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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



terior sides under the thwarts, which make it insubmergible, and is 

 fitted with cork fenders running along the outer sides to protect it 

 against collision with hulls or wreckage. Its weight is from TOO to 

 1,000 pounds. It is guided by a long steering oar, the steersman 

 standing in the stern. In the hands of the skilled surfmen of our 

 coasts, it is capable of marvelous action, and few sights are more 

 impressive than the passage out through the flashing breakers of the 

 frail red boat, lightly swimming on the vast intumescence of the surge, 

 held in suspension before the roaring and tumultuous comber, or dart- 

 ing forward as the wall of water breaks and crumbles, obedient to the 

 oars of the impassive crew. Though sometimes thrown back and 

 broken in desperate and unavailing efforts at a launch against a resist- 



Fig. 2. Surf-Boat upon its Carriage. 



less sea, this boat, which might be upset easily, has rarely in the his- 

 tory of the service been capsized in passing through the surf, so great 

 is the skill of her gallant oarsmen ; and certain great surfmen, like 

 Captain Hildreth, of Station 39, New Jersey, say that in it they will 

 face any sea in which a life-boat can live. 



On the Lakes and the Pacific coast, where steep shores or piers 

 command deep water, and by mechanical contrivances heavy boats can 

 be launched directly into it, the English life-boat is in general use. 

 This wonderful contrivance, the result of a century of repeated effort, 

 is of massive strength and stability. It is built of double diagonals of 

 mahogany. The size generally in use in this country is about twenty- 

 seven feet in length, a little over seven feet broad, three feet eight 

 inches deep, carrying eight oars, double-banked, and weighing when 

 empty 4,000 pounds. It is self-righting and self -bailing. In other 

 words, when thrown over, which is difficult to be done, by a heavy sea, 

 it instantly rights and empties. The first of these two extraordinary 

 characteristics, to which a great number of advantages are sacrificed, 

 is effected by a ponderous false keel of iron, which gives the lower part 

 of the boat a constant determination. toward the water, while an equal 



