TOLL OF THE SEA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8, 9 January 1914, Page 4

TOLL OF THE SEA.

A Parliamentary Paper giving the re-; turns of lives lost by wreck, drowning or other accident in British merchant, ships registered in the United Kingdom shows that during 1912 the number of passengers, masters and sea-1 men lost in sailing and steam vessels: was. 264-1, compared with 1034 in 1911 and 1301 in 1910. The number of mas-' tors and seamen lost- was 1803, eompar-l ed with 1009 in 191! and 1150 in 1910. i The number of passengers lost was 841, compared with 25 in 1911, which was the smallest number recorded since. 1901, when the total loss of passengers was returned at the small figure of 13. The loss of the Titanic was responsible for the great increase in the figures for 1912, which include (573 seamen and 825 passengers drowned through that disaster. In sailing vessels alone, the,,total number of passengers, masters and seamen lost during last year was 162, as against 185 in 1911 and 2('n) in 1910; while in steamships the number lost was 2482, compared with 849 in 1911 and 1032 in 1910. Of the number of passengers lost, only three were lost in sailing ships. The percentage of lives of masters and 'seamen lost in both steam and sailing vessels was .72, or a proportion of one in 1 -10, as compared with .11 or one in 245 in 1911. Of the grand total of lives lost, 2232 were losl; at sea and 412 in rivers and harbors.