Navigating the Lower Saint Lawrence in the 19th Century.
Quebec Gazette #5034 16/11/1836 Page 1, Col. 1C. | ||
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| LOSS OF PROPERTY AND LIVES AT SEA. (From the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons) | ||
| That the number of ships or vessels belonging to the United Kingdom, which were wrecked or lost in the periods specified below, appears, by a return made to the committee from the books of Lloyd's, to be as follows: | ||
Number of vessels stranded or wrecked. | ||
| 1816 1817 1818 |
343 362 409 --- 1114 |
1833 1834 1835 |
595 454 524 --- 1573 |
Number of vessels missing or lost. |
1816 1817 1818 |
19 40 30 --- 89 |
1833 1834 1835 |
56 43 30 --- 129 |
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| Making a total of 1203 ship or vessels wrecked and missing in the first period of three years, and a total of 1702 wrecked and missing in the second period of three years. | ||
| Number of vessels in each year, of which the entire crews were drowned. | ||
Number of vessels missing or lost. |
1816 1817 1818 |
15 19 15 --- 49 |
1833 1834 1835 |
38 24 19 --- 81 |
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Making a total of 49 in the first period of three years. That the number of persons drowned in each of the years specified, in addition to the above, and of which the number drowned belonging to each vessel is distinctly known, appears by the same returns from Lloyd's book to be as follows. | ||
Number of persons drowned in each year by ships' named. | ||
| Number of vessels missing or lost. |
1816 1817 1818 |
945 499 256 --- 1700 |
1833 1834 1835 |
572 578 564 --- 1714 |
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That the whole loss of property in British shipping, wrecked or foundered at sea, may therefore be assumed as amounting to nearly three millions sterling per annum; the value of British property, though covered by insurance to certain parties, is not the less absolutely lost to the nation, and its cost paid for by the British public, on whom its loss must ultimately fall. That the nominal loss of life, occasioned by the wreck or foundering of British vessels at sea, may on the same grounds, be fairly estimated at not less than one thousand persons in each year, which loss is also attended with increased pecuniary burdens to the British public, on whom the support of many of the widows and orphans left destitute by such losses must ultimately fall. | ||||
PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF SHIPWRECK. | ||||
| That among the various causes of shipwreck, which appear susceptible of removal or diminution, the following appear to be the most frequent and the most generally admitted: | ||||
| 1. Defective construction of ships. 2. Inadequacy of equipment. 3. Imperfect state of repair. 4. Improper or excessive loading. 5. Inappropriateness of form. 6. Incompetence of masters and officers. 7. Drunkenness of officers and men. 8. Operation of marine insurance. 9. Want of harbours of refuge. 10. Imperfection of charts. | ||
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| G.R. Bossé©1998. | Posted Nov. 1, 1998. | Updated Nov. 27, 2002. |