The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-13 00:00:00

rade,

11,41 a)

more mature consideration of the subject, you
should have stated in your " public report," that
the self-righting principle, as adopted by this
institution, is injurious to the stability of a life
boat. As a practical proof that it is not so, I need
only again refer to the fact of our 30 feet boats
requiring the weight of 24 men on one gunwale to
bring it to the water's edge. I could theoretically
as easily prove that it mach increases a boat's
stability, but as my doing so would add too much
to the length of this letter, I send you a number
of the Life Boat Journal, containing an article on
self righting principle, in which that fact is, I think,
satisfactorily proved.
3rd. We have reason to complain that, in date
rioration of the self-righting boats adopted by this
institution, you should have stated in your public
report that their great weight of bow and stern
must prevent their being propelled against a strong
wind and heavy sea, and be otherwise disadvan-
tageous. In refutation of this statement, I need
only give you the following comparative dimensions
of your own life boats and that at Lytham.

Length

Beam

Liverpool. Lytham.
..30 ft 0 in -.30 ft 0 in

.. 9 ft 4 in ... 7 ft 6 in

Depth amidships 3 ft 10 in .. 3 ft Bin
ding
Height of bow and stern 5 ft 4 in ... 5 ft 2 in inclu
} keel.
Sheer of gunwale 1 ft 6 in ... 1 ft 6 in

The weight of ends is here less in our boat than
in yours, but as ours bas an iron keel weighing
6 cwt., and nearly the same amount of other solid
ballast within her, whilst yours has none, and as
our boat has 22 inches less beam, she would pro-
bably, although very flat floored, draw more water
than yours,and her height of bow and stern be seve-
ral inches less. It has, in fact, been proved by expe-
rience that the height of bow in these boats is not
more than is indispensable to keep a head sea
from breaking into them, up to which point height
of bow (in a heavy sea and broken water) is
favourable to speed, if sharpness of form be carried
up to gunwale height. As compared with your
boats in point of speed, I feel little doubt that, in
consequence of her greater sharpness of bow and
less beam, the Lytham boat would equal, if not
exceed, yonr boats, even in a calm and a smooth
water ; but against a head and broken sea, where
the inertia of her ballast would tell in her favour,
I should calculate on her rowing three feet to each
one foot of yours, and on her going a head in some
circumstances when yours would go astern.
As regards the convenience of taking on board
wrecked persons, I consider the flat-topped end
cases occupying the bow and stern of our boats as
an advantage rather than otherwise. _

4thly. We have reason to complain that yo u
should in your letter, only place this Institution
on the same footing as any one of the inventors of
lifeboats, who have patented their plans, and are
interested in providing them as a mercantile
speculation, that you speak of its lifeboats as of
unproved boats.
I will place in apposition the cases of two
inventors whose boats you describe, viz. : Mr.
Hawkesworth and Mr. Clarkson, of whose boats
you speak quite as favourably, indeed more so of
Mr. H's than of those of the Institution, yet neither
of them are either boat builders or seamen, or have
their boats been yet submitted to more than a very
limited trial.

Mr. Hawkesworth has built three boats; two of
these have been in use—the ono at Hartlepool, and
the other atal Sunderland. The third has been built
for Seaham, but (unless very recently sent there)
she is not yet on her station. There never was
one lof them stationed at Ramsgate. I have no
doubt they have some good qualities, and would
much prefer them to your boats, but I do not think
them equal to those of this Institution ; and owing
to their immense weight and great draught of
water, it would be impracticable to launch them
from an ordinary beach ; they are, therefore, only
fit to be stationed in harbours. The large amount
of ballast they carry has, indeed, been felt to be so
great an evil, that it has been much reduced in
the Sunderland and Hartlepool boats, and their
self righting property been thereby destroyed.
Mr. Clarkson's invention and patent, consists
solely of the material of which his boat is con-
structed, the boat herself being merely a variation
of, but not an improvement on those of Mr. Peake.
The institution has one of his boats, the material of
which has already shown indication of its unfit-
ness, and we should be glad to exchange it for one
of our own plan of wooden boats. The only'other
boat which has been built by Mr, Clarkson of his
material, is, I believe, that one now at Liverpool
which has been built at the expense of the Duke
of Wellington.

On the other hand, some of the self righting
boats of the institution have now been five years
in use—every year's experience of them, and of
those which from year to year have been added to
this number, has increased the confidence of their
crews in them. They have not only been repeatedly
instrumental in saving life, mostly in gales of
wind and heavy seas, but by the rules of the
institution they are taken afloat once during each
quarter of the year to exercise, the men being paid
a higher amount for the same in rough weather as
an inducement to them to select such, which they
constantly do. I likewise take them afloat myself
when periodically visiting our lifeboat stations.
During the recent gales they have performed
services which it is probable your boats could not
have done, as they have been reported to have
been several times filled by seas, which as quickly
run through them, and disappear again, but which
would have disabled a boat that had no resources
but baling.
We are consequently not without sufficient ex-
perience of these boats to authorize us to bring
them to the notice of your committee on such an
occasion as the present one, and to justify us in
supposing that one of them stationed so near your
awn port as at Lytham, would at least bethought
deserving of an inspection if not experimental
trial, especially as this institution can have no
interest in recommending them beyond the desire
to see at so important a port as Liverpool the safest
and most efficient means provided for rescuing
unfortunate persons from the horrors of shipwreck.
In justification of myself presuming to offer to
you my opinions on this subject, I may add, that
having had the opportunities for becoming
acquainted with the lifeboats on our coast, which
no one else ever had—having seen and carefully
examined, and measured in detail, nearly every
lifeboat in England (some of yours amongst the
number), and having been off in several heavy
seas and gales of wind, I felt that my opinion was
entitled to some weight, I should not otherwise
have offered it.

In conclusion, I will venture to suggest, that if
you continue to hold the opinions as expressed
in your report, that neither the principle of self-
righting or self-relief of water are sufficiently
advantageous for you to recommend their adoption,
you may still greatly increase their stability, and
otherwise improve your boats ; if, instead of add-
ing more empty casks, and continuing the use-
less top weights of the wooden casing which
envelopes them, you were to fit them after the fine
sailing lifeboats of the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts,
which do not self right, which have no decks, and only
partially relieve themselves of water, but which
have their extra buoyancy provided in a far more
scientific and efficient mode, than by that of empty
casks along their sides. But if you were yourself
to visit some of the stations where the best life-
boats of different classes are placed, and examine
them for yourself, and hear all that their coxswains
and crews had to say for or against them, and to
take them afloat on trial, you could then judge for
yourself, and, in a matter of so much importance,
I feel sure your committee would readily incur
such an expense, whilst the public would then see
that the Liverpool Dock Committee fully compre-
hended their duty to provide the very best lifeboat
protection to the crews of the vast shipping trade
of their port, and that they wore determined to
spare no expense in order to effect the same. I
shall feel obliged by your placing this letter before
the Liverpool Dock Committee —I remain, dear
sir, faithfully yours, J. R. WARD,
Inspector of Lifeboats to the
National Lifeboat Institution.
To
Murray Parkes, Esq., '
Marine Surveyor, Liverpool.
i

THE NORTHERN TIMES. LIVERPOOL, FRIDAY.

Commerttal Intelltynce.

LIVERPOOL COTTON HARK ET.—Fen. 12.

There has been a general good enquiry for cotton
to-day, and with fair supplies, prices are steady. The
sales—including 550 Pernarnbucos Sid to Bid, 50 Bahias
71d, 120 Maranharns Sid, 400 Egyptians 9d to I Id, 700
Surats 5d to 6d—are reported 12,000 bales, of which 4,000
are on speculation and for export.