550 MODERN INVEXTIONS. 



to sustain two persons. On the first alarm of " a. man overboard !" this 

 apparatus, which is kept at hand on the quarter-deck is thrown into 

 the sea, in the direction of the person immersed, and as near to him as 

 circumstances will permit. Each sphere is also made heavier in that 

 part which should remain undermost in the water, in order that it may 

 keep in an upright position a piece of wire of twenty-two or three 

 inches in height, to which is fixed a narrow pendant of light bunting ; 

 and these little streamers are intended to attract the notice of the person 

 who is in the water to a certain means of temporary safety, whilst they 

 will form a mark from the ship in putting her about, and serve to guide 

 the boat's crew in directing them towards the spot where their messmate 

 awaits them, or near to which he must still be struggling with the 

 waves. 



In all ordinary cases at sea, these life preservers will be found suffi- 

 ciently efficacious j but when it becomes necessary to escape from a 

 stranded vessel, and to buffet with 



The jagged rocks, the rugged shore, 

 Amid the raving whirlwind's roar ; 

 When each wild rushing ocean wave, 

 Seems raised to form a seaman's grave 



T, 



something beyond buoyancy is required ; something that will defend, as 

 well as sustain. In these cases, any expert seaman will speedily con- 

 struct, out of such materials as are readily to be found on shipboard, an 

 excellent wreck escape, which, bearing the inventors name, is called 



CANNING'S LIFE RAFT; which, for the preservation of two or 

 three persons, when even a boat would be unavailable, is composed of 

 three spars, which are lashed together crosswise at their centres, and 

 are braced, or kept in a proper position that is, their extremities equi- 

 distant from each other by means of ropes. To each end of these 

 spars is attached a cork fender, or an empty cask covered with a ham- 

 mock, to protect it from being stove in by a projecting rock. The 

 persons upon these rafts, the size of which will of course be propor- 

 tionate to their number, support themselves in the centre, by holding on 

 by the ropes, and shift themselves about as the raft occasionally rolls 

 over. Upon reaching the shore, the raft will be thrown up by the 

 waves, high enough to enable them to land with the greatest ease. 



We are now arrived at the conclusion of our trip, and the two remain- 

 ing articles to which we shall call your attention will be put in opera- 

 tion in dropping anchor, and mooring our little vessel. The first is 



ROGERS' s CAT-HEAD STOPPER, by which the anchor is suspended to 

 the cat-head. This stopper is a sort of forceps, whose lower limbs are 

 curved towards and cross each other, when closed, much like the beak 

 of a crossbill, leaving an opening about midway between the pivot and 

 their extremities, in which they confine the ring of the anchor. To 

 each of the upper limbs of the forceps is attached a short chain, which 

 is suspended by a ring at the termination of a longer chain, called the 

 stopper- chain, which, when in operation, sustains the whole apparatus, 

 anchor, &c. and whose end is passed through the cat-head, at the hole 

 generally used for the fixed or permanent part of the common stopper, 

 and carried in-board. The anchor having been catted in the usual way, 

 by being hoisted up by the cat-block to the cat-head, the forceps are 

 lowered by the stopper-chain, and hooked to the ring of the anchor ; 



