SOME ACCOUNT OF FRANCIS'S
BOATS AND LIFE-CARS.

THE

BY JACOB ABBOTT.

LIFE- | the lives and property are saved. In respect to the stations, however, we will say that it awakens very strong and very peculiar emotions in the mind, to visit one of them on some lonely and desolate coast, remote from human dwellings, and to observe the arrangements and preparations that have been made in them, all quietly awaiting the dreadful emergency which is to call them into action. The traveler stands for example on the southern shore of the island of Nantucket, and after looking off over the boundless ocean which stretches in that direction without limit or shore for thousands of miles, and upon the surf rolling in incessantly on the beach, whose smooth expanse is dotted here and there with the skeleton remains of ships that were lost in former storms, and are now half buried in the sand, he sees, at length, a hut, standing upon the shore just above the reach of the water-the only human structure to be seen. He enters the hut. The surf boat is there, resting upon its rollers, all ready to be launched, and with its oars and all its furniture and appliances complete, and ready for the sea. The fireplace is there, with the wood laid, and matches ready for the kindling. Supplies of food and clothing are also at hand-and a compass: and on a placard, conspicuously posted, are the words,

HE engraving at the head of this article represents the operation of transporting the officers and crew of a wrecked vessel to the shore, by means of one of the Life-Cars invented by Mr. Joseph Francis for this purpose. A considerable appropriation was made recently by Congress, to establish stations along the coast of New Jersey and Long Island-as well as on other parts of the Atlantic seaboard-at which all the apparatus necessary for the service of these cars, and of boats, in cases where boats can be used, may be kept. These stations are maintained by the government, with the aid and co-operation of the Humane Society-a benevolent association the object of which is to provide means for rescuing and saving persons in danger of drowning-and also of the New York Board of Underwriters, a body, which, as its name imports, represents the principal Marine Insurance Companies-associations having a strong pecuniary interest in the saving of cargoes of merchandize, and other property, endangered in a shipwreck. These three parties, the Government, the Humane Society, and the Board of Underwriters, combine their efforts to establish and sustain these stations; though we can not here stop to explain the details of the arrangement by which this co-operation is effected, as we must proceed to consider the more immediate subject of this article, which is the apparatus and the machinery itself, by which' It is impossible to contemplate such a spec

VOL. III.-No. 14.-L

SHIPWRECKED MARINERS REACHING THIS HUT, IN FOG OR SNOW, WILL FIND THE TOWN OF NANTUCKET TWO MILES DISTANT, DUE WEST.

tacle as this, without a feeling of strong emo- | in a sitting posture within, being made higher tion-and a new and deeper interest in the than the middle; and the opening or door is superior excellency and nobleness of efforts placed in the depressed part, in the centre. made by man for saving life, and diminishing This arrangement is found to be much better suffering, in comparison with the deeds of

havoc and destruction which have been so much gloried in, in ages that are past. The Life-Boat rests in its retreat, not. like a ferocious beast of prey, crouching in its covert to seize and destroy its hapless victims, but like an angel of mercy, reposing upon her wings, and watching for danger, that she may spring forth, on the first warning, to rescue and

save.

The Life-Car is a sort of boat, formed of copper or iron, and closed over, above, by a convex deck with a sort of door or hatchway through it, by which the passengers to be con

than the former one, as it greatly facilitates the putting in of the passengers, who always require a greater or less degree of aid, and are often enfear, or of exposure to cold and hunger. Betirely insensible and helpless from the effects of sides, by this arrangement those who have any strength remaining can take much more convenient and safer positions within the car, in

veyed in it to the shore, are admitted. The their progress to the shore, than was possible car will hold from four to five persons. When under the old construction.

these passengers are put in, the door, or rather The car, as will be seen by the foregoing cover, is shut down and bolted to its place; drawings, is suspended from the hawser by and the car is then drawn to the land, sus- means of short chains attached to the ends of pended by rings from a hawser which has previously been stretched from the ship to the

shore.

To be shut up in this manner in so dark and

it. These chains terminate in rings above, which rings ride upon the hawser, thus allowing the car to traverse to and fro, from the vessel to the shore. The car is drawn along, in making these passages, by means of lines attached to the two ends of it, one of which passes to the ship and the other to the shore. By means of these lines the empty car is first drawn out to the wreck by the passengers and crew, and then. when loaded, it is drawn back to the land by the people assembled there, as represented in the engraving at the head of this article.

Perhaps the most important and difficult part of the operation of saving the passengers and crew in such cases, is the getting the hawser out in the first instance, so as to form a connection between the ship and the land. In fact. whenever a ship is stranded upon a coast, and people are assembled on the beach to assist the sufferers, the first thing to be done, is always to

66

gloomy a receptacie, for the purpose of being drawn, perhaps at midnight, through a surf of such terrific violence that no boat can live in it, can not be a very agreeable alternative; but the emergencies in which the use of the life-car is called for, are such as do not admit of hesitation or delay. There is no light within the car, and there are no openings for the admission of air.* It is subject, too, in its passage to the shore, to get a line ashore." On the success of the atthe most frightful shocks and concussions from tempts made to accomplish this, all the hopes the force of the breakers. The car, as first of the sufferers depend. Various methods are made, too, was of such a form as required the resorted to, by the people on board the ship, in passengers within it to lie at length, in a re-order to attain this end, where there are no means cumbent position, which rendered them almost utterly helpless. The form is, however, now changed-the parts toward the ends, where the heads of the passengers would come, when placed

* None such are in fact required, for the car itself contains air enough for the use of its passengers for a quarter of an hour, and there is rarely occupied more than a period of two or three minutes to pass it through the surf to the

shore.

at hand on the shore, for effecting it. Perhaps the most common mode is to attach a small line to a cask, or to some other light and bulky substance which the surf can easily throw up upon the shore. The cask, or float, whatever it may be, when attached to the line, is thrown into the water, and after being rolled and tossed, hither and thither, by the tumultuous waves, now advancing, now receding, and now sweeping

madly around in endless gyrations, it at length | ordnance called a mortar, made large enough to reaches a point where some adventurous wrecker on the beach can seize it, and pull it up upon the land. The line is then drawn in, and a hawser being attached to the outer end of it, by the crew of the ship, the end of the hawser itself is then drawn to the shore.

This method, however, of making a communication with the shore from a distressed vessel, simple and sure as it may seem in description, proves generally extremely difficult and uncertain in actual practice. Sometimes, and that, too, not unfrequently when the billows are rolling in with most terrific violence upon the shore, the sea will carry nothing whatever to the land. The surges seem to pass under, and so to get beyond whatever objects lie floating upon the water, so that when a cask is thrown over to them, they play beneath it, leaving it where it was, or even drive it out to sea by not carrying it as far forward on their advance, as they bring it back by their recession. Even the lifeless body of the exhausted mariner, who when his strength was gone and he could cling no longer to the rigging, fell into the sea, is not drawn to the beach, but after surging to and fro for a short period about the vessel, it slowly disappears from view among the foam and the breakers toward the offing. In such cases it is useless to attempt to get a line on shore from the ship by means of any aid from the sea. The cask intrusted with the commission of bearing it, is beaten back against the vessel, or is drifted uselessly along the shore, rolling in and out upon the surges, but never approaching near enough to the beach to enable even the most daring adventurer to reach it.

In case of these life-cars, therefore, arrangements are made for sending the hawser out from the shore to the ship. The apparatus by which this is accomplished consists, first, of a piece of

throw a shot of about six inches in diameter; secondly, the shot itself, which has a small iron staple set in it; thirdly, a long line, one end of which is to be attached to the staple in the shot, when the shot is thrown; and, fourthly, a rack of a peculiar construction to serve as a reel for winding the line upon. This rack consists of a small square frame, having rows of pegs inserted along the ends and sides of it. The line is wound upon these pegs in such a manner, that as the shot is projected through the air, drawing the line with it, the pegs deliver the line as fast as it is required by the progress of the shot, and that with the least possible friction. Thus the advance of the shot is unimpeded. The mortar from which the shot is fired, is aimed in such a manner as to throw the missile over and beyond the ship, and thus when it falls into the water, the line attached to it comes down across the deck of the ship, and is seized by the passengers and crew.

Sometimes, in consequence of the darkness of the night, the violence of the wind, and perhaps of the agitations and confusion of the scene, the first and even the second trial may not be suc cessful in throwing the line across the wreck. The object is, however, generally attained on the second or third attempt, and then the end of the hawser is drawn out to the wreck by means of the small line which the shot had carried; and being made fast and "drawn taut," the bridge is complete on which the car is to traverse to and fro.

The visitors at Long Branch, a celebrated watering place on the New Jersey coast, near New York, had an opportunity to witness a trial of this apparatus at the station there, during the last summer: a trial made, not in a case of storm and shipwreck, but on a pleasant summer afternoon, and for the purpose of testing

are destined to this service must be of a peculiar construction, for no ordinary boat can live a moment in the surf which rolls in, in storms, upon shelving or rocky shores. A great many different modes have been adopted for the construction of surf-boats, each liable to its own peculiar

the apparatus, and for practice in the use of it. A large company assembled on the bank to witness the experiments. A boat was stationed on the calm surface of the sea, half a mile from the shore, to represent the wreck. The ball was thrown, the line fell across the boat, the car was drawn out, and then certain amateur objections. The principle on which Mr. Francis performers, representing wrecked and perishing men, were put into the car and drawn safely through the gentle evening surf to the shore.

relies in his life and surf boats, is to give them an extreme lightness and buoyancy, so as to keep them always upon the top of the sea. A case occurred a little more than a year Formerly it was expected that a boat in such a ago on the Jersey shore not very far from Long service, must necessarily take in great quantities Branch, in which this apparatus was used in of water, and the object of all the contrivances serious earnest. It was in the middle of Jan- for securing its safety, was to expel the water uary and during a severe snow storm. The ship after it was admitted. In the plan now adopted Ayrshire, with about two hundred passengers, the design is to exclude the water altogether, by had been driven upon the shore by the storm, making the structure so light and forming it on and lay there stranded, the sea beating over her, such a model that it shall always rise above the and a surf so heavy rolling in, as made it im-wave, and thus glide safely over it. This result possible for any boat to reach her. It happened is obtained partly by means of the model of the that one of the stations which we have described boat, and partly by the lightness of the material was near. The people on the shore assembled of which it is composed. The reader may perand brought out the apparatus. They fired the haps be surprised to hear, after this, that the shot, taking aim so well that the line fell direct- material is iron. ly across the wreck. It was caught by the crew on board and the hawser was hauled off. The car was then attached, and in a short time, every one of the two hundred passengers, men, women, children, and even infants in their mothers' arms, were brought safely through the foaming surges, and landed at the station. The car which performed this service was considered as thenceforth fully entitled to an honorable discharge from active duty, and it now rests, in retirement and repose, though unconscious of its honors, in the Metallic Life-Boat Factory of Mr. Francis, at the Novelty Iron Works.

In many cases of distress and disaster befalling ships on the coast, it is not necessary to use the car, the state of the sea being such that it is possible to go out in a boat, to furnish the necessary succor. The boats, however, which

Iron-or copper, which in this respect possesses the same properties as iron-though absolutely heavier than wood, is, in fact, much lighter as a material for the construction of receptacles of all kinds, on account of its great strength and tenacity, which allows of its being used in plates so thin that the quantity of the material employed is diminished much more than the specific gravity is increased by using the metal. There has been, however, hitherto a great practical difficulty in the way of using iron for such a purpose, namely that of giving to these metal plates a sufficient stiffness. A sheet of tin, for example, though stronger than a board, that is, requiring a greater force to break or rupture it, is still very flexible, while the board is stiff. In other words, in the case of a thin plate of metal, the parts yield readily

The plaitings or corrugations of the metal in these iron boats pass along the sheets, in lines, instead of being, as in the case of the waiter, confined to the margin. The lines which they man.

The machinery referred to will be easily under- | great cylinders, with a force proportioned to stood by the above engraving. On the left are the ratio of the area of those pistons compared the pumps, worked, as represented in the en- with that of one of the pistons in the pump. graving, by two men, though four or more are Now the piston in the force-pump is about one often required. By alternately raising and de-inch in diameter. Those in the great cylinders pressing the break or handle, they work two small but very solid pistons which play within cylinders of corresponding bore, in the manner of any common forcing pump.