The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-06-07
Sari,sg Life by q Rocket.

Firth of Forth, there is not one harbOr
of refuge-a most terrible place for a
ship to be driven. ashore.
1t was in the morning long before day
break, in the midst of an icy storm. The
ship was stove up, the boats were crushed
in the breakers, there was not a ray of
hope, only from the little fishing village
on the cliffs. Little L should think it
was; only fifteen adult male inhabitantsl
But they had life-boat, and the entire vii
lage turned out in the dark and the storm,
Inen, women, little boys and girls. 1t
took thirteen of the men to man the
boat; and the two old men that were left,
and all the women and children, had to
wade out into the water to push the
boat ahoat.
The life-boat men worked an hour, but
they couldn't get near the ship, and had
to come back, and wait and watch their
chance to try again. It was SO hopeless
they wanted to send to the rocket station
for the rocket apparatus. But that was
five miles up the coast, and none of the
men could be spared from the boat.
Then up spoke little girl. her petit
coats wet to the waist, for she had been
in the water pushing the boat:
9TH gol''
"And I too !'' cried little Margaret
Brown.
"Then I'll go with Them said the big
girl, Isabella Armstrong.
She was 90, but the others were "real
truly" little girls.
Off they rushed along the beach in
their wet skirts, through the dark and
the storm, wading through ever so many
bays, tumbling and slipping, but finally
reaching the hfe-saving station, where
they aroused the rocket-cart men, and
then made their way back again. 1t
isn't at all strange to read that they were
laid up in bed next day with "cramps, :"
is it?
Before the rockets arrived the life
boat had succeeded, and got the crew off,
every one
Do you wonder how they expected to
save the men with rockets +? Have you
supposed the only use of rockets was to
make grand Fourth of July, or possibly
to serve as signals in times of war?
Well, let us see. I cannot copy for
you the long scientific article I read in
foreign magazine the other day, but in
few words I can tell you what learned
about the matter.
The men of the ife-saving stations
employ rockets to convey ropes on board
those wrecked ships which the Iife-boat
cannot reach. Often the shore is rocky,
the sea beating up against high, steep cliffs
from which boats cannot be launched.
Often, too, the breakers roll 80 high, or
the water is so " shoal, the boat cannot
be foated. Then the help must be sent
through the air or not at all and if the
ship is within three hundred yards of
shore, and If the wind does not blow too
furicusly, and if there should be rockets
enough for repeated trials, they can
nearly always establish communication.
Don't you see that if line is attached
to the rocket, and the rocket can be
thrown directly over the ship, the line
must fall on board, and that one end
viii be in the hands of the crew while
the other end is held by the people on the
shore? 1t would be very strange if then
the men couldn't be rescued in some way,
wouldn't it?
The entire apparatus is kept stored in
a cart at the ife-saving stations, just as
the fire engines stand in constant readi-
ness at the engine-houses, and at mo-
ment's notice off they go rattling along
shore to the scene of the wreck, three
or four horses, five or six coast guards
men.
In this cart are rockets and rocket
lines, a strong manila line, running
through pulley-block, another rope SO
big as to be called : Lawser, some tally
boards upon which are printed directions
to the ships crew, signal lights, tall.
triangular frame on which to rest or
fasten ropes, and sling life-buoy.
This life-buoy is sort of basket, the
rim of which is cork, that it may float,
the body attached to the rim being kind
of sack or g breeches,'' in which man
may sit after he climbs IN.
To their end of the rocket line the men
on shore fasten the small rope which
runs through the pulley-block. They
do it in such a way that when the ships
crew pull on the rocket line they will
drag the pulley-block on board, with the
small rope in it the two ends of which
ere held on shore. With this rope block
comes the tally-board telling them to
fasten the pulley high up on the mast by
means of the tail-string attached to the
block
Then the big rope, on which the life
basket is to travel back and forth, is Sc
cured upon the pulley-rope, and the men
on ship pull that aboard and fasten it mn
about two feet higher than the pulley
block.
Meantime the shore-men stretch their
end of the hawser over the tall, triangular
frame and make it fast.
But first the life-basket, by mesl of
pulley block, is slipped on the ha user.
The two ends of the manila rope, which
runs through the pulley which is fast
ened on the ship-mast, are tied to the
basket-pulley.
And now the vshore-people pull on the
little manila rope; they pull and pull,
and 1t glides around through the ships
pulley. and the life-basket runs along
the hawser to the ship.