It may be hard to believe, but the same self-righting principle applies to these two lifeboats, separated by more than 125 years of development. The sails and oars may have given way to turbocharged diesels, but the raised fore-and-aft boxes on Wolverhampton (left), stationed at The Mumbles from 1866 to 1883, perform the same function as the superstructure on the 1991 FA B 3 prototype (right). Both provide volume, and thus potential buoyancy, where it is needed to right the boat from a capsize. Photo: (left) Graham Fan Archive.