When there is a great sea on the beach, the boat must be launched from the carriage before she comes to the surf, on planks laid across, as other boats are launched; the people standing on the ends to prevent the sea moving. them; then, with the assistance of the anchor and cable, (which should be laid out at sea for the purpose,) the boat's crew can draw her over the highest sea.

Upon the boat returning to the shore, two double blocks are provided; and, having a short strop fixed in the hole, in the end of the boat next the sea, the boat is easily drawn upon the carriage.

REFERENCES TO PLATE XVII.

Fig. 1, a longitudinal section of the life-boat. EEE, the sheer or curve of the boat. I, I, the two stems or ends. K, the keel. L, L, the aprons, to strengthen the stems. M, M, the sheets, or places for passengers. N, N, timber-heads, or boat-fastenings. 0,0,0,0,0, the tholes on which the oars are slung by grommets. T, flooring under the rowers' feet.

Fig. 2, a cross section of the life-boat. F, F, the outside coatings of cork. G, G, the inside cork filling. H, H, the outside planks of the boat. I, one of the stems of the boat. K, the keel. N, N, the timber heads. P, P, the thwarts, or rowers' seats. R, one of the stanchions under the thwarts, each being thus firmly supported. S, a section of the gang-board, which crosses the thwarts, and forms the passage from one end of the boat to the other. T, the floor-heads, or platform for the rowers' feet. V, V, the two bilge pieces, nearly level with the keel. W, W, the gunwales. X, a ringbolt for the head-fast, there being another also at the other end. Y, platform for the steersman.

VOL. II.-SECOND SERIES.

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Fig.

Fig 3, a truck or carriage, with four wheels, to convey the boat to and from the sea. a, an oblong frame of wood, consisting of two long pieces, hollowed a little to admit the body of the boat, and secured by the cross pieces b, b. c,c,c,c, four low wheels, each sunk or hollowed in the middle, to run better upon a rail-way or timber-road. d, d, two indents made in the side-timbers, that the bottom of the boat may lie firm therein. e, e, two small rollers, moveable in the cross timbers, for the keel of the boat to slide upon. f,f, two long rollers, one at each end of the frame, to assist in raising the boat upon or sliding it off the truck or carriage.

I shall have a complete model of my life-boat, on the scale of one inch to a foot, ready to send to the Society in a little time; and it having been much desired that the life-boat might be brought into general use, for ships, (in which case it is a great object to have her to sail,) I have, in a model lately made, adopted the sliding keel, (an improvement of the Dutch lee-board,) with the addition of one of them at one end sliding angular, so as to correspond with the keel of the rudder, at any depth. This angular sliding keel is entirely new: I have shewn the improvement to several nautical men, who highly approve of it.

The keels and rudder are attached in such a manner, that she can be easily divested of them, when necessary, and will then be the exact form of the original life-boat. I should have sent you the model before this time; but the orders for life-boats have been so numerous, and so generally pressing, that I have not yet had time to execute it.

Since the award of the Society's bounty to Mr. Greathead, the sum of twelve hundred pounds has been voted to him by parliament for his life-boat.

He

He has also received other rewards on the same account from the Trinity-House, and Members at Lloyd's, which have been noticed in the public newspapers.

Particulars relative to the Construction of, and Benefits received from, sundry Life-Boats, built by Mr. Henry Greathead, or under his Directions, in and since the Year 1789.

Account of the South Shields Life-Boat.

From the declaration of Sir Cuthbert Heron, Bart. of South Shields, it appears, that when the Adventure was wrecked in 1789, on the Herd Sands, he offered a reward for any seamen to go off to save the men's lives, which was refused; and that the greatest part of the crew of the Adventurer perished within 300 yards of the shore, and in sight of a multitude of spectators. The gentlemen of South Shields immediately met, and offered a reward to any person who would give in a plan of a boat, which should be approved, for the preservation of men's lives. Mr. Greathead gave in a plan, which met with approba tion: a committee was formed, and a subscription raised, for the building of a boat upon that plan. After it was built, it was with some difficulty that the sailors were induced to go off in her; but, in consequence of a reward offered, they went off, and brought the crew of a stranded vessel on shore. Since which time the boat has been readily manned, and no lives have been lost (except in the instances of the crews trusting to their own boats); and, in his opinion, if Mr. Greathead's boat had existed at the time of the wreck of the Adventure, the crew would have been saved.

From other accounts it appears, that in the year 1791 the crew of a brig, belonging to Sunderland, and laden

from the westward, were preserved by this life-boat, the vessel at the same time breaking to pieces by the force of the sea.

On January 1st, 1795, the ship Parthenius, of Newcastle, was driven on the Herd Sand, and the life-boat went to her assistance, when the sea breaking over the ship as the boat was ranging along-side, the boat was so violently shaken that her bottom was actually hanging loose under these circumstances she was three times off to the ship, without being affected by the water in her.

The ship Peggy being also on the Herd Sand, the lifeboat went off, and brought the crew on shore, when the plug in her bottom had been accidently left out; though she filled with water in consequence, yet she effected the purpose in that situation.

In the latter part of the year 1796, a sloop belonging to Mr. Brymer, from Scotland, laden with bale goods, was wrecked on the Herd Sand; the crew and passengers were taken out by the life-boat; the vessel went to pieces at the time the boat was employed, the goods were scattered on the sand, and part of them lost.

In the same year, a vessel named the Countess of Errol, was driven on the Herd Sand, and the crew saved by the life-boat.

October 15, 1797, the sloop called Fruit of Friends, from Leith, coming to South Shields, was driven on the Herd Sand. One part of the passengers, in attempting to come on shore in the ship's boat, was unfortunately drowned; the other part was brought on shore safe by the life-boat.

The account of Captain William Carter, of Newcastle, states, that on the 28th November, 1797, the ship Planter, of London, was driven on shore near Tynemouth Bar, by the violence of a gale; the life-boat came out,

and

and took fifteen persons from the ship, which the boat had scarcely quitted before the ship went to pieces; that, without the boat, they must all have inevitably perished, as the wreck came on shore soon after the life-boat. He conceived that no boat, of a common construction, could have given relief at that time. The ships Gateshead and Mary, of Newcastle, the Beaver, of North Shields, and a sloop, were in the same situation with the Planter. The crew of the Gateshead, nine in number, took to their own boat, which sunk, and seven of them were lost; the other two saved themselves, by ropes thrown from the Mary. After the life-boat had landed the crew of the Planter, she went off successively to the other vessels, and brought the whole of the crews safe to shore, together with the two persons who had escaped from the boat of the Gateshead,

Mr. Carter adds, that he has seen the life-boat go to the assistance of other vessels, at different times, and that she ever succeeded in bringing the crews on shore; that he had several times observed her to come on shore full of water, and always safe.

Account of the Northumberland Life-Boat.

The Northumberland life-boat, so called from being built at the expense of his Grace the Duke of Northumberland, and presented by him to North Shields, was first employed in November, 1798, when she went off to the relief of the sloop Edinburgh, of Kincardine, which was seen to go upon the Herd Sands, about a mile and a half from the shore. Ralph Hillery, one of the seamen who went out in the life-boat to her assistance, relates, that she was brought to an anchor before the life-boat got · to her; that the ship continued to strike the ground so heavily, that she would not have held together ten mi

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