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

27 is running' : further, the crew being necessarily at the head of the boat, for hauling it, the bow is consequently depressed, in the sea, and is thereby prevented rising1 to the waves, and must assuredly fill ; besides the unsteadiness of their situation renders the power of four men on board the boat scarcely equal to one on shore—with many other im- portant considerations. I was consequently urged to bring into prac- tice a more efficient plan, from the following reflections. The fact of the occurrence of shipwreck at a distance from land, which unfortunately too often happens, makes it evident, that great benefit would result from the production of a plan, whereby a boat might, in the most violent gales of wind, be gotten off from a flat beach with facility and certainty as to the relief of the sufferers ; it being beyond a doubt, that, by the timely aid of pilots and beachmen, such vessels might be enabled to keep the sea, and reach their destination in safety. So important has this object been considered, that the Lords of the Admiralty, some years since, forwarded, at my request, to the officers commanding signal stations at places notorious for fatal shipwreck, the following question :—‘ Whether they had witnessed instances of vessels in distress, at a distance from the land, attended with the loss of lives ; and what were the obstacles that prevented their preserva- tion ?’ The replies generally were—‘ That many such circumstances had occurred, from the impossibility of forcing a boat through a high raging surf to their relief ; but that, if such object could be accom- plished, and boats be enabled to go off promptly to their assistance, not only the lives on board, but probably the vessels themselves, as well as the cargoes, would have been saved.’ Without touching upon the impracticability of forcing a boat, by the power of oars, over a high surf, or stating the difficulties, amounting almost to an impossibility, of effecting the object by the people on board, I shall offer a method, on a principle adopted for various pur- poses, and applied by me to bringing people from stranded vessels, as well as what I have seen for passing a floating bridge from one side of a canal to the other. I therefore submit it, from its great simplicity, being found adequate to the purposes, and from the small expense attending it, in the hope it may lead to its adoption wherever boats are kept, on the conviction that it will materially tend to the preservation of lives, the prevention of shipwreck, the saving from destruction an