The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-09 00:00:00

SELF-RIGHTING LIFE-BOATS.

The following communication on the very impor-
tant principle of self-righting in life-boats has been
addressed to a contemporary. The clear description
Captain Ward, R.N., gives of the Liverpool life-
boats is deserving at this moment of the greatest
consideration :

Sir,—ln your paper of to-day is a letter signed " Walter
Severn," and headed " Life-boats warranted to light
themselves after drowning the crew."
This latter is of so unjustifiable and mischievous a cha-
ract2,r, that I consider the refutation of its statements to
be a public duty.
It is unjustifiable, in that it is founded on the hypothesis
Cult the Point of Ayr life-boat, which recently upset and
drowned its crew, was a self-righting life-boat, which she
was not ; a circumstance which Mr. Severn might have
readily ascertained before publishing an attack on all self-
righting life-boats, by an inquiry at this institution. It is
mischievous, in that its tendency, whether intentionally so
or not, must be to awaken prejudice against an important
and valuable property in a life-boat, and possibly to lessen
the confidence of the crews of such boats in the possession
of that property as an additional security to their lives.
The Point of Ayr life-boat, like the others belonging to
the Liverpool Dock Company, some of which I have care-
fully examined, was not constructed to self-right. They
are the most primitive description of life-boatsof any in the
kingdom, being merely large open boats, with a number of
empty casks secured within them under the thwarts, and
the only life-boat property which they possess being the
amount of buoyancy that is afiordeci by these casks, which
would prevent their altogether sinking if filled by a sea.
On such an occurrence taking place—which they must be
constantly liable to if they adventure into any really heavy
broken water, or alongside a vessel over which the sea is
breaking—they become at ..13Ce waterlogged and disabled,
until by the slow process of baling or pumping they are
lightened of the water within them. If upset, they would
more readily float " keel upwards" than in their natural
position, whilst, from having no ballast, which I believe
none of them have, they cannot offer the satue resistance
to upsetting which a well-ballasted boat would do.
The life-boats which during the last four years have
been placed on the coast by this institution are all of them
self-righting, but the same means which are employed to
obtain that power contribute much to their efficiency and
safety in other respects. If filled by a sea the water would
- in a few seconds be self-discharged, without the aid of
pump or baler. Raving heavy iron keels and other bal-
last, and likewise other properties which increase lateral
stability, they would be exceedingly difficult to upset, bu
if upset they would instantaneously self-right, and return
to an upright position. The crew, to be sure, would be all
thrown overboard; but each man, being supplied with a
superior life-belt, would be floated with his shoulders
above the water's surface, and by the aid of life-lines,
which surround the boat, he could without much difficulty
get into her again.
In one instance only has one of the above described boats
been upset, which was occasioned by the capsizing of a
schooner upon the life-boat. The self righting property of
the latter was then the sole cause of the preservation of
her own crew and that of the schooner, for had she not
been righted they would all undoubtedly have perished.
I need add no more with reference to these boats than
that they have been the means of saving several crews of
wrecked vessels during the recent storms, and that they
have the unbounded confidence of their crews.
As regaros the class of double lifeboats, to which that
advocated by Mr. Severn belongs, they undoubtedly would
be most difficult to upset. and cannot, unless seriously in-
jured, be swamped; but it is not so certain that they can
be as readily propelled against a heavy sea as ordinary
shaped boats, or that they possess equal advantages to them
in some other respects.
The National Lifeboat Institution owns one of that de-
scription—the double tubular lifeboat invented by Henry
Richardson, Esq., of North Wales. She has saved a vessel's
crew in the late gales, and is reported to have behaved very
' well, but sufficient trial has not yet been made of her to
enable us to speak positively of her qualities.
It is no doubt a natural thing that Mr. Severn should
advocate, and think highly of, a brother's invention; but I
conceive that before publicly denouncing a class of boats
already in use, of which he is wholly ignorant, but which
possess the confidence of those who use them, the public
have a right to expect that he should at the least take the
trouble to make some inquiry
ommand respecting them.
J. R. WARD, Cer, R.N.,
Inspector of Lifeboats to the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution.
4, John-street, A delphi, Jan. 8, 1857.

"LOST ON THE GOODWIN."—A. correspondent, sign'ng
himself Delta, in writing to a contemporary, says :
" Sir,—Are these fearful words to be eternally ringing
in our ears ? Some means other than lighthouses should
be devised to warn the poor mariner from impending de-
struction. The lighthouse during a snow storm is
worthless. Why riot try the effect of sound ? Let
these fatal sands be thickly covered with buoys, and to
each buoy let a large sonorous bell be attached. The
clang of 1,000 great bells stt in motion by a tumultuous
sea would almost awaken the Earl of Goodwin himself.
Why, Sir, the chorus would be heard half across the
channel ; and we should hear of no more vessels being
engulfed in the Goodwin Sands.
THE GIFT OF TONGUES —lt is well carefully to note
the difference between Russia and England in regard to
the cultivation of language for State purposes. There is
not a country possessing a grammar in any diplomatic
relation with St. Petersburg which has nut the acquisition
of its native tongue provided fur in or near the Rusi-ian
capital. At the imperial gymnasium, Novo-Toliersk ai k,
iu the country of the Den Cost acks, military interpreters
and translators fur the Caucasian invasions are taught
Arabic, Tartan?, Avarian, and Tscherkessian ; at
Storopol, Tartaric and Tscherkeseian form part of the
educational system ; and throughout the land youig
and able students are diligently trained to carry on free
intercourse with foreign nations. English statesmen
might do idler things than take this shrewd example
into their consideration, and establish competent schools
for instruction in the languages that bear upon our
immense Asiatic and Indian interests. From the San-
sent, through the Affghan, Bokharan, Kurdian,
Armenian, Albanian, to the Persian, Turkish, and
Chinese, it ought to be our first care to see that native
Englishmen could be found to conduct the important
affairs of the British empire in theta languages ; and
even their Bengali, Mabratti, Guzerati, Assamese, Kash-
merian, Kbasiyan, and other varieties. It is imperative
to encourage the study of the Oriental languages in Eng
laud, that we may have scholars capable of conversing
with natives, and thus procuring supplies, gathering in-
formation, translating documents, writing circulars or
proclamations, carrying on parleys, assisting at confer-
ences, and wording treaties. That we should usually
need the intervention of strangers in such business is no
sign of our wisdom. In all other countries which
have any political, commercial, or religious connection
with the East provision has been made to effect
this ; and ever since the days of the Empress
Catherine Russia bas won many a success through
the qualifications of her diplomatic linguists. At
Sr. Petersburg there is a chair for every branch
of Oriental literature ; and at Kasen and elsewhere
the chief languages of tke East are regularly
taught. The French Academy has alwnys co
among its members the leading representatives
Govern eve
department of Eastern philology, besides thehthy
ment school for the living tongues, which are taGug
Oriental
the most eminent professors. At Manna the rien al
seminary of the Imperial press anddisseminates the the choicest
Prussia
Oriental works, while even Denznar
~
ii
raise Oriental scholars, and employ them
on missions,
and as consuls and interpreters.—vCisCltS 110148C1rOta,
IVorde.