134 NOTES ON LIFE-SAVING APPLIANCES. 



able sea; perhaps darkness and cold might be added. Yet with all these 

 difficulties we can reasonably say that with the appliances which are now at 

 hand, we are still able to cope with them, and lower away boats filled with 

 passengers and get them away from the ship. Of course, at times the sea 

 is smooth and conditions are most favorable, as in the case of the collision 

 between the Republic and the Florida. 



3. Rescue work, when power is available. Here the weather conditions 

 are likely to be such as I have named for abandoning ship — as is natural to 

 suppose — and we can readily imagine that some of the boats from the sinking 

 ship are likely to reach the side of the rescuing vessel and have to be taken 

 aboard as well as those which are launched from it. Now what is here 

 demanded? A mechanical power, hand-power being out of the question 

 on large ships; and the control of this power, I contend, should be in the hands 

 of a man in the boat itself. Darkness, height of deck, wind and rain, make 

 handling the boat to best advantage from the deck impossible. While all 

 of us can make fair guesses of horizontal distances, few, if any, can do so 

 where the matter of vertical height is in question, especially at sea, with a 

 rising and falling medium below. 



We would have power on board a rescuing vessel and I can see no reason 

 why with, say, an electric drive, this power could not be controlled from the 

 two boats on either side, which I deem necessary for this particular contin- 

 gency, nor can I see why a properly designed friction hoist cannot be quickly 

 and easily controlled from the boat. But in all cases, the first thing to do 

 when a boat gets alongside is to get her quickly and securely hooked on to 

 the falls. There are many devices now on the market for this purpose, 

 but I would say that what is absolutely required for attaching the falls 

 is a contrivance which requires but one motion and but one line of thought, 

 when there is no necessity of regarding right or left hand but only that of 

 doing one thing, and such contrivances are to be found on the market. 



To go further into this matter of what is usually called releasing gear 

 and consider the question of detaching a boat — if perfection is looked for — 

 such gear must be so made that by the action of one person in the boat a re- 

 lease can be instantaneously effected at any time. I have never been able to 

 thoroughly satisfy myself that what is known as "automatic releasing gear" 

 is the most reliable and safest system to be employed, because the moment 

 a boat becomes water-borne the releasing gear is detached, and unless the 

 boat is held by a painter she is adrift; in abandoning ship perhaps this is 

 just what is desired, yet it seems to me that it is better to have this releasing 

 mechanism under the control of a man in charge of the boat, as there are 



