The Life-Boat

THE LIFE-BOAT, OR JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION. (ISSUED QTJABTEBLY.) r PRTCB 3d. VOL. VLTL—No. 85.] AUGUST IST, 1872. LWith Illustrations. SWIMMING. the rules of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION for the Eestoration of the IT is now some seventeen years since we Apparently Drowned are found in- felt it our duty to call the attention of the \ valuable. public to the lamentable disuse into which ; Accordingly, when persons who cannot the Art of Swimming had fallen. Since swim find themselves in deep water, that period great advances have been they are usually drowned; and this made in teaching this important accom- lamentable result naturally follows the plishment, which belongs alike to all improper use they make of their limbs. classes of the community. ' The cause of this misapplication of the There is hardly a county throughout limbs by man, when immersed in deep the 'British isles which has not either water, is owing to the totally different rivers or brooks large enough to enable mode in which the limbs are made use of the Art of Swimming to be efficiently and in walking and running on land, to that rapidly taught. During the summer in which they should be exercised in months, most distressing accidents are of water. constant occurrence, and particularly so Again, sea-water being heavier than on large rivers, like the Thames and the that of rivers, is best calculated to support Mersey, which on warm days are often man in swimming; and those persons crowded with amateur boatmen. Swim- who are specifically heavier than river- ming, which is by no means difficult of water, may be sustained in a floating posi- acquisition, when once mastered, is never tion in sea-water. afterwards forgotten. Every one must | It may be observed that man, being so have observed that a large number of nearly of the same specific gravity as animals transmit themselves from place , water, and air being 1,000 times lighter, to place by swimming; and when taking ; a few cubic inches of air in a bag are a view of the variety of forms presented i sufficient to keep up one who cannot swim by the locomotive organs of these animals, • permanently on its surface. As air retained we perceive that they perform their move- : in a bag cannot in all cases be perma- ments in various ways. nently depended on, the NATIONAL LIFE- All those animals which constantly, BOAT INSTITUTION sanctions only cork- breathe the air—especially man and the i jackets—which each man of the crews of higher orders, must float on the surface j its Life-boats is required to wear before while swimming. They die of suffocation j he goes afloat in the boat. These cork- when water chokes up the air-tubes of jackets have an average buoyant or sus- the lungs. This is called drowning; and j taining power of 25 Ibs.; in other words when persons are found in that condition, j they possess sufficient buoyancy to support THE LIFE-BOAT JOCENAL.—VOL. VIII.—No. 85. 336 THE LIFE-BOAT. [AUGUST 1, 1872. a man, with his clothes on, under the most , proper use. The smaller of our rivers are perilous circumstances. i used in a happy-go-lucky fashion by It is somewhat astonishing, not with- t swimmers who fancy they have found out standing the large number of persons I a corner where they can exercise their art who are annually drowned in our rivers unperceived, or by crowds of boys whose arising from inability to swim, that manifold voices, heard at a long distance, measures are not enforced by the local give warning to all wayfarers. But our authorities to compel watermen and others larger rivers are frequently guarded by a who let out boats, to keep constantly in f series of boards announcing that the direst them some such simple method as cork penalties of the law will visit the in- floats for sustaining the body in the. water , cautious lad who strips himself and dashes if only for a few minutes. i into the water; so that the English lover Swimming should form part of the : of swimming is driven to choose between physical education of our youth of both the police-court and deep water. It is sexes; not only with a view to cleanliness, true that, in many quarters, the natural but also to the increase of health and wish on the part of the bather to escape strength, as well as to provide a sufficient observation has been considered sufficient guard against subsequent accidents. to keep our rivers secure. It is, therefore, with considerable satis- Any one familiar with our larger rivers faction that the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT IN- knows that out of their beds are formed STITUTION observes that, at some places in a series of islets, on which tall sedges, connection with our large rivers, Public | willows, and wild flowers grow abundantly. Meetings have recently been held to con- i The small channels between these islets and sider the project of placing thereat large : the mainland are for the most part shel- Public Floating Baths for Swimmers. tered by this vegetation; and accordingly, We are far behind many other countries, on fine summer days, the swimmers pull up as has been well observed by The Da/ily to these creeks, anchor their boats, throw News, in the matter of public baths; ; their clothes on to the bank, and jump partly, we are inclined to hope, from the : into the water. This would be all very fact that the English people use a good well but for the fact that a swimmer is deal of cold water at home. But there are sometimes a creature of impulse, and when millions amongst us who are unacquainted he is going through some favourite per- with the morning ' tub' or the shower- formance—say that of lying on his back, bath; and on a summer's day the numbers i with one leg in the air and one arm round of men and boys who manage to obtain his head, while he propels himself with surreptitious baths by diving into half- | the other arm and leg—he may suddenly hidden pools and creeks in our rivers offer i find himself shooting out from the en- ample testimony to the use that these trance of the creek into the main stream. streams might be turned to, if only the | There are generally boats on the stream. proper facilities were placed on their j The boats sometimes contain young ladies; banks. Then there are thousands amongst and then the alarmed swimmer, discovering us who find in the splashing of a house- his whereabouts, wishes that he had the bath no tolerable equivalent for the brisk ; dexterity of a dolphin, and could suddenly exercise of a good swim, and who look at i dive and hide his troubled visage in the a river, particularly on a warm July day, abyss. with a longing which sometimes is de- When the Swimming Baths come into veloped into a hatred of those innocent ! use, many modifications will be needed in parties of loungers whose presence along order to suit various requirements; but the banks renders a plunge impossible. it will be found that, in the neighbour- It is really an odd thing that the oppor- | hood of great cities like London, anything tunities for bathing offered by our large that hits the popular fancy will certainly streams have never been turned to their i be remunerative. Besides the great water AUGUST 1, 1872.] THE LIFE-BOAT. 337 enclosures, such as those on the Seine and | to be a matter of personal pride with our the Moldau, which are exclusively devoted youths and young men to be able to swim; to the use of the confident swimmer, we ' and if the mere ability to keep afloat for ought to have a series of private baths, | five minutes, or to strike across twenty such as those familiar to the Ehine— yards of stream, were more common, we wooden boxes, as it were, let down into [ should have far fewer of those fatal acci- i! the river, which rushes through them. A dents which erery year mark our boating '! rope attached to the side gives the victim ' annals. It is not necessary that a young of a first plunge an ample sense of safety, man should be an expert swimmer; but the while he enjoys, at the same time that he simple fact of supporting oneself in the knows he is in the river, the privacy of a water for a few minutes—an accomplish- bath-room. It would also be a great boon ment which any person in ordinary health to timid swimmers, or persons learning to can learn by a few hours' practice—often swim, if one of the swimming-baths were ' means the rescue from a premature death. constructed with a board some five feet Feats of swimming seldom save lives. below the surface of the river, an arrange- ! When a man is shipwrecked in mid-ocean, ment which has been found serviceable in ! the ability to keep himself afloat for a the excellently-appointed public baths of considerable time certainly multiplies the Prague. When we come down the Thames chance of his being picked up, but the from Richmond, however, and get to the chance is small all through. On the other neighbourhood of London, the condition , hand, the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITU- of the water itself becomes an important \ TION has every year to lament a number matter for consideration.

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