On saving the Lives of Mariners. 463 
of a pint of confined air for every stone (14 pounds) a 
man weighs in air, will support him in fresh water with 
his head all above the surface; but allow a pint for each 
stone. Jn sea water half the above quantity will produce 
the same effect., A buoyancy of eight pinis or one gallon 
of airwill support a man in cea water, and at this rate a beer 
hogshead will sustain 54 men with their heads out of the 
water. Every ship coutains water-tight (in this case air- 
tight) barrels of different kinds, more than sufficient to 
carry her crew were they ten times the number, and the 
only question is how to take advantage of the circum- 
stance. Mr. Cleghorn has pointed out many methods, 
for which we must refer to-his work 3 but we cannot pass 
over some of the most obvious. A single cask «is apt to 
turn in the water; two are therefore preterable, for when 
Jashed together they cannot upset. To three sides of this 
float, as many loops of rope maybe attached by the lashing, 
or nails, as men can lay hold of. While they keep their 
hold they cannot sink, and in most. cases of shipwreck 
they would be carried to the shore. If one of the boats be 
made a life-boat by lashing a hogshead or two to the boat, 
a rope from this boat might drag the cask-floats and the 
men attached to them. If two hogsheads be lashed to 
the two ends of a yard, or any long piece of timber, and two 
ropes pass from hogshead to hogshead at the side not occu- 
pied by the timber, a kind of life-boat may be formed, 
capable of Sustaining a number of men,—the yard or 
other piece of timber forming the keel, and the two ropes 
the gunwale of the boat. Bat Mr. C. does not conline 
himself merely to such contrivances, though certainly very 
effectual: a tin canister weighing about one pound, and 
capable of containing 44 pints (i.e. a common pound and 
half tea canister) is able to sustain a man with his head 
above the surface of the water. » Two empty common quart 
bottles well corked, put into a man’s pocket, and the pockets 
brought up to his breast, are sufficient to float him. 
~The obvious conclusion from all this is, that a number 
-of buoys of cork, or flat tin canisters (both cheap articles), 
should be provided on board every ship; and that the men 
ought to be-trained a little to the lashing cf casks, vards, 
&e. with a view to this very object, that on any emer- 
gency they might proceed without embarrassment or coi- 
fusion to prepare means for their own safety. 
Mr. Wilson’s Life-buat bas likewise been described in a 
previous volume *; as has also Mr. Knight Spencer’s Ma- 
rine Spencer +. 
* Vol, xxxi. p. 259, t Vol. xvi. p. 172 and 279. 
LXXVII. Pro- 
