Loss of Lives through Shipwreck. 339 
4th. A four-ounce rocket was then fired from the musket to 
the: distance of 112 yards, with a line called a mackerel snood. 
I have the honour to report that the Committee are of opinion, 
that-Mr. Trengrouse’s appears to them to be the dest mode of 
gaining a communication with the shore, for the purpose of saving 
lives from shipwreck, that has been suggested ; as well as to com- 
municate between ships in heavy gales of wind; and that the ex- 
periment they have witnessed has fully succeeded. 
I have the honour to be, &c. &c. 
P. A. Ourry, Esq. (Signed) JoHn Ramsey, 
&c. &c. Colonel and Lieut.-general Commandant.” 
After having received the foregoing report, I was officially made 
acquainted that a further Committee of Naval and ArtilleryOfficers 
was about to be convened at Woolwich, for more particularly in- 
vestigating my invention, and to witness anew experiment. Sir 
Wm.Congreve was not present at the former; and, as he is so con- 
versant with the nature of rockets, probably this second experi- 
ment might have been chiefly for him to have the opportunity of 
gedcging on the utility of my plan. While making my experiment, 
the wind was blowing a gale, and I projected two lines, by the 
use of only eight-ounce rockets, to the distance of 215. yards— 
exceeding my former experiment (with the same size rocket) by 
30 or 40 yards. 
A deep sea-line was also projected by one of my iarger rockets, 
107 yards, which was a highly satisfactory experiment to all the 
spectators, and far exceeded my own most sanguine expectations, 
as I never before attempted an experiment with a line near so 
large, it being sufficiently strong to haul six men through the wa- 
ter at a time. But to prove the power of larger and stronger 
rockets than those I used, Sir Wm. Congreve was pleased to make 
the following experiment. 
* Nature. | Weight of Grapnel. | Size of Rope. | Elevation. | Range. 
18-pounder Jibs. e; 35 250 yds. 
reduced 9 lt 40 230 
103 lt 40, | 243 
It required eleven men to start the anchor out of the ground. 
Mr. Trengrouse afterwards produced his apparatus for con- 
veying persons on shore after gaining a communication with a 
rope. It consists of a hawser roller and hook, which can be 
* I may here observe, that these rockets were in an iron case, and armed 
with an arrow, the stem of which being about nine inches long, penetrated 
the ground on falling, to some depth. Therefore, in case a vessel should 
be wrecked under a cliff, and no person at the time upon the shore to lend 
aid, by such rocket acting as a grapnel, (when falling on earth, or other pe- 
netrable substance,) the crew might materially assist themselves to climb 
to the top. 
Y 2 fixed 
