2;o IMPROVEMENT OF FISHING-BOATS. 



IMPROVEMENT OF FISHING-BOATS. 



In consequence of the frequent loss of life through the 

 foundering of fishing-boats on the coast of the United King- 

 dom, it appeared to the Committee of the National Life-boat 

 Institution that the safety of the larger class of open and half- 

 decked fishing-boats on our coast might be greatly increased by 

 enabling them to be made temporarily insubmergible, in the 

 event of their being overtaken by gales of wind when at long 

 distances from the land. 



No doubt was entertained by practical persons on the coast, 

 who were consulted on the subject, of the need of such im- 

 provement, and of the feasibility of the plan proposed to effect 

 it ; but the coast boatmen being an inert class, not readily 

 departing from what they have been accustomed to, it was not 

 thought likely that they would themselves initiate any such 

 changes, however needed. 



The Committee, therefore, decided to build a few pattern 

 boats, and to place them at some of the principal fishing 

 stations, in the hands of experienced and trustworthy boatmen, 

 to whom they would be lent or let at a small percentage on 

 their earnings, for a period of twelve months ; at the end of 

 which time they might be sold, and would remain in the several 

 localities where placed as samples, from which the other local 

 boats might be improved in a similar manner. 



As these boats would be seen by large numbers of fishermen 

 from different places at their chief ports of rendezvous during 

 the fishing seasons, it was considered that it might not be 

 necessary to build any large number in order to make them 

 generally known, and that a short period would suffice for those 

 to whom they were entrusted to form a correct estimate of their 

 properties. 



In the event of the experiment proving successful, it was 

 believed that a great boon would thus be conferred on the 

 fishermen and other boatmen of certain classes on the coast, as 

 not only would numberless lives and boats be saved that in 





