for lowering at a moment's notice to pick up a man overboard calls for a very different outfit from one which is never to be used except in case of disaster to the ship. The following list includes all articles of ordinary equipment; others may be needed for special service of various kinds : 1. Set of oars, with spare for one thwart, with trailing lines if used. 2. Set of rowlocks, if used, secured by lanyards, with two spare. 3. Set of stretchers. 4. Plug, secured by lanyard. 5. Rudder and tiller, with lanyards. 6. Three boat-hooks. 7. Breaker, kept filled with good drinking water and carrying three days' supply for crew. 8. Fenders. 9. Compass. 10. Lantern. II. Bucket. 12. Boat-box containing tools and material for meeting emergencies which may arise on distant service. Items 1 to 12 are, as a rule, kept in all boats at all times, except that the compass and lantern may be removed for safe-keeping when the boat is not to be used for some time. 13. Anchor, with chain or good line. 14. Sails and spars. 15. Tarpaulin. 16. Boats ensign, with staff. 17. Hand grapnels, with light chain or line. 18. Rifle and shot gun, with ammunition. 19. Provisions; usually bread and canned meats. 20. Night signals or other fire-works of some satisfactory kind for attracting attention at night. 21. Hand signal flags. 22. Crutch and steering oar for boats using them. 23. Life belts (life boats only). Items 13 to 23 are kept in the boat whenever they are likely to be needed. There is a wide difference of opinion as to the articles which should be kept in boats, like those of a merchant steamer, which are likely to be used only in case of abandoning the ship. The English Board of Trade rules require, among other things, sails and spars, and a sea-anchor. The insistence upon sails and spars clearly contemplates the possibility of a trip of some length after leaving the ship. No doubt such trips have been made by boats under sail, but in a great majority of cases the space occu pied by the sails and spars could be utilized to better advantage for passengers, even if the boat were reduced to waiting helplessly for a passing vessel. A sea-anchor would be useful in a gale, but need only be carried if sails are omitted, as these two would never be wanted at the same time and the sails and spars lashed together (with sails loosed) make a perfectly efficient seaanchor. Water and provisions are very important here. Life-Boats. Probably no one would think of putting sails and spars into a boat intended for picking up a man overboard. Such a boat should be as light as practicable and should afford all possible freedom for handling the oars. The most important items to be remembered here are 1 to 11 and 19 to 23 of the list which precedes. DETACHING APPARATUS. Whether or not a special detaching apparatus is an improvement on the old style of links and hooks is a question upon which seamen are far from agreeing. There is substantial agreement that a "thoroughly reliable" apparatus is desirable, but a certain lack of confidence is felt in the devices now on the market. The most important requisite for a detaching apparatus is that it should be incapable of dropping one end of the boat without the other. Whether the release should be controlled by some one in the boat or by an officer on the ship is a disputed point, but it may be noted that nearly if not quite all of the devices in current use are worked in the boat, which would seem to indicate that practical men prefer this system. There has been much discussion as to whether the release should be capable of acting before the boat is "waterborne "; but this point, too, seems to be settled practically by the fact that, of the devices in common use, nearly all admit of dropping the boat before it touches the water. It is very desirable to have a system which provides not only for detaching the boat, but for lowering the two ends together. This is one of the chief advantages of Clifford's device, described below. An effort is sometimes made to secure the same result by reeving both falls in one, a single block at each davit head giving a lead from one fall to the other. With frictionless blocks this would doubtless accomplish the purpose desired, but in practice it is usually a failure unless the boat is very heavy, and fairly well balanced as to weight. |