ON the 8th April this year the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION decided to build and station a Steam Life-boat at Padstow, and it is of considerable inte- rest to pass in review the reasons which led the governing body to adopt such a course.

Steam Life-boats, so far as we know them, are hardly boats to place haphazard at any harbour where they can be kept afloat irrespective of the question of the number and description of casualties in the neighbourhood, or whether the existing service has proved itself efficient without one; so there must have been very weighty considerations to have brought about such an important decision.

The north coast of Cornwall is about as dangerous a coast as is to be found in Great Britain and Ireland, but, unlike many other dangerous coasts, vessels are com- pelled to approach moderately near to it when making the Bristol Channel from the southward and westward, and the English Channel from the westward and north- ward ; consequently there is always con- siderable traffic passing within sight.

A glance at the chart shows at once the nature of the Cornish coast. Take the sixty miles between Haitland Point and St. Ives, it is practically all roek-bound.

At Widmouth Bay, south of Bude, there is indeed a strand, a very skmy one, but there is hardly another spot in those sixty miles where the sea does not, daring some portion of the tide, wash the foot of the cliffs, excepting Hell Bay at Pad- stow, the very name of which is sufficient warning to give it a wide, berth. A wonderfully beautiful coast—the inspira- tion of poets and artiste, but the despair of mariners.

Not only is the nature of the coast terrible, but the fact of being absolutely open to the full force of the Atlantic subjects it to the onslaughts of a terrific sea. There are two sorts of seas, the wind sea, which is not of a very dangerous character and is the result of local winds not extending far from the coast, and the ground sea, which comes in from the Atlantic and results from disturbances affecting a wider area. The wind some- times being expended or diverted before arriving at the coast, it is no un- common thing to sea breakers of great magnitude suddenly roll iti without any wind to account for them. These are bad enough, but when the wind does accompany them, it is beyond the power of human strength to get a pulling boit to sea, -while the nature of the coast makes it impossible to work large first- class sailing Life-boats.Between Hartland Point and St. Ives, the part of the coast where it is hoped the steam Life-boat will be of service, there are six Life-boat stations, viz., Bude, Port Isaac,' Padstow, Newquay, Hayle, and St. Ives (or one for every ten miles of coast if they were equally divided, which they are not). There are also on the same stretch of coast thirteen rocket stations, or one for every four and a half miles, this being essentially a coast where the rocket apparatus is more important than the Life-boat.

The oldest Life-boat station is Bude, having been in existence since before 1852.

This station is credited with having saved 40 lives. Padstow was established in 1856, and has saved 215 lives. St. Ives, established in 1860, has saved 123 lives.

Newqnay, also established in 1860, has saved 63 lives. Hayle, established in 1866, is credited with 55 lives. And Port Isaac, which was established in 1870, has 72 lives as its score.

A considerable change has taken place since the formation of these branches. In their early days there was a very large number of small coasters carrying on trade with the ports at which these boats were stationed, and on referring to the wreck returns it is seen that the greater number of lives rescued were from these vessels, which often got into difficulties in trying to make these dangerous little harbours. Doom Bar and Hell Bay (cheerful names!) at Padstow have the most to answer for, and many a craft has left its bones in the neighbourhood of St. Ives and Hayle Bar.

Bride-haven, which seems to have been so called ironically, has also been the scene of many a shipwreck. At Port Isaac one of the chief functions of the Life- boat is to take care of the fishing boats which are manned by the hardy and daring fishermen of this beautiful little rocky creek, but the Life-boat has also done some very good service to other vessels. The small coasting trade having nearly van- ished, the casualties of the above descrip- tion have of course decreased, and it was not to cope with this sort of work that the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTI- TUTION has decided to put a steam Life- boat at Padstow, but primarily to render assistance to larger classes of vessels unable to claw off the coast on to which they may have been drifted by a break- down of machinery or loss of sails and spars. A slight outline of the cases which have been chiefly instrumental in guiding the Committee in this action will not be out of place. The wrecks are those of the s.s. Escurial on the 25th January, 1895, on which occasion 11 were drowned; the s.s. Sicilia, off Trevose Head, 3rd October, 1895, when luckily there was no loss of life; the terrible disaster which overcame the s.s. Syracusa, of Hamburg, on the 3rd March this year, when every one on board perished by the vessel founder- ing off Newquay, and the loss of the ketch Engineer with all hands, between Morgan- porth and Bedruthan on the same night or early on the morning of the 4th March.

The Escurial was a screw steamer of 1189 tons laden with coal. She left Cardiff on the evening of 23rd January, 1895, in fine weather with a light N.W. wind blowing, smooth water and the ship upright. During the night the wind increased and the ship took a slight list to port. By noon of the 24th it was blowing a gale and the vessel was shipping water on deck. In the afternoon the vessel was discovered to be leaking, and she continued to heel over considerably; all the pumps were worked, but the water gained on them, and at 1 A.M. on the 25th the fires were drowned out and all hands called on deck. Signals of distress were made and answered from the shore. At this time the vessel was off Newquay, Cornwall; at daylight she was quite unmanageable, drifting in a S.E. direction along the coast. At noon the port anchor was let go but did not hold, and at 12.30 the vessel struck off a small place called Portreath about twenty miles from Newquay and nine from Hayle.

When the ship struck, some of the crew took to the rigging, others went into the chart house, and those on deck either jumped or were washed overboard. Shortly afterwards both masts went overboard, taking those who had sought refuge there with them. The master, first and second mate, second engineer, and seven of the crew were drowned, and the remaining eight were rescued by the Hayle Life-boat and the people on shore. Such was the state of affairs with regard to the vessel her- self. On that occasion the action taken by the three Life-boats, Newquay, Hayle, and St. Ives was, at the request of the Life- boat Institution, included in the very | exhaustive inquiry held by the Board of Trade into the loss of the vessel.

The Newquay Life-boat unfortunately failed to render assistance, and through a misunderstanding the St. Ives boat did not round G-odrevy Light. The Hayle boat was taken overland and launched at Portreath, and whilst pulling one of the crew of the Escurial out of the water the boat got knocked broadside on and thrown on the beach, and owing to the extreme softness of the sand she was unable to get afloat again in time to render further assistance. The telegraphic arrangements on this occasion were all disorganised through the posts being blown down and the telephonic arrangements were not then in a complete state; the chief result of this was that when eventually the news of a vessel in distress reached Padstow, the tug was ashore, and without her the Life-boat could not have reached the Escurial.

In connection with the finding of the Board of Trade inquiry, it is worth while to quote some of Sheriff GUTHBIE'S (the presiding judge) remarks: " With regard to the Life-boats, there were three in question; and, as the answers to the questions (set by the Board of Trade) will show, there is, in the main, no doubt at all as to the good conduct of the boats' crews. The only., remark I would make is, that in dealing with Life-boat ques- tions, it seems to me, judging from the evidence we have had, that it is not fair to apply too strict and too stringent rules to the conduct of Life-boat men.

Of course, undertaking the work of Life- boat men, they are bound to do their duty . . . but it is impossible that all Life-boats' crews can be equally efficient.

Some are composed of men who have long experience of seafaring life—experienced seamen; others are mixed crews, as we have seen, partly landsmen, partly men living along the shore, and only partially making their living on the sea, and some allowance must be made in circumstances such as these. Upon the whole, it does not appear to the Court that there is very much to say— indeed, that there is any- thing to say in depreciation of the conduct of the Life-boat men." Now whether, if a steam Life-boat had been at Fadstow with the then existing, or rather imperfect system of, electric communication, she could have reached the Escurial in time, is a speculative question which nothing can be gained by trying to solve. Circumstances are altered now, and undoubtedly the loss of the Escurial is a most important link in the chain of argument in favour of placing a steam Life-boat on the north coast of Cornwall.

The next wreck which has a distinct bearing on the utility of a steam Life- boat on that part of the coast is that of the s.s. Sidlia; and although there was no loss of life on this occasion, the men were in imminent danger, and possibly a steam Life-boat might have been the means of saving the vessel. In this case the above steamer of 1349 tons was on a voyage from Liverpool to Barcelona, laden with coal, and her loss was strangely similar to that of the Escurial. She left Liverpool on the 30th September, 1895, and on the evening of the 1st October she got into bad weather, and part of her cargo shifted; the sea broke over her heavily, and found its way down below, the pvimpswere set going, but got choked the next morning. The engines were kept going until noon on the 2nd, when the fires were drowned out. The vessel was then between Trevose Head andGodrevy. Signals of distress were made, and a steamer called the Caerleon took the Sicilia in tow, and towed her for two I hours—from C P.M. to 8 P.M.—when the tow-ropes parted and the Caerleon could do no more, but offered to stand by. At 9 P.M. the Sicilia's engines were got to move again, and the Caerleon left; but between 11 P.M. and midnight the fires were again put out, and signals of distress were made. The captain decided to abandon the ship at 8 A.M. on the 3rd October; and the crew, numbering twenty- five, left in the two ships' Life-boats. The vessel was then off Park Head, and the ships' boats made for Padstow. One boat was brought safely in, but the other, getting too close to Hell Bay, was boarded by the Padstow Life-boat, and the crew transferred and taken in safety to Pad- stow. In the meanwhile the s.s. Sicilia drove ashore south of Trevose Head, and speedily broke np. It was not until 4.30 P.M. on the 2nd October that a telegram was received at Newquay from the coastguard at Portreath, reporting that a steamer was off there wanting assistance. This was the Sicilia. The Life-boat was launched and proceeded ten miles towards where the vessel was reported, but failed to find her; this was not surprising, because it would have been just the time when the Sicilia was being towed to the northward by the Caerleon. After burning some signals, which were not answered, the Life-boat returned to Newquay and was housed.

The following morning, about 2.30, signals were reported by the coastguard, and the coxswain came to the look-out station, but as nothing further was seen and there was some doubt as to whether the signals were really distress-signals, and as neither the coastguard nor the cox- swain connected these signals with the vessel of the previous evening, which they considered had got safely to sea, the Life-boat was not launched.

At Padstow nothing was known of the vessel in distress until a boat was seen at noon on the 3rd October about 1J miles N.W. of Stepper Point, which is at the entrance of Padstow Harbour. The wind was W.N.W., blowing a whole gale, and a very heavy sea was running. Stepper Point heads about N.N.E., and the channel on the east side of it, which leads up to Padstow is very narrow; in fact, only 160 yards of navigable water separates the rocky promontory which terminates at Stepper Point from the Doom Bar, and outside the Doom Bar the coast trends away to the eastward and forms Hell Bay. A vessel therefore making .Padstow in north-westerly winds must hug the Stepper Point shore as close as possible to avoid being drifted into Hell Bay or on the Doom Bar.

As soon as the boat was sighted the Padstow Life-boat was launched, and the local tug, which is a boat of small power, communicated with. The Life-boat pro- ceeded to Stepper Point, and met the first of the Sicilia's boats jnst coming in, evi- dently steered by some one acquainted with the place, for she was kept quite close to the Point. The men on board this boat told the Life-boat men that there was a second boat still at sea; so attempts were im- mediately made both by tug and Life-boat to round Stepper Point and get out, bnfc the sea proved too heavy and the Life-boat returned and waited just inside so as to be ready to go to the second boat, which came in sight shortly afterwards, but unlike its predecessor was not being steered a safe course. The Life-boat started after her and reaching her when close to the outer breakers of Hell Bay, transferred her crew to the Life-boat and returned with them in safety.

This case has been quoted at some length because, although no lives were lost, there might very easily have been a great disaster, and also to show the dangers to be encountered in making Padstow Harbour. With the improved coast communication and a steam Life- boat at Padstow, such a position as the crew of the Sicilia found themselves in would certainly be stripped of a great deal of its danger.We now come to the last two casual- ties, the terrible details of which are fresh in our minds, for the sad occurrences only took place this year on the 3rd and 4th March. Between 2 and 3 P.M. on the afternoon of the 3rd of March, during a very heavy N.W. gale, a steamer was seen from Padetow and Newquay with a strong list to port. She was then about twelve miles W.N.W. of Stepper Point, and about six miles in a north-westerly direction from Newquay. She had a heavy list to port, and distress signals flying which could be distinguished from Newquay.

The vessel, as will be readily seen, was dead to windward of both Padstow and Newquay, but apparently drifting into Newquay. No vessel could have been in such a difficult position to reach as regards the North Cornwall Life-boat, St. Ires was twenty miles off, and to reach the wreck the Life-boat would have had to have gone outside the " stones" which lie off Godrevy, and Hayle was completely embayed.

The Newquay Life-boat made a gallant attempt to reach the distressed vessel, and after trying for three hours to beat to windward (for in such a sea and wind no- thing could be done under oars) of Towan Head, was obliged to give it up, and the gale not moderating, no further attempt was possible. The unfortunate steamer, which was afterwards found to have been the Syracusa, of Hamburg, foundered off Newquay some time after 10 P.M., and all hands were lost. Although" there is no proof as to the actual reason of the loss of the vessel, those who saw her conjectured that her cargo had shifted as in the case of the Escurial and Sicilia.

It would have been futile for the Padstow boat to have attempted to beat the twelve miles to windward necessary to have reached this vessel when she was first seen, but a steam Life-boat might have covered the distance in about four hours, as she would probably have been able to make about three miles an hour even in the teeth of such a gale.

At 3.50 A.M. on the morning of the 4th March the coastguard saw a flare due east from Newquay, and immediately the Life-boat's crew were summoned and the boat was afloat by 4.30. The wind was very changeable, varying from S.W. to W.N.W., and at times of terrific force.

The Life-boat proceeded under oars to- wards the flare, which was from time to time lost sight of. It was not till day- light that the actual position of the unfortunate vessel, which proved to be the ketch Engineer, was seen, and a •worse position for her or a more dangerous position for a Life-boat to try to get to could not be imagined. The Engineer was near the shore between Morganporth and Bedruthan steps, with the seas washing over her and broken water a long way outside her. The Life-boat made three attempts to get at her, each time going into the broken water, but was not able to venture close enough, for in case of failure there was nothing but a steep cliff to leeward, which would have meant death to the whole Life-boat crew.

The unfortunate ketch went to pieces, and all her crew were drowned.

The four wrecks cited most distinctly point to the necessity of a steam Life-boat on the north coast of Cornwall, and although what might have been done had one been there is of course purely specu- lative, still it is not unlikely a steam Life-boat might have rendered good ser- vice to the three steamers, and if she could have got to the ketch before she was discovered in the position the Newquay Life-boat found her, she might also have saved her crew, but it is more than doubt- ful if even a steam Life-boat could be expected to go in among rocks on a dead lee shore with nothing but a cliff to receive her in the event of failure.

The question for the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION to consider was where to put the steam Life-boat. At St. Ives the boat could not lie afloat in safety during all states of the tides—a sine qua non for a steam Life-boat. At Hayle, Portreath, Newquay, Port Isaac, Bude, the same disqualification exists.

Padstow is the only place on the north coast of Cornwall between St. Ives and Hartland where it is possible to keep a boat afloat and in a sheltered position, and it is also the most central place. New- j quay naturally showed a great anziety to j have the steam Life-boat stationed there, j but it would have entailed building a very costly break-water to protect her in i a position where she could have been ; moored. Newquay's claims were most carefully considered, but with the exist- ing natural advantages of Fadstow there could be no doubt which had the greatest claim, and it is hoped before another six months have passed that a steam Life-boat will be there, but it is at the same time most earnestly hoped that it will be long before her services are required.