A Lecture, Or Essay On the most efficacious means of Preserving The Lives Of Shipwrecked Sailors And The Shipwreck

12 cularly when the crew are enabled by their health and strength to profit by the cord that is projected to the wreck, for by a cord a rope may be conveyed, and by that rope a hawser or cable ; it may also be expeditiously dispatched by a man on foot having a frame containing a log or lead line coiled for immediate application slung as a knap- sack, with a small mortar in a socket across his shoulder, and a pouch belted round his waist, containing ammunition, &c A howitzer with its carriage as here shown has been much approved for the service, and, even when of large construction, is conveniently removed from place to place by slings, similar to those used by brewers. Mortars as well as howitzers, I have ascertained by experiment, obtain a considerable augmented range, by a cylindrical chamber with a spherical bottom, and ante-chamber at its extreme base, to inflame the charge of powder at the centre, (similar to the great improvement on modern fowling-pieces,) thereby producing an instan- taneous explosion ; for the whole strength of the charge to act at once on the shot. The shot necessary for the use of the larger mortars are two ; the one, a round shot, merely for the purposes of communication : this is made by introducing a jagged piece of iron, with an eye at the