Wrecks

Wrecks are ships or goods cast on shore by the sea, and are usually distinguished from Derelict (q.v.) property or Flotsam (q.v.). But the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854 and subsequent amendments includes jetsam, flotsam, ligan, and derelict. Shipwrecks may fall under the category of stranding or foundering; and may be caused by storms, fire, collision, leaks (due to straining of timbers, corroding of metal sheathing, &c.), fog, shoals or rocks not marked in charts, imperfect steering-gear, and bad or careless seamanship—ignorance of the position, miscalculation, negligence as to showing ship-lights, colour-blindness, inattention to soundings, disregard of currents, the omission to make due allowance for correction of the compass, and a long list of other possibilities of error. Means of avoiding shipwreck are lighthouses, beacons, storm-signals; and lifeboats and life-preserving apparatus of all kinds diminish the fatalities.

In the time of Henry III., much as in Roman law, wrecks were the property of the crown unless the owner appeared within a year and a day to make good his claim; but a ship was not accounted a wreck legally if any living thing escaped, though even then the ship was made over to the crown after a year and a day if the owner did not appear. Now all action in regard to wrecks in Britain is under the Board of Trade, who appoint receivers of wreck—customs officers, justices of peace, &c. being held bound to act when receivers are not at hand. The receiver takes evidence as to ownership, and reports to the Board of Trade. If the owner does not appear or make good his claim, and if the lord of the manor have no right to unclaimed wreck, then after a year the receiver sells the wreck, and, deducting expenses, pays the proceeds into the exchequer. If the goods or ship are rescued by private persons, Salvage (q.v.) may be demanded. In Scotland a law of 1429 enacted that wrecked ships and their goods should escheat to the king if they were of countries where wrecks belonged to the king; if not, 'broken ships' should have the same favour in Scotland as Scottish vessels received in the countries to which the wrecks belonged.

Stealing wreck is a crime, and so is removing lights, altering them, or showing false lights so as to cause wrecks. Wrecking, or showing false lights, used to be a common practice in some parts of the United Kingdom—the population of the Cornish coast being specially notorious for their heartlessness in this respect; and a wreck occurring by the 'act of God' was regarded as a divine bounty to the natives of the district where it was driven ashore. The lives of the unfortunate survivors were by no means safe in the hands of wreckers who feared their booty might be taken from their grasp.

In spite of the disappearance of such barbarous usages, and the establishment of the lighthouses, lifeboats, and all manner of life-preserving apparatus on the most exposed parts of the coasts of civilised countries, the annual loss of shipping and of life by shipwreck is appalling. Mr Mulhall estimates the average tonnage of British shipping lost at 260,000 tons, as compared with 128,000 tons of United States shipping, 46,000 of German, 29,000 French, and 29,000 Italian.

In the year 1890-91 there were reported 6222 casualties at sea to vessels of all sorts belonging to the United Kingdom—3404 to sailing-vessels and 2818 to steamers; the total losses were 546, their tonnage being 208,645 tons; and of them 266 were lost through stranding, 97 through collision, and 89 through foundering. The total lives lost through sea casualties, or vessels wholly or partially lost, were 1491 crew and 590 passengers; of this last number 555 were lost in one vessel, the Utopia, sunk at Gibraltar. Of vessels belonging to British possessions abroad the casualties were 903, 293 (of 43,633 tons) being total losses, and the lives lost were 289, 242 seamen and 47 passengers. Of foreign vessels 600 sustained casualties on the shores of the United Kingdom or of British possessions, 118 being total losses, while 73 seamen perished. The number of casualties to ships of all sorts, British and foreign, on the coasts of the United Kingdom were 4198; total losses, 427; lives lost, 523. On the coast of the United Kingdom 2922 lives were saved from shipwreck during the year; 1698 on the coasts of British possessions abroad; 1947 from British vessels on the coasts of foreign countries; and 1238 from British vessels at sea (see LIFE-BOAT). In 1886-87 there were no less than 1582 vessels totally wrecked on British coasts; in 1879-80 only 355 were reported. The number of lives lost on British coasts was 1333 in the year 1867, and only 396 in 1885-86.

Formerly a wrecked ship that went to the bottom remained there until she was entombed in the shifting mud or sand, or else had undergone a process of gradual dissolution, hastened by the ebb and flow of tides and currents. Wreck-raising was then a science practically undreant of. Sometimes crude operations were carried on at sunken wrecks (see DIVING, Vol. IV. p. 22); but the object aimed at was the recovery of treasure, and not the raising to the surface of the vessel containing it. The development of mechanical science and steam-power has placed in the hands of modern wreck-raisers machinery that has enabled them to lift many a fine ship from her oozy bed, and restore her to her proper place among the floating argosies of commerce. Most of the vessels that are raised have been the victims of collisions; and these are most frequent in the crowded waters of British harbours and their approaches. The chief economic purpose served by wreck-raising is the keeping clear the fairways leading to the large seaports. Many harbour boards have their own wreck-removing plant; when harbour commissioners do not possess the necessary plant, they advertise for tenders. Years ago the usual practice was to blow the sunken ships to pieces; but when the disaster has occurred in shallow water this is now regarded as wasteful. Between 1880 and 1892 the Thames Conservancy Board raised 399 vessels (277 of which were barges) from the river-bed. The wreck-raising plant employed included a screw-tng, three 150-ton lighters, fitted with steam-winchs and steam-pumps; two 150-ton and two 300-ton lighters without steam-power; and two 400-ton lighters. A complete diving equipment is also provided, and an abundant stock of wire and other rope. When a collision takes place and a vessel sinks in the fairway of the river a wreck-boat is moored in situ, and the diver makes his examination. All the loose gear is removed, and a number of wire-cables are made fast. The cables are calculated to stand a tension of 150 tons, and they very seldom break. As many as twelve or fifteen cables are sometimes passed under the ship (if large), and made fast to the lighters at dead low-water. The lighters themselves are submerged as far as possible and then pumped dry; and as the tide rises the wrecked vessel leaves her bed in the mud and sand and slowly rises to the surface. Then powerful centrifugal pumps are set at work, and the wreck pumped sufficiently dry to enable her being floated away for repairs. Or 'camels'—as the lifting lighters are generally called—are attached to the cables passed under the vessel at low-water; the ship is raised from her resting-place as the tide rises; and, as the lighters float on the surface, the vessel to which they are attached is just raised the tide's height and no more. Tugs are then employed to tow the lighters and their sunken prize towards the spot selected for beaching. With the appliances possessed by the Conservancy Board ships can be raised whose weight under water does not exceed 1800 tons.

Successful examples of wreck-raising are the Eurydice, H.M.S. Sultan (sunk in Maltese waters), and the Anchor liner Utopia (see below) at Gibraltar. But, with all our modern scientific and mechanical knowledge, wreck-raising can only be carried on in comparatively shallow water. Diving operations can, of course, be carried on at a greater depth. Thus in the year 1885 the screw-steamer Alfonso XII. went down off Las Palmas in 165 feet of water, with £70,000 of specie on board, all of which was removed in safety from the billion-room of the sunken vessel, and raised to the surface by a London firm.

Among wrecks notable for the loss of life, the sufferings of survivors, for historical and literary associations, or for the heroism of captain and crew, are the following:

See articles BEACON, DIVING, DERRICK, LIFEBOAT, LIFE-SAVING APPARATUS, LIGHTHOUSE, LLOYD'S, METEOROLOGICAL, PILOT, PLIMSOLL, RULE OF THE ROAD, SALVAGE, SHIPBUILDING, SIGNALING, STORMS.