412 Desci ipUuii of n Life- Boat 



a blow. It will also, in some measure, secure the stability of 

 the boat on the occasion of a lurch or roll ; but indepenilently 

 of this circumstance, and of the general form of the boat, the 

 stability is fuither insured by the aid of an iron keel of 220 

 pounds weight. The racks are fitted immediately beneath one 

 of the boat's lands, or projecting edges of her planks; and the 

 cox'k fenders, which are covered with stout canvass, are secured 

 to their places by copper staples, which are drawn tight to the 

 fender by screw-nuts upon their ends within the boat, being 

 placed at the distance of about 14 inches from each other. 

 The position of the I'ack and fender is better shown at E and E 

 in the transverse section of the boat, fig. 5. 



Tiie copper cases are secured from injury by an external 

 casing of half-inch fir, ledged together into pannels, and se- 

 cdred about them without any nailing. The thwarts also are 

 so dovetailed and hooked to the shelt^ or rising of the boat, as 

 to effect the tying of her sides together without the ap,plica- 

 tion of knees. This manner of fixing the thwarts, and sta- 

 tioning the panneling, is done for the conveniency of getting at 

 the floating capacity vvith readiness, for examination, without 

 the assistance of a carpenter; and the mode of doing it is ren- 

 dered clear by the assistance of fig. 3, which is a midship sec- 

 tion of the boat to a half-inch scale. 



The lighter shading in this figure, lettered A, A, A, re- 

 presents the three tier of coppered cases, the dark margin on 

 their tops, and about their sides, being a section of the pan- 

 nelling. The middle tier of cases, with its pannelling, rests 

 in two grooved sleepers or cants, B and B, which are firn>ly 

 secured fore and aft to the bottom of the boat, by nails driven 

 from the outside and well clenched within. The lower edges 

 also of the side tier of cases, witli their pannelling, ai'e se- 

 cured by similar cants C and C, which curve up fore and aft 

 along each side ; and the lipper edges of the pannelh'ng are 

 secured from falling out by fiat-headed five-eighths bolts, tvio 

 inches and a lialf long, which are driven tight through holes 

 in the thwarts, as represented at D and D. The thwarts are 

 dovetailed into the boat's rising or sheH', E and E, and are 

 further secured by copper hooks or clamps being attached 

 beneath the end of the thwarts, which hook outside the rising, 

 as shown by the dark-lined represeiUation of the thing at E 

 and E. As the thwarts are pressed upwards, in a material de- 

 gree, by the floating capacity', when the boat is filled with water, 

 their ends are kept from rising by chocks of wootl between 

 them and the gunnel ; and the middle parts of the thwarts are 

 kept down by iron hooks F and F, whicli are seemed by side- 

 bolts int'T the cants B and B, and hook into cve-boUs beneath 



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