 3,596; 1886-7, 4,224; 1887-8, 4,004; 1888-9, 4,272; 1889-90, 4,344; 1890-1, 4,198; 1891-2, 4,710; 1892-3, 3,499; 1893-4, 4,951. Total, 120,146.

Notwithstanding the terrible loss of life from shipwreck which has taken place on our coasts during rather more than a generation, giving the very large total of 27,449 lives lost, it is well to bear in mind that in the same period the Life- boats of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION and the other means employed and rewarded by the Institution have been the happy means of saving 28,809 lives.

The number of lives thus saved, therefore, exceeded those sacrificed by 1,360. In 1894 rewards were granted by the Com- mittee for saving 790 lives.

The work performed by the Life-boats in the year 1893-4 was admirably sup- plemented by the important help given to distressed vessels and crews by the 307 rocket apparatus and other stations of the Board of Trade, resulting in the rescue of 402 lives as against 614 saved by the same means in the previous year, the de- crease being 212.

The statistics and facts which we have now enlarged on are in themselves the very best argument which could be ad- duced on which to base an appeal for the generous support of the Life-boat Institu- tion, and we therefore, in view of the successful efforts of the Institution to save life in the past, earnestly appeal to all to give it a helping hand.