THE LIFEBOAT WORK IN 1877.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1256, 28 March 1878, Page 3

THE LIFEBOAT WORK IN 1877.

Daring the year which has just closed (says the “Daily News”) the lifeboats of the National Lifeboat Institution have rendered valuable services on different parts of the coasts of the United Kingdom. The unusually severe storms of the past two months tested to the utmost the qualities of the institution’s large life-saving fleet, but on every occasion both the brave men and their boats were found equal to every emergency. A total of 811 lives have been rescued by the society’s lifeboats during the past year, besides thirty-five vessels saved from destruction. In the same period the Lifeboat Institution granted rewards for saving 200 lives by fishing and other boats—making a grand total of 1041 live* saved last year mainly through its instrumentality. Altogether, since its formation, the Society has contributed to the saving of 25,400 shipwrecked persons, for which services it has granted 978 gold and silver medals, besides pecuniary rewards to the amount of £54,000. The storms of last November will long be remembered for their frequency, their violence, and the noble services of the Institution’s lifeboats, which saved nearly 300 lives in that month alone. After performing these services some of the lifeboats’ crews returned homo absolutely exhausted ; in some cases many of the men’s lives were actually despaired of for several days afterwards. It should be mentioned that the operations of the National Lifeboat Institution now cover the whole coasts of the British Isles, and that with the exception of a score or so lifeboats which belong to harbor trustees and other local bodies the whole of the lifeboats of the United Kingdom belong to the National Institution.