328 : The Atlantic 



other American, John Boit Jr., acquired a sixteen-foot sloop. Boit, 

 who was nineteen years old, declared himself the captain of his small 

 boat and proceeded to sail it around Cape Horn to Vancouver. Here 

 he became a trader on a miniature basis that fitted his miniature ves- 

 sel, but his business carried him as far as that of even the largest ves- 

 sels of his time. From Vancouver he sailed to Canton and arrived 

 safely back in an American port in the year of 1796. 



In 1886 Captain J. B, Hudson and Captain Fitch embarked from 

 New York City in an American metallic lifeboat. The lifeboat was 

 twenty-six feet long, had a six-foot beam and a depth of two feet ten 

 inches. They left on June 30 and, after encountering several vessels 

 on the way across, were reported at Hastings on the south coast of 

 England on August 15. Up to this time this was the smallest vessel 

 to cross the Atlantic. This lifeboat, named the Red, White and Blue, 

 was exhibited at the Paris Exposition of that year. She apparently re- 

 crossed the Atlantic and on July 25, 1887 she is referred to in the 

 newspapers as the twenty-six-foot boat that had twice crossed the 

 Atlantic — so apparently she was sailed home. What brought her into 

 newspaper notice at this dme was that during the international 

 yacht race, while carrying a complement of newspapermen, she upset 

 in the crowded harbor. Her honorable record does not seem to have 

 been very effective in soothing the feelings of the dripping repre- 

 sentatives of the press. 



This seems to have been the era of eccentric ventures and absurd 

 craft. A year later, that is in 1887, Captain John Wilkes and two 

 other men put to sea floating on four iron cylinders that had been 

 put together as a life raft. Presumably, they wanted to demonstrate 

 its efficiency — their passage took them from New York to South- 

 ampton in fifty-two days. 



The inventors of lifeboats, like the inventors of parachutes, seem 

 to be seized with all but a suicidal mania for demonstrating their 

 own equipment. Most of the stories make rather dreary reading, but 

 there was one demonstration so inept in plan and so unlucky in 

 execution as to constitute an epic of dogged misfortune. The story 

 is a little out of order here but is offered as the lifeboat story to end 

 all lifeboat stories. 



In 1904 a Captain Brudel had evolved what he believed to be a 

 new form of lifeboat. It was eighteen feet long, had an eight-foot 

 beam and an eight-foot depth. The boat was little more than a tank 

 or a cylinder and ballasted with wooden rubbing strakes running 

 along her side. A hatchway with a cover gave entrance to the inte- 



