New-York tribune., 1873-04-11
LErTNNS FROM TaE PEOPLE.
LIFE-RAFTS.
now rnE NrIANuC's PASSENGERS MIGHT HAvE
BEEN SAVED.

LIFE-RAFTS.
now TnE ATIANrC'S PASSENGERS MIGHT HAVE
BEEN SAVED.
To the Editor Of The Trt6Wne.
SIR: When the Mississippi was burned at sea some
time agu and nearly all her boats were smashed in
the effo.t to cast them loose or were Swamped the
instant hey struck the water. wrote YOU private
letter (which you publishedl suggesting that ships
be provided with life-rats instead of these almost
sselcsa boats did not expect that the Government
would Jump at the suggestion. and l was not diSap-
pointed. The Government had business on hand at
the time which would benefit not only our nation
hut the whole world mean the project Of paying
Congrcs,mc over again for work which they had
already been paid TO do that is to say, the labor of
receiving CI6dit Mobilier donations and forgetting
the circumstance, But that shining public benefit
being accomplished, why cannot the Government
1Sten ;O now,
The Atlantic had eight boats, Of course-all steam
.srs have Not one of the boats saved a human life
The great cumbersome things were shivered TO
atoms by The that swept the stranded YES
sci. And suppose they had not been shivered, would
the case have been better. Would not the frantic
people have plunged pell-mel into each boat as 1t
was launched aud instantly Swamped it1 They
always do. But lhe-raft Is q different thing. All
the people yOu can put on IL cannot swamp IT. No
body understands davit-falis hat sailor, ana he
don't when he is frightened; but any goose can
heave a ife-raft overheard and then some wise man
can throw him after IT, The sort of hfe-raft have
in my mind is sn American invention, consisting OF
,bree inflated horizontal rubber tubes with plat
form sshed on top. These RATS of all sizes, from
q little affair the size of your back door, 10 raft %
feet long and six or eight feet wide. As you remeu
her no doubt TWO men crossed the Atlantic from
New-YoIk to London some years ago, on one of
these RATS of the latter size That raft would carry
I20 men. Nine such raftS would have saved the At
1antc', 100 souls and these RATS fully inflated
aud ready for use would not have occupied rs much
CoOm her deck -four of her lubberly boats;
hardly more than the of three of her boats in
deed. Her boats were probably so feet long seven
feet deep and seven eight feet wide at the gun
wales.
You could furnish ship with medium and full
sued rafts-an equal number of each-and pile them
cp in the space occupied by four boats and then
YOU could expect TO save all her people, not merely
dozen or two They would sail away through
storm sitting high and dry from two TO four feet
above the tops Of the waves. In addition to the
raft.. the ship could carry boat or two, for pro-
nScuos general service and for the drowning OF old
(ogies who like old established ways. You could
attach a raft 10 a ship with a ten fathom line and
bye il overheard on the lee side in the toughest sea
(,nd II can't fall any way but right side up, and
there IL viii lie aud ride the waves like duck TIL 1t
receives its freight of food and pIssengersand then
Vou can eat the line and let her go. But il YOU
launch boat il usually falls upside down and if
IL don't the people crowd in and swamp it. Boats
have sometimes gone away safely with people and
taken them TO land but such accidents are rare.
am not giving YOU a mere landsman's views upon
1hls rat business; they the views Of several old
sea captains and mates whom / have talked with,
and theIr voice gives them weight and value Our
Government has 50 many important things TO attend
81 that we cannot reasonably expect 1t TO bother
with fe-rais, and we cannot reasonably expect the
English Government TO bother with them because
this admirable contriyance is Yankee invention,
and our mother is not given TO adopting our inyen
tions until she has had time to hunt around among
her documents and discovered that the crude idea
originated with herself in some bygOne time-theD
str adopts 10 and builds monument TO the crude
originator England has our life-raft on exhibition
iI q museum over there the raft that made the
wonderful Voyage) and heaps OF people have gone
IN every day several years and paid for the priv
ilcg- of looking at it. Perhaps many bereayed
poor soul whose idols lie stark aud dead under the
waves that wash the beach of Nova Scotia may wish,
A. do, that it had been exhibition on board the
betrayed Atlantic. MARX TWAIN.
Hartford Conn.,, April S, 1873.