given by the subscribers at Lloyd's, and from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Sciences the inventor received a gold medallion and fifty guineas.

At length the reward of this important discovery was deemed a fit subject for national munificence; and a petition having been presented to the House of Commons, stating, that "not fewer than two hundred lives had been saved at the entrance of the Tyne alone, which otherwise must have been lost, and in no instance had the life-boat failed," the same was referred to a committee, February 22, 1802. It appears from the report now before us, that the members were at great pains to ascertain :

Ist, The utility of the life-boat;

2dly, The originality of the invention; and

3dly, Whether any and what remuneration had been obtained.

In order to ascertain these facts, a number of witnesses were examined, from whose testimony we shall only extract a few of the most important par→ ticulars.

Ralph Hillery, a seaman during forty-five years in the Greenland and coal trade, stated, that about three years before he went in the Northumberland lifeboat to the relief of the sloop Edinburgh, which had been stranded, and took seven men on shore, "although the sea was at that time monstrously highso high that no other boat whatever could have lived in it." He added, that " he had been five times out in her to the relief of different ships, from one

of

of which they saved fifteen men, and in every instance they brought off the crews of the wrecked ships." He further added, that "in the event of the lifeboat's filling with water, she would still continue upright, and would not founder as boats of a common construction do. About two months ago he saw her come on shore with a ship's crew (besides her own crew), so full of water that it ran over each side; the sea had broken several of her oars; and he believes that no boat of any other construction could have brought the men on shore so filled with water.”

Captain William Carter, of the ship Providence, of Newcastle, who had resided twenty-five years at South Shields, and been fifteen years in the coal and Baltic trades, gave an evidence, that while riding at anchor on Tynemouth-bar,on the 28th of November, 1797, he saw the ship Planter driven on shore by the violence of the gale, about one hundred yards from him. On this "the life-boat came off, and took fifteen persons out of her, and they had scarcely quitted the ship when she went to pieces; they must all otherwise have inevitably perished, as the wreck came on shore almost as soon as the boat.”

Mr. Richard Wilson, a ship-owner of Scarborough, stated, "that he had an opportunity of observing the advantage of the life-boat there in November last, when a small vessel anchored in the road about a mile from the pier-head, in a very heavy gale of wind, in which she had lost the principal part of her sails. The sea was then high, and the pilots, and fishermen

running very

of the town

thought

thought it unsafe to venture out with their own boats to her assistance, although she had hoisted signals of distress. In consequence of this the lifeboat was immediately launched, and she conveyed a rope from the pier-head to the vessel, by which means the vessel was drawn into the harbour, which he believes to have been the means of preserving both the crew and the vessel.

Captain Gilfrid Lawson Reed, an elder brother of the Trinity House, also bore ample testimony to the excellence of the invention.

Mr. Thomas Hinderwell, of Scarborough, gave a description of the construction as well as properties of the life-boat: and pointed out the difference between her and the Norway yawl, the latter of which is directed by means of a rudder, while the former is steered at either end by an oar, and will row either end foremost.*

Mr.

The life-boat at Dover is called the Crab, in consequence of this circumstance, as will be seen by the following letter from that port:

"Our curiosity has long been raised by the knowledge that a life-boat of a peculiar construction was building here by the man who saved the prize-master and prisoners floating on the wreck of the French gun-boat that drifted past the harbour in the winter.

"Sir Sidney Smith, who gave the plan of this boat, came down from London yesterday, and tried it at sea, with eighteen men embarked on board, attended by Captain Western of the Sea Fencibles, in a Deal boat. The piers and beach were crowded with spectators, who felt much anxiety at seeing her make her first plunge into the swell at the harbour's mouth; she rose,how

Mr. Samuel Plumb, of Lower Shadwell, said he had gone out in one of the life-boats, to the relief of a ship which was stranded on the coast near the mouth of the river Tyne. In the first attempt the rope thrown from the wreck to the life-boat broke; but in the second they succeeded, and brought the crew

on shore.

Mr. William Masterman of South Shields, being next called upon, observed, that he was one of the original committee that ordered the life-boat at South Shields in 1789. In consequence of the situation of his house, he had frequently witnessed the performance of the life-boat, and had sometimes assisted in getting her ready. He gave it as his opinion, that she could be launched from the beach at Deal during a storm with the same ease and certainty as any other; and added, that "when the Gateshead Planter, and other ships, were wrecked,it was first discovered that the life-boat could act with perfect safety athwart the sea; and since that time the boat has been rowed

ever, at the top of every wave; and as soon as the mast was secured, the rigging of which appeared defective, the sails were set, and she moved with great rapidity through the breakers, which hid her from our sight. The Deal boat, although a large galley of above forty feet long, found the sea too much for her, and put back into harbour. The life-boat, which is called the Cancer or Crab from her manner of moving and taking the ground, landed on the beach without the smallest inconvenience from the surf; and was hauled above high-water mark by the spectators, who greeted the enterprising crew, for whose safety they had been so anxious, with most hearfelt satisfaction.

athwart

athwart sea or otherwise indifferently, as the object to be relieved required it; and that she goes with the same safety from one object to another in a broken, as an ordinary boat would pass from one ship to another in a smooth sea. That he is confident since the establishment of the life-boat there have been at least three hundred persons brought on shore from ships in distress and wrecks off Shields, the greatest part of whom must otherwise inevitably have perished. And the witness added, that it was his opinion, founded upon experience and the observations he had been enabled to make, that no sea, however high, could overset or sink the life-boat."

As the facts had been thus sufficiently ascertained, it now only remained to apportion the reward; and the report of the committee being referred to the house on the 26th of May, 1802, Mr. Burdon, M. P. for the county palatine of Durham, after insisting on the importance of the discovery, and the ample testimony which had been adduced of its merits, moved that the sum of one thousand pounds should be voted to Mr. Greathead, by way of compensation. Sir Matthew White Ridley observed, that as five hundred seamen had been already saved by this discovery, the above sum would be only forty shillings a-head for a number of the most valuable members of the community, which he deemed a very inadequate reward; he therefore moved, that instead of one thousand pounds, two thousand pounds should be inserted in the resolution. Messrs. Grey, Wilberforce, Martin, Hawkins Browne, and Dr. Law

rence