i8 



than hunger." Amid the horrors of the situation Mr. 

 Higgins, third officer, went mad and drowned himself. 

 The sufferers were thus exposed for three days and two 

 nights. Efficient Hfe-saving appHances should assure bread 

 and water, at least for a few days, and secure the pitiable 

 waifs against suffering from the horror of having " Water, 

 water everywhere, and never a drop to drink." 



Room enotigh for all. — Life-saving appliances provided in 

 any given ship should be sufficient to accommodate and 

 save every one in that ship. It is true that self-preservation 

 is the first law of nature — " Skin for skin, all that a man 

 hath will he give for his life." In certain circumstances, for 

 his life a man will even surrender his humanity : care of 

 self dominates over pity for others. 



The inadequate supply of boats for crises is unfavourable 

 to the exercise of the ordinary attributes of humanity. 

 The steamship Pacific, belonging to a New York company, 

 recently wrecked with 250 persons on board, gives occa- 

 sion for the record — " Great confusion, the passengers 

 crowding each other off the deck, and crowding the boats. 

 One boat with fifteen women capsized." It is peculiarly 

 horrifying to conjure up the scene at the wreck of the 

 Cimbria, where "the people in the boats repulsed the 

 drowning to prevent over-filling." It is much to be desired 

 that some mode of saving life may be devised and adopted 

 in which the struggle of one life against another will not be 

 provoked, but that will give room enough for all. 



Any efficient and acceptable appliance for saving life at 

 sea, that is intended to supersede boats wholly or in part, 

 must be able to compete favourably with boats in first 

 cost, weight, strength, capacity, simplicity, and strength of 

 fittings, if any ; readiness for use when wanted ; ease, 

 celerity, and certainty of action ; non-liability to get out of 



