sort of record had been kept of those casualties, but it is not until 1855, when the duty devolved on the Board of Trade, that we have any reliable statistics.[1]
Of course the number of wrecks, casualties, and collisions reported for any one year, increases or diminishes according to the prevalence or absence of gales of remarkable violence and duration. These sometimes tell in an appalling manner, in the greatly increased loss of life which occurs in one year over
- ↑
+-+
| Wrecks, &c., other than Collisions in the |
| United Kingdom. |
+-+-+++
| Year. |Total Loss.| Partial Damage.| Total |
+-+-+++
| 1856 | 368 | 469 | 837 |
| 1857 | 384 | 482 | 866 |
| 1858 | 354 | 515 | 869 |
| 1859 | 527 | 540 | 1,067 |
| 1860 | 476 | 605 | 1,081 |
| 1861 | 513 | 658 | 1,171 |
| 1862 | 455 | 695 | 1,150 |
| 1863 | 503 | 830 | 1,333 |
| 1864 | 386 | 653 | 1,039 |
| 1865 | 470 | 832 | 1,302 |
| 1866 | 562 | 876 | 1,438 |
| 1867 | 656 | 1,020 | 1,676 |
| 1868 | 527 | 841 | 1,368 |
| 1869 | 606 | 1,047 | 1,653 |
| 1870 | 411 | 730 | 1,141 |
| 1871 | 398 | 826 | 1,224 |
| 1872 | 439 | 1,110 | 1,549 |
| 1873 }| | | |
|Jan. to June}| 212 | 522 | 734 |
| +-+++
| Total | 8,247 | 13,251 | 21,498 |
+-+-+++Annual average of 17 years, 472-11/17 total wrecks, and 748-13/17 casualties resulting in partial damage.
Note.—In the above statistical statement no earlier date than 1856 is taken, as the machinery had not in 1855 being sufficiently organised to ensure that nearly all the wrecks, &c., in that year were reported; and there is reason to believe that some may not have been reported in the years 1856, 7, and 8.
