Lifeboat

a boat kept at a seaside station to rescue persons from shipwreck. The modern lifeboat is thirty-three feet in length and eight feet in width. It is weighted so that it will right itself immediately if upset, and is provided with relieving tubes, a most ingenious contrivance, by means of which any water that breaks into the boat is discharged at once. It possesses great strength and is capable of carrying a large number of passengers. The lifeboat is to the station what the engine is to the fire-house. It is kept on trucks, ready for a run to any accessible portion of the coast. The carriage is an admirable contrivance. The members of the crew take their position in the boat; the carriage is then run out into the surf and the boat is launched amid breakers that would prove the destruction of a boat attempting to get away from the shore. These boats are so well constructed and so capable of riding in a rough sea that they are considered safe. Life is seldom lost in connection with their management. Lifeboats are kept in life-saving stations in which a discipline is maintained like that in engine houses. Each lifeboat has a master and several surfmen. In the United States there are nearly 300 of these stations on the Pacific, the Atlantic, and Gulf coasts. They are connected usually by telephones. They are equipped with lifeboats, signal guns, life preservers, and all sorts of devices for saving life and property. Among other contrivances is the life rocket, a projectile carrying a rope. It may be fired from a mortar in such a way as to carry the line to a distressed ship. See Boat