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

22 On the rope being thrown on board, the crew, who are generally assembled on the tops to prevent themselves from being swept away, will secure it, and haul on board by it from the shore a large rope, and also a tailed block, rove with a smaller rope, both ends of which are to be kept on shore ; the crew will then make fast the end of the large rope below the cap, and secure the tailed block under the large rope. After the service is performed, the people on shore will pass the end of the large rope through the rollers at each end of a hammock, cot, or slit of a snatch block with a sling attached to it, as may be required, and they will keep it in a proper degree of tension : the ends of the small rope being made fast to the snatch block, it is worked to the ship, and back by the people on shore ; or from the ship’s tops, in the following manner:— The sling is large enough to hold a man, who will, on getting into it, pull down the slide or button, secure himself in, and, safely lashing himself by the waist to the upper part of the sling, prevent the pos- sibility of falling out ; on his being landed, it will return to the vessel, until every person is brought from the wreck, as here repre- sented. The application is precisely the same either for the cot or hammock. The projection of a rope by the force of gunpowder may be applied to other important services ; that of communicating with persons, and effecting their escape from lofty buildings on fire—a subject that will soon be submitted to the public ; also facilitating the movement of troops across a country intersected by rivers, the passing of rapid streams, &c. : on the latter subject, I have recently received the follow- ing information from Canaria, which I will give verbatim ;—‘ After all