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It may be seen that the most numerous and fatal of the accidents by steam have happened soon after the semi-annual inspections of the first of April and October. This fact will not appear surprising to practicle men; who fully understand that the care and skill of official inspectors cannot be advantageously substituted for the uncontrolled vigilance and practical knowledge and skill of those who are in the constant care and superintendence of the boats and engines; and to whom a good reputation, the desire of safety and the love of life, afford stronger and more efficient motives to correct action than can ever be furnished by the requirements or penalties of any special enactments of the legislative power.

The Cincinnati Gazette is stated to have published a list of steamboat disasters on the western waters during the last year. The sum total of losses is 40 of this number, 32 were an entire loss; snagged, 21; struck rocks, or other obstacles, 7; burnt, 5; burst their boilers, 4; run into by other boats, 3-40. There were snagged on the lower Mississippi, 11; on the Missouri, 4; on the Ohio, 4; on the Yazoo, 1; on the Red River, 1. It is remarkable that a majority of the boats were snagged on their downward trips. Lives lost, by bursting boilers, 39; by other causes, 6. Total, 45. The amount of property destroyed in boats and their cargoes, is supposed to be not less than a million of dollars.

On events like these, the provisions of statutory law can have but little influence; except as they may operate to deter the men of means, foresight and mental ability, from a business already too hazardous to their private interests, and which, most unwisely, has been made subject to the porscriptive action of the popular press and of the national legislature.

No. 4.

Losses in Ordinay Navigation and the Comparative Hazard of Narigation by Steam.-Some of the following paragraphs are taken from a communication made to the Secretaay of the Treasury by one of the memorialists.

"So alarming have been the accidents in steam navigation on our western rivers and elsewhere, as to induce a belief in the minds of some, that of all modes of conveyance this is the most hazardous. That a degree of danger has attended this mode of traveling which ought to be lessened or avoided, it were vain to deny; but when we reflect on the recent origin of the art, and the vast numbers of persons who are transported by its means, and when we also consider the exposure and comparative accidents of other modes of navigaton and means of conveyance, this impression will be materially altered, and we shall rather have cause to wonder, that under all the circumstances of the case, so small a fraction of the traveling public have become victims to this hazard. We have, indeed, a fearful list of steamboat explosions; but the sufferings and fatalites which have attended other modes of transport and conveyance, pass off with but little notice, as common occurrences, and their statistics are seldom known. Consequently, the public mind does not become excited in contemplating these casualties, which are treated only as evils which are incident to the common lot of man.

It'appears from statements in the London Nautical Magazine, that the whole loss of property in British vessels by shipwreck or foundering, is estimated at 3,000,000l. sterling, annually; and the annual loss of life at sea at not less than 1,000 persons, not including the numerous losses of life on their own coast.

As regards our own navigation, we find the following notice in the Sailor's Magazine, for January, 1838.

Shipwrecks in the year 1837.

During the year past, there has been published in the Sailor's Magazine, a monthly list of shipwrecks which have occurred, principally of American vessels, and which have been published from time to time in various newspapers. Those only have been selected which resulted in a total loss of the vessel. The number of vessels thus reported during the year is as follows: ninety-four ships and barques, one hundred and thirtyfive brigs, two hundred and thirty-four schooners, twelve sloops, and fifteen steamboats; making a total of four hundred and ninety-three vessels which have been wrecked. Of these forty-three were lost toward the close of the previous year, though the account was not published till the commencement of this; thirty-eight were lost in the month of January, fifty-four in February, twenty-four in March, thirty in April, nineteen in May, fifteen in June, forty-two in July, fifty in August, thirty-two in September, forty-three in October, forty-three in November, and six in December. The precise time when the remaining vessels were lost could not be satisfactorily ascertained.

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In the above named vessels, one thousand two hundred and ninety-five lives are reported as being lost. This, probably, is but a part of the whole, for, in many instances, the crew are spoken of as missing, and in other cases nothing is said, where, perhaps, there was a total loss."

This statement is said to comprise no deaths by steamboats, except in casses where the vessel was totally lost. On the other hand, a very large proportion of the fatal accidents in ordinary navigation, must have escaped the knowledge of the inquirer.

Now, in view of this immense waste of life, let it be considered, that in the art and practice of navigation other than by steam, the world has had the experience of more than four thousands years, and the efforts and intellect of many generations have been tasked for its greater security; while, on the other hand, a quarter of a century has scarcely elapsed since the powers of steam became prominently known in navigation, and we have as yet only witnessed the brief infancy of its application to this important purpose. Surely, then, it is not suprising that disastrous and fatal accidents should sometimes have attended its use. There is cause for astonishment, rather, that so great a degree of average security should have been attained, in so brief a period.

Each great district of our widely extended country possesses its own peculiar facilities and hazards in this species of navigation, and exhibits, also, differnt stages of improvement and security in the use of steain. In this quarter, the average degree of security enjoyed by passengers in our steamboats is certainly greater than is posesed by persons who walk the streets of our large cities. During the last five years, millions of passengers have been carried on the steamboats which run from this city, [New York,] and, among all these, the catalogue of deaths by steam explosions is almost inappreciable.

It is probably true, that in hardly any other circumstances in which such numbers have been placed, has the occurrence of mortality been so entirely wanting. It is with a strong sense of injustice, therefore, that those who are enagaged in this important and not always profitable avocation have found themselves selected as the objects of special and seemingly invidi ous legislation.

Disasters at sea, in the year 1839.

A record has been kept at the office of the American Seamen's Friend Society, during the year just closed, as in past years, of disasters at sea, so

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far as they could be ascertained, which resulted in a total loss of the vessel. The following is the result:

The whole number of vessels lost is

Of these there were, Ships and barques

Brigs

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Schooners

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Added to the above entire and known losses, there has been reported thirty-seven missing vessels during the year, which, with their crews, have most probably been entirely lost, five hundred and thirty-seven lives have been reported as lost, but the loss of life is undoubtedly much greater than this, as many vessels were reported as abandoned, or bottom up, where the crew was missing, and no intelligence has been received from them. The above facts speak a language concerning the sorrows of seamen, not to be misunderstood, and they should be most solemny pondered by those who have a heart to feel and a heart to relieve.-Sailor's Magazine, Jan. 1840. In the foregoing list* we have reported the loss of 84 vessels in the month of December, and the loss of 89 lives, which if added to the 89 vessels, and 90 lives lost in the great gale of the 15th of that month, and to eight other vessels reported as lost in December, in our last Magazine, and we have a total of 181 vessels, and 179 lives, lost within that month.Sailor's Magazine, Feb. 1840.

In addition to the above, the Sailor's Magazine for March, 1840, also records the loss, by fire, foundering or wreck, of fifteen more vessels in 1839, and reports also, in Febuary and March, eleven vessels as missing; for the safety of which with their crews and passengers, little or no hopes are entertained. The accounts of total loss for 1839, so far as heard, stand as follows:

Losses mentioned in the Magazine for January,
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Thus showing the total loss of more than one thousand vessels, already ascertained, and the probable loss of between one and two thousand valuable lives, all in a single year!

Are these immense losses of life and property, which had been entirely subjected to the care and control, discretion or indiscretion, of the owners of vessels and of their several commanders, while at a distance from all wholesome oversight and restraint, less worthy of the special interference of the power which is authorized to regulate commerce, than the persons and property embarked in steamboats, which are under the almost constant oversight of the owners and pcblic? Or, must the result of popular misapprehensions and erroneous excitements be substituted for more sober legislation, in controlling the business concerns of this growing republic? It is believed that the statistics which are found in the foregoing table of the steam navigation of the port of New York, may not unfairly represent all the steam navigation of the United States, with the exception of the Mississippi and its branches, or the waters which discharge in the Gulf of Mexico. With perhaps this exception, both the existing and the contemplated legislation appear to be almost wholly unwarranted; either by the origin, progress, or present state of the art of steam navigation.

The south-western waters, however, appear subject to greatly increased hazards; which may have resulted, mainly, from a less perfect system of practical engineering, which has been imposed either by choice or necessity; from less perfect means of outfit and repair, than are found in older states or countries; and, above all, from the greater multiplied dangers of their local navigation. It may be well questioned, however, if even here the new legislation be well adapted to the end in view. If, as is believed, there be errors in the western practice, these will doubtless be abandoned, so soon as they are practically seen and felt to be errors. But the character of the American people is greatly mistaken, if it is for a moment supposed that a combination of prescribed formulas with inquisitorial and penal enactments, will remedy evils which are beyond the reach of professional knowledge and pride, and an enlightened self-interest.

The true character or hazard of the western steam navigation is too often but little understood, or but imperfectly appreciated. It has been eloquently and justly described by the Hon. Mr. Rumsey, of Kentucky, on the floor of Congress, who vindicates the memory of the founders of steam navigation in America, and the results of their labors, as follows:

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Sir, you have no arithmetic of powers vast enough, by which to estimate the benefits of the steamboat in a pecuniary point of view alone. Their labors, too, have tended, in no small degree, to the presrvation of human life. I am aware that the truth of the last assertion may not be universally admitted; but it will scarcely be questioned, at least by a western or south-western man, who recollects the old mode of conducting our commerce. Small as the commerce was before the introduction of the steamboat, it drew off a larger portion of the population than is now necessary to transact it, although so immensely extended. Even then, more died in the long, and exposed, and laborious voyages in keels and barges, or the exhausting return by land, under a vertical sun, than now perish by steamboat explosions. But they dropped off one by one; they sank obscurely into the grave by the way-side; or, after reaching their homes, fell victims to disease incurred by a sojourn and travel in southern climes. The consumption of life, though known to be great in the aggregate, happening so much in detail, made no publc impresion. But now, every steamboat accident creates a sensation, and is pro-claimed in the universal press of the country. If the mighty commerce now in progress on the western waters, had to be

conducted in the old way, it would require the agency of so many individuals, that it would not be long before the sides of the puble roads from NewOrleans to the upper States, and the banks of the great river which pours into the gulf the congregated waters of nearly half a continent, would be almost continued grave-yards.'

For the American Railroad Journal, and Mechanics' Magazine. METEOROLOGICAL RECORD FOR THE MONTHS OF JAN. and FEB., 1840. Kept on Red River, below Alexandria, La., (Lat. 31.10 N., Long., 91.59 W.)

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