IT is well known that the boats of a man- of-war are, as a general rule, insufficient in number and capacity to save her crew except in the smoothest water; also, that the largest and safest are stowed on the booms, from whence time is required to * A Paper read lately at the Royal United Service Institution by Rear-Admiral A. P. RYDER.

move them to the water—probably not less than ten minutes at sea in the day- time in fine weather—and of course under other circumstances a much longer time.

In a recent instance of wreck from collision, viz., that of Her Majesty's ship Amazon, within a few miles of the south coast of England, it was stated that if there had been any swell the boats could not have lived, so close to the water were their gunwales, and it is not probable that there was more than a day's pro- visions and water in them. Had the collision taken place further from England, say 100 miles off, probably half the ship's company would have been lost.

In cases of shipwreck, when vessels have sunk or burnt slowly, crews have often in times past been saved on rafts; but men- of-war were then supplied with numerous spare spars, yards, and a large number of casks, and it was a common topic of discussion among naval officers, " how a raft could be best and quickest made." But no one ever supposed that a raft or rafts for a large ship's company, capacious enough to efficiently supplement the boats, could be properly and securely put together, stored, and provisioned, in less than a few hours; and the most impromptu raft for, say twenty persons, could not, I feel confident, even with rehearsals, have been ready to shove off under a quarter of an hour. Rafts of sufficient size and buoyancy to supplement the boats are now out of the question, and for this reason: viz., that very few spare spars and yards are now supplied, and some of the latter are not unfrequently made of iron. Casks also are much diminished in number since the introduction of the canvas tanks for watering. Our usual resources for saving the lives of whole ship's companies when their vessels are lost, may therefore be said to exist no longer.

I now address myself to one phase, and one phase only of shipwreck, be it loss by collision, fire, capsizing, or filling, &c., viz., that in which help is near at hand; and it is only necessary to float a ship's company for a very-limited period (say for thirty minutes or an hour) after their vessel is no longer available for the purpose.

I shall briefly refer to cases of collision, intentional or otherwise. Numerous cases of collision of men-of-war have recently been brought under our notice. I may mention the Bey d'Italia, sunk off Lissa in a few minutes: all hands lost. A Russian frigate lost in the Baltic last year, by unintentional running down: several lives lost. An American man-of-war lost in the Eastern Seas—nearly all lives lost: the Amazon, already alluded to.

There have been numerous instances in the merchant-service of losses by col- lision. Several were reported in 1869 in the Board of Trade Returns, with much loss of life. In the merchant-service, however, except in the case of passenger- ships, the boats have generally sufficient capacity to save the crew in moderate weather, if only they can be cleared and lowered in time. If life-belts on the plan of Capt. J. E. WARD, R.N., Inspector of Life-Boats to the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, were universally supplied in.

sufficient numbers, and kept handy on board, and if the crew were practised by day and by night in putting them on at short notice, there would have been no need for me to address you on this subject; but as the Admiralty only issue a sufficient number of life-belts for a boat's crew, and as many merchant-ships are not supplied with any life-belts at all, I have ventured to recommend a substitute, viz., the ordinary naval hammock, the remark- able buoyancy of which has been often noticed when one of them has accidentally fallen overboard.

In case of shipwreck at night when the men are in their hammocks, the number of lives that could be saved by this means would of course be seriously diminished; but those of us who are familiar with the remarkable quickness with which the men can lash up their hammocks at night when they are suddenly called to " general quarters," would not despair, if the ship did not sink for ten minutes, of many men being saved even by the hammocks they had been sleeping in a few minutes before.

The inestimable value—in case of Ship- wreck from collision—of the buoyancy to be found in the naval hammock first occurred to me when I was second in command of the Channel Fleet a few months since. We were performing the perhaps useful, but apparently rather hazardous, evolution, which consisted in the columns passing through one another, each ship passing at full speed (for the boilers lit), close to her opposite ship.

The speed of each ship was about 7 knots.

The blow, if, by some accidental mistake of the helmsman one had struck the other, would have been similar to that given by a vessel going 14 knots to one at rest, and both vessels would very possibly have sunk in a few minutes, notwithstanding that they were compartmented.

There were numerous ships in company who would of course have steamed to the rescue, lowered their boats, and done their best; but I doubt if so many as half of the 1,400 or 1,500 men endangered would have been saved. It occurred to me that the hammocks, of which every individual has one (except certain of the officers, viz., those who have cabins), could save them if sufficiently buoyant, and that as their owners knew where they were stowed in the nettings, they were in the most convenient place possible for such a purpose. I have had the buoyancy of a hammock tested, and will give you the result presently. It has much exceeded my anticipations and those of the numerous Officers who witnessed the experiments in Malta Harbour.

I hope that some of the readers of the Journal of this Institution on foreign stations will try the same experiments, and allow the men to witness them, and become familiar by practical proof (when bathing) with the buoyancy of their hammocks, and learn that it may be longest retained by not immersing any part of the hammock more than is absolutely necessary, as the water increases its pressure rapidly in proportion to depth below the surface, and finding its way among the hair in the mattress, will soon expel the air and destroy the buoyancy.

The experiments may be usefully ex- tended to show— 1. The maximum weight which a floating ham- mock containing no more than a bed and blanket will support, for say 30 minutes.

2. The various intervals during which a ham- mock will support weights less than the maximum from one pound upwards—(a) in smooth water—(b) when water is thrown over the hammock by, or as if by, waves.

3. How tightly the hammock should be lashed up to float longest—as it is conceivable that there is a mean degree of tightness, which is preferable—a loosely lashed up hammock might float most buoyantly at first but become saturated soonest.

4. (a) How one man could best support himself with one hammock? and (b) how two men ? whether in the latter case they should go to opposite ends of the hammock? Or to opposite sides ? and (c) whether they should, with the object of pressing the hammock down as little as possible consistent with obtaining fall support, rest | hands or arms on the hammock ? (d) in the case of two men with two hammocks, would it be best for both men to be be- tween the two hammocks, an arm over each? 5. Whether any material advantage would be derived from the set of hammocks slung for sea being prepared like a fisherman's jacket, viz., soaked in boiled oil, so as to be more impervious to water, or 6. Whether if the ticking were made of a waterproof material, the hammock would support one man after the hammock and blanket were saturated, and for how long ? 7. Whether cocoa-nut fibre would not be lighter than horsehair, and what are the relative advantages qua buoyancy, and expense of horsehair—cocoa-nut fibre—and cork shavings.

I have included capsizing in the above list of casualties as a case when recourse to the hammocks might be useful, but I refer only to those cases of capsizing when the filling has been a slow process, as will often happen where, in a vessel on« her beam ends, only one hatchway or scuttle admits the water.

There is no novelty in my suggestion for utilizing the bedding on board ship for life-saving purposes. It has been suggested frequently that the mattresses and sofa-cushions of passenger-carrying packets should be stuffed with cork shavings, and I believe that the suggestion has been adopted in some cases; but I write under the impression that the buoyancy of the ordinary naval ham- mock—and the use it may be temporarily put to in cases of Shipwreck by collision, &c.—have not yet been sufficiently appreciated.

I have already alluded to the case of a Russian frigate lost last year by collision.

Admiral Boutikof, the distinguished officer who commanded the Vladimir, in the Crimean war, and who was in command of the Russian Fleet in the Baltic at the time of the accident, informed me that he saw the frigate I have already referred to, sunk by accidental ram- ming in midday in a few minutes, and that many men were drowned, notwith- standing that ships were close to, and the weather was fine; but many were saved by the hammocks. After a few weeks the masts were removed, as they obstructed the navigation, although the hull was in over 20 fathoms water. In removing the masts, the hammock cloths were torn, and some of the hammocks floated to the sur- face, even after so long a submersion. I have lately learnt that the Russian beds are stuffed with cork shavings, and the incident is worth recording. I have learnt also that the Russian Government are known to have ordered a few years since a large number of Messrs. Pellew's patent cork mattresses.

"EXTRACT OF LETTER FROM COMMANDER BRIDGE OF H.M.S. Caledonia.

" H.M.S. Caledonia, Malta, " September 10,1870.

" DEAR ADMIRAL RYDER, " Some time since you asked me to try an experiment with a hammock, as to how many men it would float ? Until our arrival here this time, I have always been prevented, from one cause or another, from carrying out the experiment. A well lashed up hammock, containing only a bed and a blanket, supported for a few minutes seven naked men, for a considerable time four men, and would, I believe, have continued to do so for nearly an hour. Its power of supporting small weights evidently seemed to be limited by its own power of floating itself, which it would have continued to do, I should say, for considerably over an hour.

" The officers who witnessed the experiments, were, with myself, astonished at the floating powers of the hammock.

" I ought to mention that the hammock itself was a new one, and consequently was rather less pervious to water than art older one would have been, but that probably did not add greatly to its floating capabilities, though of course it did to some extent.—Yours, &c., CYPRIAN BRIDGE, "Comr.R.N." Captain ARTHUR WILMSHURST, commanding H.M.S. Valiant, has kindly made further experiments at my request. The most trying test to which the buoyancy of the ordinary hammock can be exposed, appears to be that of suspending a weight at one end, so that the hammock is brought upright in the water. If the hammock itself and the ticking are pervious to the water, the water, aided by the increased pressure on the portion of the hammock a considerable distance below the surface, soon finds its way in, and gradually destroys the buoyancy by forcing the air out; a weight of six pounds of iron so suspended sunk a hammock in five minutes.

The weight of the water Ibs.

displaced by the ham- mock was estimated at . 138'24 The weight of the ham- mock, viz., bed and blanket, when dry . . 24-5 Buoyancy of hammock at first 113-74 Ibs.

The length of hammock . 55-5 inches Diameter of ditto . 9-25 „ Volume of hammock . . 2-16 cubic feet. If an equal weight, viz. 6 lb., were sus- pended at the middle of the hammock, the latter would float much longer. The re- sult of further experiments made by Capt Wilmshurst has been, that the ordinary hammock floating horizontally, will support 6 Ibs. of iron for nine minutes. The effect of oiling the bed-cover, or ticking, was that the hammock floated the 6 Ibs. weight for 2$ hours, and would, no doubt, have supported a man for nearly as long. It is hardly necessary for me to state that the buoyancy requisite to support a man in the water who remains quite self-pos- sessed, does not exceed a few Ibs.; but it would be well to aim at providing for each man a buoyancy of 20 Ibs., and if the hammock is to support two men easily and continuously, then 40 Ibs.

I have ascertained that the horsehair bed supplied to the seamen of the Royal Navy is charged to them at ten shillings and sixpence; that beds stuffed with cork shavings can be supplied wholesale (by the Messrs. Birt, who make the well- known Cork Life Belts for the Admiralty) at five shillings each, and that with cocoa- nut fibre they would cost about seven shillings and sixpence, and would not have so much buoyancy, but they might be more comfortable.

A mattress of the following dimensions, viz. 6 ft. x 4 ft. x 4 inches weighs 20 Ibs.

if stuffed with cork shavings. Its buoy- ancy, which in the case of cork shavings is four times its weight in pounds, is said to be 80 Ibs., i.e., it will support an iron weight of that amount. The mattress on the table has a buoyancy of 26 Ibs.

The valuable buoyancy that exists even in an ordinary naval hammock is, I think, established by the experiments above referred to. The increased buoyancy that can be given to it by various means, viz., by making the hammock or the tick impervious, or by substituting cocoa-nut fibre or cork shavings for horsehair have been pointed out, and the question may now, I think, be safely left in the hands of the Naval authorities, who have an opportunity of practising economy and promoting efficiency at the same time.

The mattress stuffed with cork shavings is less than half the cost of the hair mattress now supplied, viz., only five shillings. The reason why the cork shaving mattresses are so cheap is that the shavings are refuse, and would other- wise be burnt.

I may add that I have been informed since these experiments were tried for me at Malta, that an officer of rank, who was in Her Majesty's ship Bombay, when she was burnt off Monte Video, has stated that if it had occurred to them to stand by hammocks before the men jumped overboard, all hands might have been saved. It will be remembered that a considerable part of the ship's company, including nearly all the marines, and a great many boys, were drowned alongside, while the boats were floating in safety, but deeply overladen with men, a short distance off. The boom-boats could not be hoisted out, as the falls were burnt, and there was not time to make a raft, all hands being employed until the last instant in vain attempts to put out the fire.