PORTS AND HARBOURS

OF

GREAT BRITAIN.

TYNEMOUTH LIGHT-HOUSE AND PRIORY,

WITH THE LIFE-BOAT SAVING A SHIP'S CREW.

THE first engraving of the present work is a view of Tynemouth Lighthouse and Priory, with the life-boat in the act of saving the crew of a vessel, which has struck upon the rocks at the foot of the cliff on which the lighthouse is built. This incident, so effectively and appropriately introduced by the artist, Balmer, who has frequently witnessed the scene which he has depicted, is peculiarly characteristic of the neighbourhood of Tynemouth; for, in consequence of the danger of the entrance to Shields Harbour in stormy weather, with the wind from the eastward, more vessels are there lost than at the entrance of any other harbour in Great Britain; and in no part of the kingdom has the value of the life-boat been more frequently experienced.

The view is taken from the entrance to Shields Harbour, about half a mile to the south-west of the lighthouse, which is seen rising from behind the extremity of the cliff which overlooks the entrance to Prior's Haven. Towards the centre of the land view are the ruins of Tynemouth Priory; while farther to the left, in the same distance, is seen the castle, now modernised and occupied as a garrison. The fore-ground to the left is the bank which forms the south-western boundary of Prior's Haven; and the rocks which are seen at its foot are a portion of the formidable Black Middens, which lie on the north side of the entrance to the harbour.

The grand feature of the engraving under observation is the view of the life-boat,

B

2

TYNEMOUTH LIGHTHOUSE AND PRIORY.

which is introduced with a thorough knowledge of the subject, and with a feeling and a character of truth which mere imagination can never inspire. The downward plunge of a boat's bows among broken water, while her stern is at the same time elevated by a slanting wave, was never more happily represented. A person who has been at sea may almost fancy that he hears the resounding dash of the water against the curved bow, and the seething of the angry wave as it rises on each side. The idea of motion is admirably conveyed in the representation of the wave lashing over the floating mast, which is tossed about like a light spar by the violence of the sea; and the continued inward roll of the water, from the side and bow of the boat towards the shore, is no less naturally expressed.

Part of the life-boat's crew, with most of the oars double-manned, are seen "giving way," with strenuous effort, through the breakers, while others are endeavouring to save the shipwrecked seamen; and one of the men at the steer-oar appears encouraging the sailor who clings to the floating mast. The position of the boat, with her stem towards the harbour, and the shipwrecked men seated towards her stern, indicate that she is returning from the vessel, the top of whose masts are seen, and that she is now endeavouring to save such men as were washed overboard when the vessel sunk. The flying of the spray declares the loudness of the wind; and though a cheering glimpse of sunshine appears to illumine the land, yet the dark cloud, which seems to rest upon the waters to the right, sufficiently informs us of the gloominess of the prospect when looking towards the sea.

In consequence of a bar of sand, which stretches across the mouth of the Tyne where the outward current of the river at ebb tide is met by the inward roll of the sea; and from the Herd Sand on the south, and the Black Middens on the north, the entrance to Shields Harbour is attended with great danger when the wind is blowing hard from the eastward and a heavy sea running. In crossing the bar, at such a time, a loaden ship, with rather a heavy draught of water, will sometimes strike, and unship her rudder; and a light one, in consequence of being struck by a heavy sea, will sometimes broach to. A vessel thus rendered unmanageable, is almost certain, with the wind from the north-east and a flood tide, to be driven on the Herd Sand; and, should the wind be blowing strong from the south-east, she is extremely liable to be driven either on the Black Middens, or on the rocks at the foot of Tynemouth Castle; more especially in attempting to gain the harbour after the tide has begun to ebb. In the latter case, when vessels have been too late to save tide and are land-locked, and when it may seem less hazardous to attempt to pass the bar than to bring up, with evening approaching, on a lee shore, the danger of being wrecked on the rocks to the northward is more especially imminent.

Few ideas are more distressing than that of a vessel, on her return from a voyage, being wrecked at the entrance of her port, and of her crew perishing within sight and hearing of their relatives and friends, who behold them, one by one, as the sea sweeps over the wreck, become a prey to the devouring element, but who are unable to render them any assistance. In the morning, the seaman, when he first comes within sight of the hope-inspiring objects which distinguish his native coast, may be cheered with a delightful vision of home and joyful welcome, and may exclaim, with the Ancient Mariner of Coleridge,

"O dream of joy! is this indeed

The lighthouse top I see?

Is this the hill? is this the kirk?
Is this mine own countree?"

and before evening he may lie a corpse, "lifeless flat," on the shore, wept over by the sorrowing eyes that he had hoped would brighten at his arrival.

Notwithstanding the many lives that were lost, from year to year, by shipwreck, at the mouth of the Tyne, it does not appear that any attempts to construct a life-boat were made at Shields previous to 1789. In the month of September, in that year, a vessel called the Adventure, of Newcastle, struck upon the Herd Sand, and though she was within a quarter of a mile of the shore, no assistance could be rendered to her, in consequence of the violence of the sea; and as she continued to beat against the sand, and the waves to make a free passage over her, her crew were seen to drop from the shrouds, to which they had betaken themselves when the vessel struck, and to perish among the broken water.

This distressing event, which was witnessed by numbers of people from the shore, induced the subscribers to the News Room, near the Law, at the lower end of South Shields, to turn their attention to the possibility of constructing a boat which should not be liable to be overset by the sea, and which also should retain its buoyancy when manned with a sufficient crew and nearly full of water. To a committee, which was appointed to devise the best means of accomplishing the object of the subscribers, two models were in a short time submitted; the one constructed by Mr. William Wouldhave, painter, of South Shields; and the other, by Mr. Henry Greathead, boat-builder, of the same place. Mr. Wouldhave's model was made of tin, and rendered buoyant by cork; and the inventor intended that his life-boat should be formed of sheet-copper. Mr. Greathead's model, which was made of wood, when overturned would not right, but floated bottom up; while Mr. Wouldhave's, on being subjected to the same test, immediately recovered its proper position. Neither of these models were, however, approved of. Mr. Wouldhave received

a guinea for his trouble; and Mr. Greathead was promised to have the building of the boat when the committee should decide upon a model. A short time afterwards, a model in clay was produced by Mr. Fairles and Mr. Rockwood, two members of the committee, and from this Mr. Greathead was directed to build a life-boat; and it is said that the only alteration suggested by Mr. Greathead was the curved keel, which some persons are pleased to consider as an error in its construction, although experience in this instance appears to be at variance with hypothesis. Although the invention has been confidently claimed for Mr. Wouldhave, yet the precise figure of his intended life-boat has never been clearly explained by any of his advocates. The life-boat built by Greathead was neither formed of copper, nor had she a straight keel; which were both peculiar to Wouldhave's invention; and the plan of casing and lining with cork, without which the life-boat would be comparatively valueless, unless provided with air-boxes instead, was proposed by Greathead when he produced his first model. A large Norway yawl, raised a streak in midships, having her sheer increased towards the bow and stern, and cased and lined with cork, in the manner of Greathead's life-boat, would be likely to live in broken water as well as the latter.

The merits of the boat built by Mr. Greathead were soon put to the test; and the success which attended her first practical essay fully realised the expectations of the most sanguine promoters of the design. A vessel having struck on the Herd Sand, on the 30th January, 1790, the newly-built boat put off to her assistance. In the sight of crowds who were assembled on the shore, anxiously watching the result, she triumphantly made her way through a heavy sea to the stranded vessel, and brought the crew, whose destruction without her assistance was inevitable, in safety to the shore; thus proving herself a LIFE-BOAT indeed! Repeated trials, opportunities for which were but too frequently afforded, displayed yet further her excellence. It was found that she could proceed athwart, with as much safety as against, the sea; and that she could float with thirty men in her, and when nearly full of water.

* The sheer of a boat or ship is the upward curvature of her top line towards the stem and stern. The rake is the angular inclination of the stem or the stern towards the keel. Since the remarks in the text, respecting a Norway yawl, were written, which were founded on the writer's own experience, he has been much pleased to find the following passage, in Surtees's History of Durham, vol. ii. p. 96, written by N. Fairles, Esq., chairman of the committee which ordered the original life-boat to be built : -"The committee was unanimous that a boat, somewhat resembling a Norway yawl, with both ends alike, having great spring or elevation at the bow and stern, and with the bottom flatter, might answer the purpose. The description which Mr. Rockwood gave of a boat by which he had been saved at Memel, tended much to establish the opinion of the committee; and a model in clay was handed about, and altered from time to time, for the explanation of ideas; which, though like all creatures of clay, frail and transitory, yet contained a perfect germ (la belle idée) of the life-boat."

As the utility of the life-boat became known, Mr. Greathead received many orders for boats built on the same principle, and in the same manner, both from places in Great Britain and from abroad. When her value had been thoroughly proved by the experience of twelve years, during which time several hundred lives had been saved by her means, Mr. Greathead, in 1802, petitioned parliament for a reward. His petition was referred to a committee, which was instructed to inquire;-first, concerning the utility of the invention; secondly, concerning its originality; and, thirdly, if the petitioner had received any remuneration. Upon the report of this committee, which examined witnesses touching the several heads of inquiry, the House of Commons voted Mr. Greathead a reward of £1200; and in the same year, the Society of Arts presented him with a gold medal and the sum of sixty guineas.

Mr. Greathead, in a brief account of the invention which he published, has stated that the idea of building the life-boat with a curved keel was suggested to him from the principle of a segment of a spheroid, the tendency of which is to swim with the convex surface downward. The half of a wooden bowl affords a familiar illustration of this principle; and the sixth part of an orange, the pulp being extracted, and the sides slightly compressed, may give a person some idea of the form of a life-boat. In the life-boat there is no distinction between the stem and stern, both extremities being formed alike, so that she can be rowed with equal facility either way; and when amongst broken water her direction can be immediately changed without turning round. The following are the dimensions of the original life-boat, built by Mr. Greathead, at South Shields :

Her sides, from the floor-heads to the gunwale, "flaunched off," or extended outwards, in proportion to rather more than half the breadth of the floor, thus making her broad in the beam, compared with the fineness of her bottom. Her breadth was well continued towards her extremities, thus giving her good bearings at the bows; and her sheer was considerably increased towards each stem, in order that they might the better divide an over-topping wave, and thus prevent the boat shipping water when rowed against a head-sea. A casing of cork, sixteen inches deep from the gunwale, and 'four inches thick, extended for twenty-one feet six inches along each top-side, giving her at once additional buoyancy, and