Out comes the sun, up goes the death toll
Last updated 05:32, Friday, 11 July 2008
A song was published by Messrs Brewer and Co in 1866 entitled Beautiful Eden.The words were by Charles Vynne of Carlisle and the music by Warwick Wetheral – but not everyone had praise for the river.
In the Beauties of the Magazine for August 1775 were ‘Verses on two youths drowned bathing in the River Eden near Carlisle,’ which began: “Ah! hapless youths, too soon has fate decreed ...”
Such was the death toll on the river that the Carlisle Journal reported in June, 1899: “The open-air bathing season has commenced in the Eden on the Swifts and the danger of the annual fatalities are at hand.”
It seems the Swifts were aptly named, the strong currents often sweeping even experienced swimmers away, but that was the most popular place for bathing.
At a town council meeting in 1879 Mr Crowder said the Corporation should have some part of the river prepared for swimming.
“A portion of the river might be made of certain depth and an arrangement made to pay for the expense of it,” he said.
He had seen such a place at Oxford, “and if the plan were adopted here a good many lives which were now sacrificed might be saved”, he said.
In 1830 it was recognised that some lives could be saved by “the early and judicious application of the proper means of recovery”.
With that in mind the Carlisle Humane Society was established in June by Dr Thomas Barnes, for “the recovery of persons apparently drowned or dead”.
A ‘receiving room’ was hired by the society in James Arthur’s bookshop in Rickergate, to which “there is always easy and ready access”, where the drags and apparatus of the society were kept.
On the wall was a list of medical gentlemen “who have kindly promised to give their assistance gratuitously” and it was to this room that the society requested “any person apparently drowned in the neighbourhood be taken as speedily as possible.”
The Journal advertised rewards to those who complied; ten shillings and sixpence to those who pulled someone from the river and half a crown for summoning a doctor.
But Rickergate was too far away from the river and it was realised that a life-saving boat on the spot would be far more effective.
So a craft was presented to the Corporation by Royston Cogan in 1879, along with the necessary nets and drags, but there were many problems with this.
Because the donor was lessee of HM Theatre the boat had been kept there and it was used too late to save the lives of two youths named Bell and Hilton in August 1879.
The Journal reported that the boat “was brought from the theatre to the river with a view to recovering the bodies.”
But it was found to be “too leaky and much too light for the purpose.”
A boy had to continually bail out water, said the newspaper, and “those who ventured into the boat were precipitated into the water,” when the drag was used.
At a meeting of the Carlisle Urban Sanitary Authority in October “Mr Wheatley reminded the committee that the subject of providing a proper place in which the boat and grappling apparatus had been referred to them for consideration.”
There was much laughter when the Mayor said: “We have no boat worth building a house for.”
Mr Wheatley again stood to say: “We must either give it back to Mr Cogan and get one worthwhile.”
“It is not right,” said Mr Wheatley, “to accept a boat and allow people to believe that we have an efficient life-saving apparatus.” There was again laughter when Mr Hardy said: “It should be put in the museum as a specimen of a boat that won’t swim.”
It was resolved that a letter be sent to Mr Cogan expressing their gratitude; “it was very kind of him to present the boat but it was of no use”.
Questions were asked at the weekly meeting of the Health Committee a week later and it was found that while Mr Cogan gave the boat, “there was a subscription to buy the drags, nets and things”.
When put to work to pull the drags it was not riverworthy and too small for the purpose. Another boat was needed.
In 1880 a new lifeboat was, according to the Journal, “launched in the river near the Waterworks and rowed to the Bitts.”
It would hold about 20 people and could be floated in four inches of water.
This vessel was christened ‘RS Ferguson’ after one of the councillors who had campaigned most fervently for it.
Later, when a suicide from Eden Bridge in 1895 required its use, the boat could not be found at the Waterworks, but was discovered “in a useless condition lying near the screening chambers at Willow Holme”.
It had to be repaired before the river could be dragged.
By this time the police had use of the boat and took responsibility for the life buoys erected along the river bank which were frequently vandalised.
