LIFEBOATS AND THEIR CREWS. T HE finding of the Committee appointed
by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to inquire into the refusal of a part of a lifeboat's crew at Sennen Cove, in Cornwall, to man the boat for the assistance of a vessel in distress, is satisfactory, for two reasons. It explicitly acquits the men of the charge of cowardice in a service maintained with a constancy and courage which English- men regard with peculiar and almost personal pride ; and it assigns a cause not only justified by the facts of the case as elicited in the inquiry, but one which the circum- stances and character of the Cornish fishermen render extremely probable. The committee are " satisfied that the refusal did not arise from cowardice, or from fear to face the situation ; but they find with regret that it was the consequence of the grave lack of discipline which has for some time obtained at this station." The case of the men was, in substance, that the wreck was drifting fast up-Channel, and that, before they could even reach a point from which it would have been possible to render help, supposing it had been a stranded and not a drifting wreck, it would be carried to a distance beyond their reach, and to a part of the coast where the duty would be better performed by the lifeboat at another station. In other words, the crew refused to obey orders because they preferred to exercise their own judgment. This state of things, of which the committee subsequently expressed their censure in a very practical way, is, however, ex- tremely likely to arise in districts where, as on the Cornish coast, the crews of lifeboats are recruited mainly from a class whose very self-reliance and knowledge of the con- ditions of success in the work of rescue make them, in their own opinion, competent critics of the orders issued. The Cornish fishermen are more often than not owners and masters of their own little vessels ; and if the " crew " of these only consists of one man besides the captain, it means, not that men are scarce, but that masters are many. Those familiar with the lives and circumstances of these fishermen are, as a rule, impressed by the complete self- reliance with which they manage not only their vessels at sea, but their dealings on shore with the merchants to whom they sell their fish, the local banks, and even the local landowners, when they conceive that their rights are infringed or their fishing-grounds invaded. In addition to this feeling of personal independence, they possess a large share of that local attachment, or dislike for other localities, which men of strong individuality living in isolated com- munities commonly display, which may or may not have been taken into consideration by the committee of inquiry, but which was possibly a strong factor in the reluctance of the Sennen men to follow the wreck into other waters. We may give a case in point. Some years ago, the men of a small Cornish village took their twelve boats to the fishing-grounds, at a considerable distance from land, and though the expedition was made in spite of some warning of a storm, they were rewarded by a great night's fishing, and returned heavily laden. But the storm in the Atlantic, which had not yet reached the coast, had already sent a forerunner in the form of a violent surf along the coast-line, which made any entrance to their little cove impossible. It was pointed out to them that they could easily run on to Falmouth, and either return by train, or wait till the weather moderated. But they would not. They did not like Falmouth people, and they did not like trains, and, in short, they wanted to get straight home, and did not much care what they risked, if only they did not go to " outlandish places." So they sailed round to an open bay, where, though the surf was even higher than at the mouth of the cove, the beach was sandy, and soft enough not to knock the bottoms out of their boats. The whole fleet made for the surf, allowed themselves to be flung upon the shore, and though the shock pitched every man overboard, and all the fish, masts, oars, and tackle were washed away, the boats were safe, no lives were lost, and, above all, no one had to forego the satisfaction of landing in his own parish. The reluctance of the Sennen men to risk drifting into other waters may well have had something in common with this case, and if so, it furnishes a curious instance of the drawbacks which may attend the local spirit from which our lifeboat system derives, on the whole, so much advantage. But whatever the predis- posing causes to anarchy which led to the refusal of the Sennen crew to obey orders, the committee of inquiry are clearly aware that if the work of the boats is to be prompt and effective, discipline must be maintained. A ple'biscite in a lifeboat cannot be tolerated, and the freedom of dis- cussion as to a vessel's course which induced the late Mr. Kinglake to conclude, after his experiences on a Greek schooner in the Levant, that Ulysses' ten years' voyage from Troy to Ithaca was a " fair average passage," is clearly out of place in sight of a wreck. The committee, therefore, "wish it to be clearly understood that all those who henceforth desire to serve in the lifeboats of the Institution, and to receive its pay, must strictly obey the regulations and attend to the directions of the coxswain. Unless prepared to accept these conditions, no one will in future be allowed to enter the lifeboat either for service or for exercise."
We may speak of this decision with greater confidence than is usually possible in cases where rules to guide the action of men when exposing their lives to imminent and deadly peril are laid down by others who are exposed to no such risks, and can at best only generalise from ex- perience. It is perhaps in its general application to all cases in which united action is called for in sudden and dangerous emergency that its strength lies, because the teachings of experience in such cases are always peremptory and practical. Lifeboat service is closely analogous to that in the Royal Navy in peace, and not far removed from the conditions which obtain in battle, whether by sea or land. Obedience to orders, prompt and unquestioning, is equally the condition of success in both, and the total effective value of an army in which every officer and man may be relied on to obey, even should the orders lead, in the opinion of the individual, to certain danger and not un- certain death, cannot fail to be immensely beyond that of a force in which such orders may be canvassed or con- temned, even though the average of individual intelligence or professional knowledge may be higher. The decision of the Lifeboat Institution, which exacts unquestioning obedience from the crew, lays a heavy responsibility on the officer in charge, who in most cases is the coxswain of the lifeboat. Usually, it will be found that the command is entrusted to the person most fitted to exercise it. The coxswain is chosen at most lifeboat-stations solely with reference to his knowledge of the work, and the position which he holds in the esteem of the men employed; and in most cases, the decision as to the time and circumstances which should regulate the employment of the boat may be safely left to his discretion. At the same time, the double responsibility for the safety of the shipwrecked crew, and the avoidance of needless danger to the lifeboat-crew so thrown upon one man, may occasionally press unfairly upon the coxswain. An instance of such a conflict of duties occurred in Cornwall, not far from Sennen, a case marked by a curious reversal of the conditions which led to the inquiry at the latter place, and in which, by good fortune, the judgment and courage of the coxswain were completely vindicated almost as soon as they were questioned. A number of men had been rescued from a wreck, among them the ship's captain. It was then proposed that the lifeboat should return to the vessel to save the ship's papers. The coxswain refused. He was willing, he said, to risk his life and those of his crew to save other lives, but not to save papers. For this he was taunted with cowardice, to which he made no sort of answer, but ordered the boat to be laid up. At that moment news came that another lifeboat, from the next station along the coast, which had also put off to the wreck, was missing, and perhaps lost. The coxswain instantly ordered the men back to their places, and once more put to sea to the rescue of his colleagues. The man is now dead—drowned from his own boat—but his case is an instance of the rashness with which charges of cowardice may be made, and of the mental quality of some of the men whose orders the crews of lifeboats are hereafter to take as their sole authority.
As some two thousand wrecks take place every year round our five thousand miles of coast, improvements either made or suggested in our life-saving resources should perhaps meet with more consideration than they command at present. The steam-lifeboat which during the past year has saved more than fifty lives from wrecks on the dangerous shoals near the mouth of the Thames, is per- haps the most successful of recent vessels built for the Society. She is driven, not by a screw, but by jets of water forced out by a centrifugal pump, and this contri- vance, which avoids the danger to which a screw would be exposed by becoming entangled in floating wreckage and rigging, gives her a speed sufficient to carry her through the worst gales of the Essex shore. She is fitted with water- tube boilers, in which steam is raised in twenty minutes after the alarm is given. The proposal that all lifeboat- stations and lighthouses should be connected with the telegraph at Government expense is still before the public, and raises the larger question of the transference of lifeboat service from the body which now controls it to the Trinity House, which provides for the lighting and buoying of our coasts, or of the Board of Trade. The rocket apparatus which does such good service in the hands of the Coastguard, is under the general superin- tendence of the latter body. So far, the Lifeboat Institu- tion have done their voluntary work with such efficiency and economy, that the public will probably be contented to leave it in their hands, and any interference with the local authorities which maintain and take a just pride in their lifeboats, would be matter for regret. But any assistance from public funds which would make the present working of the lifeboat system more efficient, such as the extension of the telegraph to isolated stations, or the maintenance of spare boats in the more dangerous parts of the coast, would be a humane, and in the end an economical measure, and one which the yearly growth of our shipping will probably demand.
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