Note 145 — Chapter XI

I have frequently thought it would be desirable to institute an inquiry into all losses at sea, where reliable evidence can be obtained. I should have every loss recorded, with a brief notice of the cause of loss, and this record should either be open to the inspection of the public, or published annually by order of Parliament. It would be instructive and valuable, and would, I think, tend to materially lessen disasters at sea, by distinguishing those which arose from unavoidable accidents and those which might have been avoided. Indeed, so strong are my convictions on this subject that, if spared for a few years longer (which I can hardly hope to be, as I am physically myself a wreck), I hope to write another book, to be entitled the ‘Annals of the Sea,’ giving an account of all disastrous shipwrecks, and calling attention to those which would not have happened had ordinary prudence been exercised.