HC Deb 09 May 1873 vol 215 cc1721-33
MR. EASTWICK,

in rising to call attention to the state of the lights in the Channel, and to move— That it is expedient that fog signals, either steam whistles or guns, or both, be added to the lights on the Skerries Island, the Codling Bank, and the Tuskar Rock, and that the light on the Codling Bank be improved; also that a Royal Commission be appointed to inquire into the whole subject of fog signals before the desultory establishment of signals at various points makes it difficult to apply a proper system for the whole of our coasts, said, he trusted he should not be thought to be stepping ultra crepidam in calling attention to a subject, which no one but a sailor could deal with satisfactorily. His only excuse for moving in the matter was that he had been asked to do so by those who were thoroughly conversant with the subject, and had in it a vital interest, being commanders of large steamers running between Liverpool and America. He was aware that very much might be said on the general question of lights and signals, but he should restrict himself to the matter he had been asked to bring forward, leaving hon. Members who had a practical acquaintance with navigation to deal with the subject more fully and accurately than he could pretend to do. He thought it likely that a landsman, on first taking up an Admiralty chart of the Channel, blazoned all over with yellow and red patches, which indicated fixed, flashing, and revolving lights, would be disposed to think it an easy thing to navigate a vessel in a sea so well lighted up. He would probably say, "There seems to be a light or a signal at every six or eight miles, what more could possibly be desired?" Unfortunately, however, facts proved that numerous as were our beacons and signals, and great as had been the expense connected with them, they were still too few, and serious losses of life and property every year, were the result of this insufficiency. In what he was saying, he was not speaking of losses and disasters which were occasionally caused by the fury of the elements; for example, the terrific hurricane of the 26th of October, 1859, in which the Royal Charter perished, and 446 human beings and property to the value of £1,000,000 sterling were swallowed up by the sea in a single shipwreck, was a calamity against which the precautions and efforts of man were unavailing. He spoke rather of such accidents as happened on the 17th and 24th of May, 1872, when the Cunard steamer Tripoli, of 2,000 tons burden, and the Halcyon steamer, of 700 tons, were lost on the rocks south of the Tuskar Lighthouse. The weather being comparatively fine, the 250 passengers and the crew of the Tripoli, and the crew of the Halcyon, were all rescued; but had the sea been high and the wind stormy, it was very probable that hardly a soul would have escaped, and as it was, the steamers themselves were totally wrecked. In these, and many similar cases, losses were incurred which might have been avoided, and it was to such cases that he wished to call attention. The east coast of Ireland, from the Saltees, at the entrance of the Irish Sea, to Dublin, was lined with a formidable series of dangers, both shoal and rock. There were first the Saltees and the Tuskar Rocks; then the Glassgorman Bank and the Wolf Rock, the Moulditch, Horseshoe, Fraser, India, Arklow, Kish, and Bray Banks, besides smaller shoals, while to add to these dangers, the tidal wave which swept round Ireland and entered the Irish Sea by the Northern and Southern Channels, ran at times with extreme velocity near the dangers on the eastern coast. During spring tides the velocity of the wave was six knots an hour near the Northern Channel, and might easily set a vessel beyond its reckoning. Although the lights were sufficient in fine weather, they were not so in fogs, which prevailed on the east coast more than on the other coasts of Ireland. There were at Liverpool 28 days of dense fog on an average throughout the year, being one day in every 13, and there were, he believed about the same number of foggy days on the east coast of Ireland. But hazy weather was still more prevalent and was hardly less dangerous. It was in hazy weather that the Tripoli and the Halcyon were lost. At such times as lights were hardly, if at all, visible, the sailor depended on soundings or on fog signals, and those who had read Mr. Beazeley's interesting lecture on the subject knew that signals by gongs and bells, which, with one exception, that of the fog trumpet at Howth Bailey, were the only fog signals on the Irish coast, were wholly inadequate, as their sound was lost in the roaring of the sea and the wind, and the noise of the paddle-wheels or screw. Therefore, let hon. Members picture to themselves the case of a Transatlantic steamer leaving Liverpool in foggy wintry weather. She would lay her course 50 miles W.S.W. Supposing the steamer left Liverpool at 1 P.M. she would arrive opposite the Skerries Island at six o'clock. If the weather were foggy the light would not be visible, consequently the steamer would probably run too far to the west, and her situation would only be ascertainable by sounding, which meant delay. His informants therefore recommended that there should be a powerful steam-whistle placed on the Skerries Island, and the Members of the Trinity House, in the Report of the 4th of November, 1872, which he held in his hand, also recommended that there should be a distinct fog signal upon the island, in the vicinity of which wrecks were exceedingly numerous, and he (Mr. Eastwick) was informed by a great authority in such matters, that it should be a steam-whistle, 8 inches in diameter, sounded at a pressure of 751b. Such a whistle had been adopted with great success in Canada, and, as appeared from the Elder Brethren's report of their visit to that country, such a whistle on the Manicouagan lightship at the entrance of the St. Lawrence was capable of being heard at a distance of 12 miles. The steamer, hearing this signal, would alter her course a point or so, and run 45 miles S.W. and by W., which would bring her nearly abreast of the Codling Light-vessel. This vessel showed a red light, revolving every 20 seconds, but the light, for some reason or other, was often mistaken for the light of an ordinary vessel, and steamers were thus sometimes led to run too far to the west into dangerous proximity to the Kish and Bray Shoals, where there was only from a fathom to a fathom and a-half water, though they were steep and therefore highly dangerous. The light on the Codling Bank, therefore, should be improved, and a powerful steam-whistle of 10 inches diameter, and sounded at a pressure of 601b., should be placed in the light-vessel, or if that were not approved, there should be a gun signal, to be fired every half-hour during fogs or hazy weather. On hearing the whistle or gun, the steamer would again alter her course and steer nearly due south past the north and south Arklow Light-vessels. From the southernmost of these to the Tuskar Lighthouse was 31 miles. The Tuskar was thus described in Findlay's "Sailing Directions for St. George's Channel:"— The Tuskar Lighthouse is constructed on the principle of those on the Eddystone and Bell Rock. The ringing of two bells denotes the proximity of the rock in foggy weather. The rock is 15 feet above high water. In Staff Commander Hoskyns's "Sailing Directions for the Coast of Ireland," published in 1866, by the Admiralty, it was said— The Tuskar Rock is the most out-lying danger to the eastward of Carnsore Point. Besides the principal rock which is elevated 15 feet above high water, there are several smaller ones, together covering an area of about 300 yards by 150. Well, on arriving at the Tuskar it was very essential, should it be too foggy to see the light, or should there be any doubt about the distance from the rocks, that the steamer's position should be known by hearing a fog-signal before she steered S.W. for the Fastnet, where, too, there ought to be a fog-signal, and. whence she would run out to sea and lose sight of the land altogether. He would suggest, therefore, that there should be a powerful steam-whistle at the Tuskar also; and had there been such a signal in 1871 it was his belief that the Tripoli and the Halcyon would not have been lost. He was unable to say whether there was space on the rock for a detached fog-signal house, or whether, if there were space sufficient, the site would be a safe one. If these conditions could not be insured, the engine and apparatus would have to be placed in the lighthouse itself. The Trinity House authorities had also recommended, though with some hesitation, a fog signal for the Fastnet Rock lighthouse, and he supposed, therefore, there could be no insuperable difficulty about having one in the Tuskar. The first expense of the three fog-signals he had suggested would be about £4,223, and there would be a proportionate yearly expense, which altogether would be a small amount to pay for increased safety to the valuable steamers running between Liverpool and America, to say nothing of the fleets of smaller craft continually passing and re-passing along the east coast of Ireland. But on the subject of expense, he wished to call attention to what was said at page 22 of Sir Frederick Arrow's Report—"The Americans do not consider the question of expense is to be weighed for a moment against that of safety." That principle ought to be adopted in this country, and all necessary expenses of this description should, in his opinion, be defrayed out of the Consolidated Fund. As to the objection he had sometimes heard, that the more aids one gave the sailor the more reckless he became, and that losses increased at least in equal proportion to the augmentation of lights and signals, it filled him with astonishment. Had there been a fog signal at the spot where the Atlantic was wrecked the other day, would there have been that terrible loss of life and property? But the true answer to the objection was, that if this reasoning were carried out to the end there ought to be no lights and signals at all. But for the last three centuries we had been proceeding on the opposite principle. In the 17th century there were only five lights on the British coasts, and shipwrecks were more frequent then. In the 18th only 52 more were added; but in the 19th no less than 434 were added to the list. Besides the reason given in his Resolution for appointing a Royal Commission, he would observe that there had been no such Commission since that of 1858, which reported in March, 1861, and the subject had been growing immensely since then. There was a multitude of questions which required to be settled by a Royal Commission. Why, for instance, was an instrument of larger diameter, with a lower pressure of steam, used on board light vessels than at shore stations? Again, it had been asserted that the sound of Holmes's trumpet was equally powerful over a horizontal are of 90 degrees, and that four such trumpets grouped formed a holophone of 360 degrees, but that and the merit of Holmes's trumpet generally required to be tested. Some experiments with different instruments used as fog-signals were described in the Report of the Trinity House authorities of the 4th of November last, but far more exhaustive trials ought to be made in this country, and they might be made under the authority of the Royal Commission.

MR. T. BRASSEY,

in seconding the Motion, said, he believed the principal object of his hon. Friend the Member for Penryn (Mr. Eastwick) was to attract the attention of the House to the important matter which he had so ably handled, and that he had no intention of pressing the Motion, if he received satisfactory assurances from the Board of Trade. All that was asked was, that there should be no unnecessary delay in carrying out the recommendations of the Trinity Brethren, in favour of placing fog-signals of the most powerful description on points of the coast at present most imperfectly guarded; and the President of the Board of Trade and his able advisers on nautical subjects must welcome the Motion as justifying them in promptly adopting the suggestions of the Trinity House. When it was known that from 300 to 400 lives were lost every year from vessels stranded on our coasts—many of those shipwrecks occuring in foggy weather—enough had been said to justify the small expenditure which was required, in order to substitute a more perfect for the present imperfect system of fog-signals. It was not his intention to criticize the Trinity House, whose administration of their important and extensive business left little to be desired. Our lights were quite as powerful as the French, and superior to those of every other nation; and though the outlay of foreign Governments in the construction of lighthouses had been greater than that in England, the light-ships placed in numerous exposed situations on our coast maintained their positions in the most tempestuous weather, and had very rarely been driven off their stations. Our coasts, moreover, according to the Royal Commission of 1861, were better supplied with buoys than any foreign coasts, and these buoys were maintained in admirable order. In short, the Trinity system would appear to be nearly perfect and worthy of the greatest maritime nation in the world in every respect, except in that which formed the subject of the Motion. In the matter of fog-signals, however, the coasts of the Canadian Dominion and the United States were infinitely better guarded than our own, that superiority being due to the extraordinary difficulties with which those who navigated in American waters had to contend. While foggy days on our coasts did not exceed 60 or 70 in the year, the American coasts were enveloped in fog for one-half of the year or more. Hence since the organization of the Lighthouse Board in 1852, 33 powerful whistles or trumpets had been established on the coasts of the United States, which were sounded by machinery during fog. But if we had fortunately less fog than the American mariners, it did not follow that it was not worth while to provide the best description of fog-signals in order to secure the greatest possible safety for those who navigate in British waters. The Royal Commission recommended the more frequent adoption of guns, or any other more efficient means for indicating the locality of lighthouses during fog. The uselessness of bells had been pointed out by Mr. Beazeley, in a lecture recently delivered before the United Service Institution, in which he said that a bell weighing 2¼ tons had been heard only one mile to windward against a light breeze. Meanwhile the fog-signals in use on the American coast had been carried to a very high degree of perfection. The Trinity Brethren said that all the horns and whistles they had heard on the American coasts might be safely relied upon, when care and attention were used, to a range of from two to eight miles. Sometimes the sound would penetrate to much greater distances; for instance, he was informed by his constituents, the fishermen of Hastings, that the steam fog-horn at Dungeness could be heard at a distance of 14 miles with a light breeze off the land. As fog-signals, guns were equal to the apparatus in use in America; but the original cost of their establishment was not less than £1,000, as compared with an expenditure of from £600 to £1,400 for the horns and whistles worked by machinery, while the working expenses were considerably greater. To establish a light-vessel, at an original cost on the average of £5,000, manned with a numerous crew, and involving for maintenance an annual expenditure of £1,200, and then to hesitate to incur an additional outlay of £600 for providing the light-vessel with an effective fog-signal was an absurdity so glaring that the House would never sanction it. He could not but acknowledge that the efforts made by the Board of Trade from time to time to control the expenditure of the Trinity Brethren wore due naturally to consideration for the pockets of the ratepayers, or rather to the natural desire that the system should be as economical as possible; but it was quite possible, on the other hand, to carry that virtue to an excess, and he trusted that the President of the Board of Trade would not be led by any undue economy to expose himself to the criticisms which in that respect had been bestowed upon his predecessors in office.

Amendment proposed, To leave out from the word "That" to the end of the Question, in order to add the words "it is expedient that fog signals, either steam whistles or guns, or both, be added to the lights on the Skerries Island, the Codling Bank, and the Tuskar Rock, and that the light on the Codling Bank be improved; also that a Royal Commission be appointed to inquire into the whole subject of fog signals before the desultory establishment of signals at various points makes it difficult to apply a proper system for the whole of our coasts,"—(Mr. Eastwick,)

—instead thereof.

MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUE

said, he wished the House exactly to understand what the Motion now made by the hon Member for Penryn (Mr. Eastwick) really was. As for himself, he (Mr. Chichester Fortescue) had been by no means clear on the subject, for the hon. Member originally gave Notice that he would call attention to the state of the lights in the Channel, but the Motion actually made was to call attention to the state of the fog-signals in the Irish Sea, and, no doubt, of fog-signals generally. The Motion did not raise the question of the lights round the coast of this country at all, but was confined to the question—no doubt important in its degree—of fog-signals, and that with special relation to the coast of Ireland. The east coast of Ireland was described by the hon. Member as one of our most dangerous coasts. That he (Mr. Chichester Fortescue) believed, was true, but it was also one of our best lighted and protected coasts, for no part of our coasts had received greater attention than the east coast of Ireland—the particular part of the coast to which the Motion applied—as a very few years ago the lights there were overhauled and revised, their numbers increased, and their whole condition settled by the Board of Trade and the Trinity House, in communication with the merchants of Liverpool, headed, he believed, by their late lamented Member (Mr. Graves). That, however, was no reason why improvement should not go further; but it showed that part of the coast had not by any means been neglected. There appeared considerable inconsistency in the Motion, because it first asked the House to resolve on certain questions of detail, quite unfit for a Resolution of the House—namely, that fog-signals should be placed on particular selected points of the coast—and then it went on to propose that the whole subject of fog-signals should be inquired into by a Royal Commission. The hon. Member would, probably, not desire to bind the House on each particular point, and he (Mr. Chichester Fortescue) would show that the subject was entirely unadapted for such an inquiry, and also that such an inquiry was not really required. The Motion referred to three points on the coast. With respect to the first of them—the Sherries—the Trinity House had decided to place a distinctive fog-signal at that important point, which led up to Liverpool and the Mersey. As to the two other points, the question was still open, and was not decided in the negative; for with regard to one, the Tuskar Rock, the hon. Member was himself well aware that there was considerable doubt whether room could be found there for the steam machinery that would be necessary to drive a steam whistle; but the Commissioners of Irish Lights had, within the last few days, been to the Board of Trade on the subject; the matter was treated as one well worthy of consideration, and an inquiry would at once be made into it. As to the whole question of fog-signals, the supposition which seemed to underlie the Motion, and also the speech of the hon. Member who spoke last was, that they were very much behind hand in the matter; that they had been greatly outstripped by other countries; that they had shown no disposition to make up for lost time; and that delay had been caused by the excessive parsimony of the Board of Trade in refusing to allow the Mercantile Marine Fund to be drawn upon sufficiently for those objects. He was not ashamed of the economy of the Board of Trade in the administration of that fund, but so far as he was aware the question a the extension of fog-signals had not been allowed to depend upon considerations of economy. He was perfectly willing to sanction all necessary and proper extensions of a system which he admitted was not developed on our coasts to the extent which it deserved. We had, however, profited by the example of other countries. A Committee of the Trinity House had visited Canada and the United States for the purpose of examining into the value of fog-signals, and of making a Report, which now lay on the Table of the House. Since the return of those gentlemen the list of points on which it had been decided to erect fog-signals had been largely extended. In the opinion of the authorities of the Trinity House, however, fog-signals had been unduly multiplied on the American coasts, and it would appear that political and electioneering considerations entered there into the subject, and that lights were not always provided simply because they were needed. The example of America, therefore, required to be followed with great caution. The number of the fog-signals on the American Coasts had the effect, moreover, in the opinion of the Committee to which he had just referred, of inducing steamers to be run at a dangerous rate of speed. Those authorities were of opinion that such signals should not be too numerous, and that they should be set up at salient points, and it was upon that principle of selection therefore that they proposed to proceed at once in the erection of fog-signals. As to the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the matter he did not think there was any necessity for the adoption of that course. The attention of the Trinity House and of the Board of Trade was earnestly directed to the subject, and important experiments with respect to fog-signals were about to be carried out at South Foreland. These experiments were fixed for the 19th of the present month, and would be conducted under the advice of a very eminent man—Professor Tyndal. They would be attended not only by the officers of the Board of Trade and the Trinity House, but by the professional officers of the Irish and Scotch Boards, and he was quite sure no better mode of inquiry could be instituted. He had full confidence in the Trinity House on this subject, and in the able Deputy-master Sir Frederick Arrow. A thorough examination would be made, and he undertook to say that there would be no undue delay in giving effect to the recommendations which might result from the investigation.

MR. G. BENTINCK

expressed his regret that the Motion was of so restricted a character, and believed the real root of the evil complained of was to be found in the mode in which the funds for lighting our coasts were levied. There was, in his opinion, no such effective fog-signal as a gun, and although it might be expensive, he, for one, should advocate its use. He regretted his hon. Friend the Member for Penryn (Mr. Eastwick) did not move for an inquiry into the whole question, including the mode of providing the necessary funds. The present system was, in his opinion, entirely erroneous, for the placing of lights was left dependent on two things—the caprice of the owners of ships and exercise of an unwise economy. He should like therefore to see the expenditure for the lighting of our coasts made an Imperial expenditure, for otherwise it was impossible that an object which it was most desirable to accomplish could be fully carried into effect. The lighting of the coast of France was superior to the lighting of our coasts, because in the former country, it was under Government control, and the funds for the purpose were drawn from Imperial sources, and it was matter for shame that the first maritime Power in the world should have a less efficient system than that which prevailed in a neighbouring country. In the case of buoys, too, everything was left to the experience of the Trinity Board or the local authorities, and great loss of life and property was the result. He saw no hope of inducing the House to take action upon this subject at present; but he hoped that it would not be allowed to drop, and that they would have a recommendation made to the House that would induce the Government to deal with the question as one of Imperial expenditure.

MR. LIDDELL

said, he understood his hon. Friend near him (Mr. Eastwick) desired to deal with the whole question of fog-signals. He regretted that the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade should have referred to the fog-signals on the coast of the United States as being used sometimes for political ends. Such an argument as that he thought came with a bad grace from him as a Member of the Government, and it would have been well if he had let it alone. The United States Government had always shown its willingness to co-operate with us in any works calculated to benefit the maritime interests of the two nations, and he thought we might well imitate America in matters of the sort, when they set us such a noble example. He differed from the right hon. Gentleman also when he said that this was a subject which it was unnecessary at the present moment to delegate to a Royal Commission. There were some persons who were dissatisfied with the conduct of the Trinity House in connection with the lights and signals, and in leaving the question in their hands now, they were making them judges on their own case. He thought it was necessary to appoint an independent authority to inquire into the question, and for that reason he would give his cordial support to the Motion.

MR. PEEL

said, what his right hon. Friend said was that they ought not to do anything in connection with this question in a desultory way, until the Committee now existing had reported; but he never said that it was not a subject fit for a Royal Commission. The Trinity House had furnished the Board of Trade with an immense amount of valuable information; and upon that information he did not think any sufficient case had been made out for the adoption of the American system in this country. As long as the two systems were radically difficult, it was impossible to compare them with each other.

MR. G. BENTINCK

explained that that he had advocated the adoption of the French, not of the American system.

MR. PEEL

remarked that it had been reported that our lighting system was vastly superior to that of any other nation. The hon. Member for Penryn (Mr. Eastwick) had complained about the state of the lighting on the eastern coasts of Ireland, and he had especially alluded to that between Dublin and the Tuskar Rock; but he had no hesitation in saying that the state of that part of the coast as far as lighting was con- cerned was admirable, no less than six lights having been placed there since 1867. It was certainly a most dangerous part of the coast, but it was most efficiently protected.

Question, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the Question," put, and agreed to.

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