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Causes of Shipwrecks - 1856

The following Causes of Shipwrecks are taken from Board of Trade statistics and featured in an edition of the Stockton & Hartlepool Mercury and Middlesbrough News, 14th March, 1857 and covers the year 1856:

Total of vessels wrecked, foundered or injured - 1153, of which 884 were British, 32 British Colonial and 237 Foreign.

Of this total, 368 vessels were total losses from the following causes;

148     stress of weather

37        foundered by same

28        through fog or current

21        neglect of the lead

17        abandoned from unseaworthiness

12        errors of judgement

11        from want of caution

10        from missing stays

10        lost through want of lights or buoys on the coast or shoals where they struck

10        through mistaken lights or bearings

9          general negligence

8          ignorance of the coast

7          Pilot errors

7          unknown causes

6          errors in course reckoning

5          defective compasses

4          capsizing

3          imperfect charts

3          lack or want of a Pilot

2          through intemperance

1          striking submerged ship

1          from fire        

From the total of 1153, only 484 vessels and 110 cargoes were insured and 521 sailors died.

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