ship's lifeboat. 37 



this mighty operation, it is easier to conceive than to express^ 

 the contempt he would feel, and the energetic reply he 

 would probably make to such a supposition. If then these 

 are undeniable points, it must follow, that wherever the boat 

 can be had recourse to, all that is contended for in the plan 

 must be granted. 



It no doubt has been upon these simple and obvious prin- 

 ciples, that those corporate and public bodies, and hundreds 

 of seamen to whom the plan has been communicated, have 

 so readily and entirely approved of it. But however re- 

 spectable and authentic these testimonies (afterward to be 

 mentioned) may be, I lay no stress upon that point, neither 

 do I ask any credit for it, but freely submit my statements 

 to the great body of seamen in general, leaving them to be 

 judged of, not with liberality only, but with severity, con- , 

 sidering that it would be a crime of the first magnitude, to 

 advance a single argument or suggestion, that could have 

 the smallest tendency to mislead, in a matter so solemn and 

 important as where life and death are concerned. 



Were I to go back to cases that are well known to have 

 happened, I could easily point ©ut many, wherein had this 

 plan been thought of, there can be no doubt but it would 

 have been attended with the happiest consequences; and 

 probably the recollection of many seamen may furnish cases 

 of the same kind, which have happened within their owq 

 knowledge. 



I shall only add, that I expect no benefit or advantage 

 whatever to myself from my perseverance and labours on 

 this subject, nor reimbursement for an expense of some 

 hundred pounds which it has cost me in repeated journies to 

 Edinburgh and London, as well as in experiments, which a 

 living of less than seventy pounds a-year could very ill af*- 

 ford ; but I shall nevertheless reckon myself amply rewarded, 

 if what 1 have to propose shall at any time, or in any case, 

 prove the means of relieving from the deepest distress, and 

 of rescuing from otherwise inevitable death, even a few of 

 those who have had the misfortune to be involved in all the 

 horrours of shipwreck. 



Mariners are unavoidably exposed to incomparably greater Hardship! anrf 



hardships 



