WRECHS

260,000 tons of British shipping, and 130,000 tons of U.S.A. shipping, compared with about 45,000 or German and 30,000 of French and of Italian. Formerly sunken wrecks which could be reached were simply blown up, now wreck-raising has been carried to the perfection of a science. A dozen or so wire cables, each capable of bearing a tension of 150 tons, are pa ed under the wreck and fastened at ‘dead low water’ to a number of large lighters, and, as the tide rises, the lighters raise the wreck. Between 1880 and 1892 the Thames Conservancy Board raised about 400 ve els in this way, but none of them weighed under water more than 1800 tons. were those of Sir Cloud sley Shovel’s ‘ fleet ’ off the Scilly Isles in 1707, when 2000 lives were lost, and of the "Royal George ” in Portsmouth Dock when 900 lives were lost. two horrible crises of fire at sea, the worst being that of the “Queen Charlotte " in i8co, when jeo lives were lost but of course the wrecks have been far more numerous.; In 1805 about 300 lives were lost in the “Abergavenny ” off Portland Bill, and 300 more in the “ Amora’’ on the Good win Sands. In 1810-11 about 1800 lives were lost in the North Sea by the wrecking of the three frigates, “ St. George," “Minotaur,” and “ Defence.” In 1849 about 400 lives were lost in the “Royal Adelaide ” off Margate; in 1852 about 450 were lost in the “ Birken head ’^off the Cape of Good Hope in 1859 about the same number were lost in the “Royal; Charter” off Anglesey; in i860 about 360 were lost in the “ Lima,” and in 1865 about 220 were lost in the "London,” both off the French coast. 472 lives in “H.M.S. Captain” off Cape Finisterre in 1870; 300 in the “North fleet" off Dungene in 1873, and 560 in the “Atlantic" off Nova Scotia during the same year 45 in the “ Strath more” in the Indian Ocean, m 331 in; the “Schiller” off the Scilly Islands, and 70 the “Deutschland” off the Thames —all three in 1875. In 1878 about 300 were lost in “H.M.S. Eurydice ” off Ventnor, 650 in the “Prince Alice ” in the Thames, and 300 in the “ Gro er Kurfurst ” man-of-war. In 1881 about 700 were lost in the “Victoria” on the Canadian Thames, Ontario. In 1883 more than 120 were lost when the “ Daphne" capsized during her launching on the Clyde. In 1884 nearly 100 were lost in the “ City of Columbia " off Ma achusetts. In 1891, off Gibraltar, 374 were lost in the “ Utopia.” In 1892. off the Pescadores Islands, 125 were lost in the “ Bokhara,” and 113 were lost in the “Roumania" off the Portuguese coast. But the most appalling calamity was the lo of " H.M.S. Victoria" in the Mediterranean in 1893—on a beautiful, calm day in full sight of land—when 360 lives were sacrificed, including that of Admiral Sir George T ryon, who was responsible for the disaster.