panish sailor, but they did more, they worked the pumps and trimmed the
sails and saved the ship as well, and handed her over to an agent for
the owners. This vessel and cargo was valued at 20,000 pounds.

Now observe, in passing, that this Cahore lifeboat not only did much
good, but received considerable and well-merited benefit, each man
receiving 34 pounds from the grateful owners, who also presented 68
pounds to the Institution, in consideration of the risk of damage
incurred to their boat. No doubt it may be objected that this, being a
foreign ship, was not saved to _our_ nation; but, as the proverb says,
"It is not lost what a friend gets," and I think it is very satisfactory
to reflect that we presented the handsome sum of 20,000 pounds to Spain
as a free gift on that occasion.

This was a saved ship. Let us look now at a lost one. Some years ago a
ship named the Golden Age was lost. It was well named though ill-fated,
for the value of that ship and cargo was 200,000 pounds. The cost of a
lifeboat with equipment and transporting carriage complete is about 650
pounds, and there are 273 lifeboats at present on the shores of the
United Kingdom. Here is material for a calculation! If that single
ship had been among the twenty-seven saved last year (and it _might_
have been) the sum thus rescued from the sea would have been sufficient
to pay for all the lifeboats in the kingdom, and leave 22,550 pounds in
hand! But it was _not_ among the saved. It was lost--a dead loss to
Great Britain. So was the Ontario of Liverpool, wrecked in October,
1864, and valued at 100,000 pounds. Also the Assage, wrecked on the
Irish coast, and valued at 200,000 pounds. Here are five hundred
thousand pounds--half a million of money--lost by the wreck of these
three ships alone. Of course, these three are selected as specimens of
the most valuable vessels lost among the two thousand wrecks that take
place _each year_ on our coasts; they vary from a first-rate mail
steamer to a coal coffin, but set them down at any figure you please,
and it will still remain true that it would be worth our while to keep
up our lifeboat fleet, for the mere chance of saving such valuable
property.

But after all is said that can be said on this point, the subject sinks
into insignificance when contrasted with the lifeboat's true work--the
saving of human lives.

There is yet another and still higher sense in which the lifeboat is of
immense va