Quebec Gazette #5034 16/11/1836 Page 1, Col. 1C.
LOSS OF PROPERTY AND LIVES AT SEA.
(From the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons)
That the number of ships or vessels belonging to the United
Kingdom, which were wrecked or lost in the periods specified
below, appears, by a return made to the committee from the books
of Lloyd's, to be as follows:
Number of vessels stranded or wrecked.
1816 343 1833 595
1817 362 1834 454
1818 409 1835 524
--- ---
1114 1573
Number of vessels missing or lost.
1816 19 1833 56
1817 40 1834 43
1818 30 1835 30
--- ---
89 129
Making a total of 1203 ship or vessels wrecked and missing in
the first period of three years, and a total of 1702 wrecked and
missing in the second period of three years.
Number of vessels in each year, of which the entire crews
were drowned.
1816 15 1833 38
1817 19 1834 24
1818 15 1835 19
___ ___
49 81
Making a total of 49 in the first period of three years.
That the number of persons drowned in each of the years
specified, in addition to the above, and of which the number
drowned belonging to each vessel is distinctly known, appears by
the same returns from Lloyd's book to be as follows.
Number of persons drowned in each year by ships' named.
1816 945 1833 572
1817 499 1834 578
1818 256 1835 564
___ ___
1700 1714
That the whole loss of property in British shipping, wrecked or
foundered at sea, may therefore be assumed as amounting to nearly
three millions sterling per annum; the value of British property,
though covered by insurance to certain parties, is not the less
absolutely lost to the nation, and its cost paid for by the
British public, on whom its loss must ultimately fall.
That the nominal loss of life, occasioned by the wreck or
foundering of British vessels at sea, may on the same grounds, be
fairly estimated at not less than one thousand persons in each
year, which loss is also attended with increased pecuniary
burdens to the British public, on whom the support of many of the
widows and orphans left destitute by such losses must ultimately
fall.
PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF SHIPWRECK.
That among the various causes of shipwreck, which appear
susceptible of removal or diminution, the following appear to be
the most frequent and the most generally admitted:
1. Defective construction of ships.
2. Inadequacy of equipment.
3. Imperfect state of repair.
4. Improper or excessive loading.
5. Inappropriateness of form.
6. Incompetence of masters and officers.
7. Drunkenness of officers and men.
8. Operation of marine insurance.
9. Want of harbours of refuge.
10. Imperfection of charts.