To review the progress made in the Life-boats used on the Coast of Great Britain between the years 1785 and 1900 would be practically to go into the whole history of Life-boat construction, but it is intended in this article only to touch briefly on the various points of the subject and to give the readers of the LIFE-BOAT JOURNAL a general insight into a matter which ought to, and it is to be hoped will, be taken up exhaustively some day when the difficulty is overcome of finding anyone who, possessing the necessary knowledge, can afford the leisure to tackle so interesting a subject on a more exten- sive scale and in a manner worthy of it.

Lionel Lukin, whose name is familiar to all who have interested themselves in the history of the Life-boat, was a coach builder in Long Acre. He claimed, and apparently rightly so,as many people think, to have invented the principle of the Life-boat.

In his pamphlet, which is in the form of a letter to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, printed in 1806, Lukin states that he took out a patent on the 2nd November, 1785. His invention consisted in pro- viding a means for giving a boat reserve of buoyancy, or, in other words, to enable her to float safely with her crew and a certain number of rescued men when swamped or full of water; a heavy iron keel was also fitted to the boat to increase her stability, but that, of course, was not the material part of Lukin's invention.

Now it was this property of reserve buoyancy which constituted the only difference between a Life-boat and an ordinary boat until the 19th century was well advanced, when an important im- provement, namely that of self-emptying or self-baling, was introduced into Life- boats.

If an ordinary unballasted boat ships a sea big enough to fill her up she is what is called swamped, and floats with her gunwale awash or level with the water amidships, and in this condition will support no extra weight and is easily rolled over. A boat ballasted with iron or stones would under such conditions sink.

Lukin called his boats " unimmergible," and the three midship sections, illus- trations of which are given, numbered 1, 2 and 3, show how he obtained his reserve of buoyancy. In addition to the air com- partments shown he also had a water- tight enclosure at the bow and stern of the boat. No. 1 shows a section of the first boat, a Norway yawl, with his invention introduced into her; a is a cork belt or wale outside the boat; b are water-tight compartments running fore and aft; c an iron keel.

Illustration No. 2 represents a section of a pleasure boat, in which it will be observed that the sides of the boat spread out more at the top than in section No. 1, giving more space inside; consequently Lukin thought it desirable to put the cork inside instead of outside as in No. illustration No. 3 shows Lukin's system of providing existing boats, at a smal expense, with air-cases so as to make them safer. The boxes or air-cases were to be each 2 feet long and fitted so as to be removable at pleasure. He also put air cases transversely under each thwart.

Anyone familiar with Life-boats will see at a glance how extraordinarily sound Lukin was in his theories, for the three methods shown in the midship sections, illustrations of which are given, with the addition of the water-tight compartments at the ends of the boats, practically form ;he basis of security in all modern Life- oats. Although several boats were con- structed on this principle, Lnkin was not able to get any placed on the coast as Life-boats, which much disheartened him.

Later on, however, it will be seen that he played an extremely important part in the development of the Life-boat.

In January, 1790, the first Life-boat was placed on the coast, but it is not absolutely clear whether she was entirely the outcome of the brain of her builder, Mr. Greathead, or whether he was not in some way assisted or influenced, so far as the buoyancy arrangements are concerned, by Mr. Wouldhave, who about the same time invented what he described as a cork boat" (they were both Shields men); at any rate, this type of boat was known for many years afterwards as the " Greathead " Life-boat. In the circum- stances it is, perhaps, more advisable to call these boats the Shields, or North Country type. Instead of using air com- partments, cork took their place to give the necessary increase of buoyancy, a step —eventually given up (except on the wales)—in the wrong direction, as it was found that the cork soddened and lost its buoyancy; in fact, pieces of cort from old Life-boats are not infrequently found to sink when tested! The Shields type played a very impor- tant part in the history of the Life-boat, and in 1803, there were no less than 31 of these boats on the coast of Great Britain, or on order, beside several supplied to foreign countries. As a proof of the spread of their popularity, it should be mentioned that Lowestoft, Ramsgate, Guernsey, Penzance, Douglas, Isle of Man, and St. Andrews, were included in the places supplied with these boats. The Life-boat which was built and placed at Redcar in 1802, is still in existence and was one of the 31 boats in question. The dimensions of these boats were generally as follows:—length (extreme), 30 feet; length of keel, 20 feet; breadth of beam, 10 feet; depth amidships, 3J feet; height of stem and stern, 5f feet; giving a sheer of 30 inches, very raking stem and stern posts; depth of main keel, 4 inches, with great " camber " or curvature; cork lining 12 inches thick ran fore and aft on each The boat had no means of freeing herself of water.

Greathead was a practical boat-builder, and from his knowledge of the boats on the Northumbrian coast, was in a better position than Lukin to know precisely what sort of boat to build which was to embody the invention of obtaining " reserve buoyancy " and at the same time SHIELDS TYPE.

Fig. I.

_J_____l_____!__ BODY PLAN.

MIDSHIP SECTION.

A represents the deck.

B the relieving tubes.

C the side air-cases above the deck.

D central air-case above the deck.

E the wales.

side, and reached from the deck to the thwarts. A cork fender, 16 inches deep, 4 inches wide, 21 feet long, extended within about 4 feet of the stem and stern.

The total amount of cork used weighed nearly 7 cwt. A deck was laid 11 inches above the bottom of the keel. There were five thwarts 36 inches from centre to centre, and 16 inches above the deck.

be adapted for launching off a beach, and working in broken water. The form of boat he decided on, which was to be used under oars only, very soon commended itself to the men who were to use it.

Lukin, on the other hand, put his in- vention into boats intended to work under sail, and although a good practical amateur boatman—having had much experience in boating about the entrance to the Thames—was unlikely to have much if any knowledge of broken water, or launching from an open beach.

Much gallant and useful work has been done in boats of the Shields type, but unfortunately not without considerable loss of life.

On page 539 will be found plans of the Shields type of Life-boat, with improve- ments, introduced in or about 1833. The form of the boat is practically the same as that designed by Greathead,but the cork has been abandoned, except on the wale, and air-cases substituted. The water- tight deck has been raised and six tubes introduced for freeing the boat of water.

The present boats at Shields are practi- cally the same as the drawings on page 539, except that the side air-cases are continued up to the gunwale instead of stopping at the thwarts, and a large water- ballast tank, capable of holding about two tons of water, is fitted amidships. The dimensions of the latest built Shields boat, the Tom Perry, are :—33 ft. 8 in.

long, 10 ft. 8 in. wide, 3 ft. 6 in. deep, with a sheer of 2 ft. 1 in. An unusual feature in these boats is the central air- case D, which extends nearly the whole length of the boat, and comes up to the under part of the thwarts, the idea being to break up ordivide any heavy sea shipped.

It was owing to an accident to one of these boats on the 4th December, 1849 (when, in attempting to rescue the crew of the brig Betsy, of Littlehampton, on the Herd Sands, the boat was capsized, and 20 out of the crew of 24 pilots were drowned), that the Duke of Northumber- land offered the prize for the best Life- boat, which excited the interest of the public to such an extent that the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, which was in a moribund condition under the name of the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Ship- wreck, recovered from its apathy, and sprang into new life, and the seeds were sown from which it has grown to its present position of importance.

It is now necessary to return to the work done by Lionel Lukin. In 1807, at the request of the Suffolk Humane Society, Lukin superintended the building of a Life-boat, which appears to be the fore- runner of those magnificent Life-boats known as the Norfolk and Suffolk type still in use, and most popular on those coasts. This boat also appears to be the first life-boat embodying a system of freeing herself of water, the water finding its exit by the same plug holes through which it was admitted.

The following is a description of the boat:—Length (over all), 40 feet; keel, 37 feet; breadth amidships, 10 feet; depth, 3 ft. 6 in. (exclusive of an 8-inch movable wash strake). The form of the boat was the same as the yawls of that coast, stern post nearly upright. External wales projecting 9 inches from the side, reduced a little towards the ends, first formed by brackets and thin boards, covered at top and bottom with one thickness of good sound cork, and with two thicknesses at the ends, the better to defend them from violent blows. The depth of these wales from top to bottom was 15 inches, and the whole covered with strong canvas, laid on with strong cement to resist the water (with the exception of the cement, and that the wales are now from 12 to 14 inches wide, this specification almost agrees with that in use!) There were also a false keel of wrought iron, 3 inches deep, bolted to the keel, 3 masts, lug sails and 12 oars. Empty casks, of 22 inches diameter, were ranged along " withinside " the gunwales, lashed firmly to the boat, lying even with the tops of the gunwales, and resting on brackets fastened to the timbers. Also two such casks in the head and two in the stern. There were empty casks placed under the thwarts, or rather, as Lukin's pamphlet (from which the description is taken) says, " under the gangboard," meaning under the thwarts amidship. The boat was built by Bareham, of Lowestoft, and cost £200.

Thus equipped, the boat was launched on the 19th November, 1807, twenty mengoing in her. The day was very squally, and the Life-boat was taken across the Gorton Sands in the midst of the breakers, which (the report says) would have been certain destruction to any common sailing boat. The plugs in the bottom of the boat were then pulled up, and the water rose in the boat a very little above the thwarts, and with all this water in she sailed better than 1807 all the other Life-boats on the coast appear to have been of the North Country type, and were not supplied with sails, i but only expected to work under oars, and | certainly not suitable to cope with wrecks on the outlying sands off the coasts of i Norfolk and Suffolk, or the Goodwin i Sands. Undoubtedly, this boat of Lukin's foreshadowed the Norfolk and Suffolk NORFOLK & SUFFOLK TYPE Fig.3.

DECK PLAN Fig. 4.

•**— r- -fe) BODY PLAN MIDSHIP SECTION A represents the deck with.the relieving tubes in it.

A, the side and end decks which are on a different level to the deck A.

B the relieving tubes.

B the wales.

F the iron ballast on the keel.

G the water-ballast tanks (in Fig. 2 G represents the water-ballast tank hatches).

H the drop keels.

I the cable well.

without it. (Up to 1893 all Norfolk and Suffolk boats pursued this course!) Lukin appears never to have departed from his original idea of utilising his invention for a sailing boat, and in the boat just described he thoroughly solved the problem and provided a most efficient Life-boat, which, in 1850, was still in existence and had saved 300 lives. In type. Substitute large air-cases under the thwarts, filling up the bilges of the boat, and leaving an open well between them amidships, for the casks used by Lukin, also take the casks oat of the head and stern and put in air cases, and yon have the Norfolk and Suffolk boat as used up to 1893. The same system of letting the water find its own level in the boat, forballast, by pulling up the plugs, as was used in 1807, except that more and larger plug-holes were Introduced in the later boats to admit the water faster, and also to allow the water to again find its level faster after shipping a heavy sea. As already quoted, Lukin's Lowestoft boat did splendid work, and the boats of which this was apparently the prototype have saved thousands of lives, and yet Lukin appears never to have been properly recognised! He died in 1831, and is buried in Hythe Churchyard, Kent.

On page 541 are plans of the Norfolk and Suffolk type Life-boat as now fitted.

If the deck A and the relieving tubes B are removed, and the midship section (Fig. 4) be referred to, it will be seen that there is an open well between the large air-cases which fill up the space between the bilges and the side decks Ax A1( then substitute plugs in the bottom for the relieving tubes and movable gratings instead of the laid side decks A! A1( and without the drop keels you have the Norfolk and Suffolk boat which was in use until 1893. The practice which obtained in these boats was to pull up all the plugs and admit water into the well immediately the Life-boat was clear of the beach; consequently a large amount (in some of the larger boats nearly 5 tons) of water was in a free state in the boat, should the boat heel over to starboard or port the water likewise went over (but these boats being extraordinarily stiff the heel was rarely great), and in a heavy head sea with the boat pitching a fore and aft movement was also noticeable in the water in the boat. The officers of the Institution had for some years prior to 1892 urged the Life-boat men who worked this class of boat to abandon this loose water ballast and to have it enclosed in tanks as in the self-righting boats, but they could not prevail on the men to adopt this course. However, the oppor- tunity came at last, for at the Institution's trials of sailing Life-boats held at Lowestoft in the winter of 1892, a practical illustra- tion was given of the weakness of the then prevailing 'system. The Lowestoft Life-boat, in attempting to warp off the beach, was caught by some heavy curling breakers before it was possible to pull np the plugs in the bottom of the boat, the result being that she was filled up and could not clear herself, and several of her crew were seriously injured. This led to the introduction of confined water ballast and relieving tubes and valves into the Norfolk and Suffolk type, and by degrees every station using this type asked for this improvement to be put into their boats.

Another feature which is held in the highest esteem by the Norfolk and Suffolk men is the enormous wale, or " pad," as they call it, outside the boat, the midship section (Fig. 4) shows these protuberances.

The men have the strongest faith in these, which is not altogether shared by the officers of the Institution. These wales are about 14 inches wide and 18 inches deep, and in section nearly as fiat at the bottom as at the top. The men claim, and rightly, that they " pick the boat up " to leeward, but, on the other hand, should the boat heel far over, the weather wale presents a formidable striking surface for a sea to hit, with the result of further depressing the lee gunwale. The officers of the Institution hold that the Norfolk and Suffolk boats would be improved by having the extra stability given by these large wales attained by increased body of the boat, and smaller wales, with pear- shaped undersides, fitted. The men of the boats however have always been most insistent on having their wales "to their liking," and have, in fact, resented any suggested innovation until more practical experience has shown them ita (To be continued.}.