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

SELF-RIGHTING LIFE-BOATS.

The following communication on the very impOr-
taut 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 right
themselves after drowning the crew."
This latter is of so unjustifiable and mischievous a cha-
racter, that I consider the refutation of its statements to
be a public duty.
It is unjustifiable, in that it is founded ou the hypothesis
that 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 publi.hing 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 eonstructed to self-right. They
are the most primitive description of life-boataof any in tho
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 afforded by these casks, which
would prevent their altogether sinking if filled by a'sea.
On such an occurrence taking place—which they ranst 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 once 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 same resistance
to upsetting which a well-ballasted boat would do.
Thee life-boats which during the last four years have
been placed •n the coast by this institution are all of them
selfsrightiogr.bsit ilaseeeme- Riataiwwbiall--Ke4m4119,7951. t°
obtain that power contribute tench to their efficiency aid"—
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. Having 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 regards 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 sp ced.a..ll4.Plat,,they can
he as readily propelled against a heavy sea as, 9rd n ry
shaped boats, or that they possess equal advantages tb them
in seine other respects.
The National Lifeboat Institution owns one of that de-
scription—the double tubular lifeboat invented by Henry
Richardson, Esq., of N orth 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
;rouble to make some inquiry respecting them.
J. R. WARD, Commander, R.N.,
Inspector of Lifeboats to the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution.
4, John-street, Adelphi, Jan. 8, 1857.