fortuitous occurrence, and never demands remuneration; why then, it may be asked, shall the owner be compelled, against his will and possibly to his total ruin, to submit to the interested acts of his servants, solely for their own benefit, they being free from all risks of property, &c., and at the same time well paid by the owner? The salvage law was originally established for the humane and meritorious object of preserving sea-faring men from being lost, by the perils of their useful and adventurous mode of life; but the beneficent intention as originally contemplated, is rendered futile and of little avail, and human life is too often disregarded; but where property can be saved, men who have nothing at stake, to the manifest injury and danger of their owner, risk every thing for their own advantage; it would, therefore, be desirable that remuneration to some extent should be given to the master and crew for saving human life, and that a more equitable distribution of salvage as suggested should take place where property has been saved; and for the reason herein stated a general revision of the salvage law is much called for, and which would speedily be acceded, if some large Government vessel had only been lost whilst engaged in salving property, then such a case would call forth censure, and probably punishment of the Captain by the decision of a Court-martial; but if the salving merchantman be lost, the owner is not only without redress or relief, but the master would still go to the Admiralty Court of Doctor's Commons, be there highly praised and handsomely paid! I am, &c., G. T. W. WRECKS OF BRITISH SHIPPING. THE late gales as usual have made sad havoc on our shores, scattering wrecks far and near; and spreading mourning, and, desolation among the unhappy relatives of those, who periled their lives in the treacherous Merchant Ship! It is a melancholy and degrading fact, notwithstanding the vaunted amount of our mercantile fleet, that no severe gale passes over these islands without bringing with it, as a kind of necessary consequence, destruction to a large number of its ships. We may leave the causes of such destruction for the investigation of others; they might no doubt be found among the list of fifty stated by a correspondent in our volume for 1841, and which, as it might possibly serve some useful purpose, we will repeat here: Causes of the loss of ships at sea, by wreck and otherwise. 1. Short complement of men. 2. Deficiency of materials and stores. 3. Deficiency of water and provisions. 4. Bad materials-anchors, chains, boats, spars, sails, cordage, &c. 5. Bad quality of water and provisions. 6. Teetotality-coffee instead of rum, &c. 7. Bad condition of the ship from age, want of repairs, caulking, and looking properly to. 8. Bad construction of the ship, out of trim, &c. 9. Incapacity of masters and others. 10. Presence of captain's wives, and other women. 11. Insanity. 12. Inability of men, or crews, from sickness, maims, exhaustion, &c. 13. Drunkenness, revelry, &c. 14. Discipline, too lax or too severe. 15. Mutiny and insubordination. 16. A dead-and-alive set: no devil on board. 17. Discord and dissension-the devil let loose. ENLARGED SERIES.-NO. 2.-VOL. FOR 1843. R 18. Deaths, desertions, and discharges. 19. Fire. 20. Collision. 21. Upsetting in a squall, &c. 22. Shifting of cargo, &c. 23. Consternation,-the ship on her beam ends, on fire, water-logged, &c. 24. Shipping of seas, foundering by stress of weather, &c. 25 Springing a leak by starting a butt-end, &c. 26. Deep lading, crowded stowage on deck, &c. 27. Striking on rock, grounding on shoals, &c. 28. Driving on a lee shore. 29. Impressment at sea, detention and deviation. 30. Incorrectness of charts, compass, &c. 31. Want of care: bad dead-reckoning. 32. Want of vigilance: bad look-out. 33. No latitude by observation, on account of fogs, &c. 31. No flying the blue pigeon, no regard to lights, bells, drums, &c. 35. Capture or destruction by an enemy or pirate. 36. Struck or blown up by lightning, 37. Masts, &c., rolled or pitched away. 38. Driving with a foul anchor; a kink in the cable, &c. 39. Parting a cable. 40 Staving of boats, carrying away of masts, splitting of sails, &c. 41. Sleeping on watch, drowsiness of helmsman, &c. 42. Breaking adrift of floating-lights &c. 43. Mistaking of headlands, lights, &c. 44. Sinking or destroying a ship purposely. 45. Rising of prisoners, convicts, &c. 46. Fool-hardihood,-guns run out when blowing hard upon a wind, press of sail with a crank ship, &c. 47. Carrying away topmast from neglect of breast back-stays, after going about. 48. Broaching to when weathering a headland in a gale of wind. 49. Incapacity of persons having charge as pilots. 50. Abandonment of ship without sufficient causes, in case of wreck, officers leaving their juniors in command, with orders to land the treasure, the men, &c. The foregoing list is well worth attention, combining as we believe it does, the real causes of our numerous wrecks. Year after year, we have gathered together the names of these wrecks, and we have accompanied them with the tales of sorrow and suffering which they produced, until we could come to no other conclusion than that, they formed a necessary feature in the economy of our mercantile marine; and being therefore received accordingly by the public, we have devoted our space to other more useful matter. And again the scenes of horror are repeated! The recent dreadful loss of life by wreck at the Cape has scarcely passed before us, when the still more calamitous wrecks of the Reliance, and the Conqueror, to say nothing of a host of others, again create in our minds those painful sensations, which such wholesale loss of life cannot but occasion; spreading affliction in many a family, and carrying the pang of sorrow for the departed, to the homes of parents, brothers, sisters, and friends! And all this will pass away, as a tale that is told; and all this will again recur as a necessary feature in the economy of our mercantile marine! We have often said, it would fill the greater part of our journal to record the scenes which are witnessed on the occasion of these numerous wrecks, and it would be of little avail to do so. To account for them and to point out the means of avoiding them, is a far worthier employment of our space, and this we shall endeavour to do. WRECKS OF BRITISH SHIPPING. (Continued from p. 871, vol. for 1842.-cs. crew saved; cd. crew drowned.) WRECKS OF BRITISH SHIPPING, see Table. 10 CHRISTINA.- Bombay, Oct. 31.-The Christina, Birkett, from Macao for this port, struck on the West London Shoal, in about lat. 9o N., long. 112o E., on the night of July 1st, and became a total wreck. 11 CLEOSTRATUS.-On the evening of the 16th of December last, the French, brig Annette, from St. Peter's, Newfoundland, for Granville, hove in sight, and upon the Cleostratus hoisting signals of distress, lay to. The master and crew of the foundering vessel then quickly took to their boats, and got safely on board the brig, leaving the Cleostratus, apparently just about going down, in lat. 48° 33', long 23° 30'. The Annette landed the master and his men at Granville, whence they were forwarded by the English consul there to Jersey. 33 JOHN and ANN.-Wrecked about 200 miles from Alexandria; one man drowned, the remainder of the crew and the master saved on raft; but the latter subsequently died through exhaustion. They were plundered by the Bedouins, some of whom have since conducted them to Alexandria, where they remain at present under the care of the British consulate. 38 LIVERPOOL.-On the 6th of August last, the brig Liverpool, Capt. J. Ord, belonging to Messrs. Higgin and Lane, of Liverpool, ran upon a bank of sand in the Yang-tse-Kiang river, and became a total wreck. The Liverpool left Amoy on the 21st May last, for Chusan, where she arrived on the 11th June, after a troublesome passage along a coast, and through channels very little known. She completed loading on the 8th of July, and joined the convoy lying outside the harbour. The navigation among the Chusan islands is most difficult, the currents and whirlpools being fearfully rapid, sometimes rendering ships totally unmanageable. After several dangerous incidents, the brig got safely to Woosung, on the Yang-tse Kiang river, on the 14th of July. On the 4th of August the senior naval officer at Woosung gave orders to proceed to Nankin with other vessels, under the convoy of H.M.S. Harlequin. By the 6th of August, they had reached a point of the river about fifty miles above Woosung and 100 from Nankin. This is the most dangerous part of the river, having rapid tides, and the shifting banks, so that the channel is very uncertain. The Liverpool was steering after the Harlequin, when the latter was suddenly seen to ground. The anchor of the Liverpool was immediately let go, but, in swinging round, she also grounded. The other vessels which were astern dropped their anchors and avoided the bank. Assistance was rendered to the Liverpool from the other ships, and by powerful efforts she was got off, but, the capstan giving way at a critical juncture, she was forced on the bank again, and, as the tide was falling, all efforts to get her off again failed. Meanwhile, the Harlequin had succeeded in getting into deep water. On the 8th the weather became boisterous, and the vessel straining sprung a leak. Captain Ord requested permission from the captain of the Harlequin to throw overboard the cargo, but this was refused, and on the 10th two junks were taken alongside. Part of the cargo was put into these, and part thrown overboard. The crew, with ample assistance from the Harlequin, toiled incessantly both at the pumps and in removing everything of value into the junks on behalf of the owners and underwriters. On the 11th it was found that the ship had broken her back. On the 18th, having saved everything possible, and the wreck being nearly buried in the sand, she was abandoned, and the crew divided on board the junks; the mate, Mr. Bell, taking charge of one, and Captain Ord, of the other. It is stated, that the whole of the fleet alluded to, consisting of seven sail, had been on shore three or four times, so intricate is the navigation.-Albion. 41 MAVIS.-The following is a summary mode of disposing of a vessel :— the brig Mavis, Jones, from the West Coast, with specie, was struck by lightning, and instantly blew up, July 31st, near the Grand Ladrone; crew saved. 46 NAIAD.-Mr. Kimball, of the brig Shawmut, arrived at Boston, on the 6th of December last, from Rio Janeiro, states that on the 11th of Nov. in lat. 28° 10', long. 58° 10', he fell in with the wreck of the British brig Naiad, Pearson, late master, of and from Halifax, for Demerara, which sailed Sept. 14th, and on the 22nd, lat 291°, was capsized in a heavy squall, keel out; was under close-reef topsails at the time. She righted next day full of water, and with loss of all her spars, except her foremast. Took from the foretop, William Fosdick, of New York, seaman, the only survivor; two men were drowned in the forecastle when she capsized, and six had died of hunger and thirst, and Fosdick was in a helpless state, unable to stand, and could not have survived but a short time. The following additional particulars were obtained from young Fosdick, by Mr. Gurney, the pilot, who brought up the brig Shawmut. Mr. Kimball, it will be recollected, rescued Fosdick from the wreck. It appears from his statement that he remained forty-nine days on the wreck, with little or no food. A little flour was washed up from the hold, which they collected, wet with salt water, and dried in the sun, and ate. It was known that there was a canister of salmon preserved in oil in the cabin. Fosdick dived down several timer and succeeded in obtaining six, on which they lived for some time; after that nothing remained to support life. Of the seven that remained, (two being drowned in the forecastle when the Naiad upset,) it is remarkable that the most fleshy, and apparently the strongest, died first. Everything was done by Fosdick to keep up the spirits of his companions, but they failed one after another, and as soon as hope fled they yielded and died. When the weather was at all rough they were obliged to take to the foretop and lash themselves, there to remain till it became calm. They had now all perished but two-Fosdick and a companion, who were in the top. One dark night, when it began to rain, Fosdick reached over to where his companion lay, to rouse him to obtain a few drops of water as it fell, but found him dead. In the morning he cut him loose and he fell into the sea. He then remained alone six days before he was taken off by Mr. Kimball. Great praise is due, and should be awarded to Mr. Kimball, for the medical skill he displayed in saving his life, for he was a mere skeleton, unable to stand or even to speak. He is now in comfortable quarters at the Seamen's Home, in North-square. 54 PROGRESS.-Mr. Drury and crew, of the schooner Progress, of Goole, which vessel foundered on the 19th November last, in the Swin, publicly wish to return their heartfelt thanks to Captain Saxby, of her Majesty's cruiser Desmond, for his praiseworthy conduct in saving the whole of them, at the imminent risk of his own life, also for the handsome treatment they afterwards received from Captain Saxby, who supplied them with dry clothes and food, aud landed them safe at Harwich. [We have little doubt that we shall present our readers with a similar table to the foregoing in our next number.] THE COCKLE Gat. H.M.S. Shearwater, Harwich, Nov. 9, 1842. MY DEAR SIR.-The Trinity Board, as you are aware, with their usual consideration for the benefit of the shipping interest of this kingdom, have recently issued a circular requesting the opinion of ship-owners, pilots, &c., with respect |