Asylum for Shipwrecked Mariners.
I cannot finally dismiss the present subject without testifying my surprise that, amid the numerous charitable institutions established in Great Britain, which at once proclaim the opulence, the generosity, and the benevolence of the inhabitants, there should still be wanting one provision, of all others the most necessary,viz.a temporary Asylum, or house of reception for shipwrecked mariners; where, for a few nights, they might be provided with dry clothes, warmbeds, proper diet, and other necessaries. For what avails it to have escaped the dangers of the sea, if left to wander friendless and unknown, and at last to perish on a strange coast?
Therefore such an asylum, ever ready to open its friendly doors to distressed mariners of all nations, ought to be erected wherever the coast is peculiarly dangerous, where disasters most frequently happen, and where accommodations are most difficult to be obtained.
It may not be improper to add that the expence of building and supporting such asylums, though very considerable, ought in no wise to be deemed an insuperable objection. This might be defrayed by a small county rate, that would be scarcely felt by individuals, nay would be “lighter than the dust of the balance” when put in competition with the important object of preserving the lives of gallant seamen, and of administering comfort to unfortunate persons destitute of every thing, and ready to perish!
An object indeed, whether considered in a moral, a commercial, or a political view, cannot but be esteemed peculiarly interesting to the community, and consequently intituled to the attention of the legislature; since to British seamen this maritime country is principally indebted not only for its commerce, but its protection.
On whom can the Civic Crown be more properly bestowed than on those active and humaneindividuals who, through mechanical ingenuity, or personal bravery, rescue their distressed fellow-creatures from the disasters of the deep, and restore them to their families, their friends and their country? “Nulla enim re homines propius accedunt ad Deos, quam salutem hominibus dando.”
Since writing the above, I have been favoured with the following letter concerning an excellent institution of this kind, established, some time ago, under the auspices of the benevolent Dr. Sharpe, late Archdeacon of Northumberland. The plan being unique in its kind, and comprehensive in its nature, bids fair to realize every advantage that could be wished, and therefore cannot but afford sincere pleasure to every humane reader.
“SIR,
“SIR,
“SIR,
“SIR,
“From the many shipwrecks which have happened on our coasts, during the last year, and the number of lives and aggregate of property which must consequently have been lost, it is highly desirable that some mode should be adopted of lessening the dangers which so frequently menace such vessels as approach the rocky shores of these kingdoms, in boisterous and stormy weather. Each succeeding winter swells the melancholy list of sufferers, and increases the numbersof those who have to mourn their relatives and friends, torn from them by the fury of the tempest. For this reason, I am anxious to lay before you, as a distinguished member of the Humane Society, the following short account of a very laudable plan that ought to be more generally known.”