Note 67 — Chapter VI

The aggregate number of vessels entering and clearing outwards from all the ports of the United Kingdom in 1866 was 403,598, being 5,657 less than in 1865. The total tonnage of these vessels in 1866 was 31,262,450, of which 21,255,726 was British, and 10,006,724 was foreign. Of this total tonnage about a third, or 10,761,413 was tonnage of steam vessels, of which 9,484,594 was British, and 1,276,819 was foreign. Thus, whilst the steam tonnage of Great Britain was not far from being one-half of its total tonnage, the tonnage of foreign steam vessels frequenting the ports of the United Kingdom was only a little more than an eighth of its total tonnage. The tonnage of the ships lost or damaged on or near the British coasts in 1866 was 428,000. The Times, in the course of a most interesting and lengthened summary of ocean and coast disasters for 1866, speaks in terms of just indignation of the unseaworthy state that colliers and other coasting vessels, but especially colliers, are permitted to go to sea, and concludes by stating that, “The aggregate loss of life is enormous, and so is the aggregate destruction of property. The former is a species of woe inflicted on humanity; the latter is practically a tax upon commerce. While the art of saving life on the coast is understood, thanks to the progress of science and to the stout hearts of our coast population, the art of preserving property is as yet but imperfectly known among us, and still more imperfectly practised.