TOWARD THE WRECK.
and on arriving there the sailors make fast the tail block of the whip. to the mast, well up in accordance with the printed instructions on the tally-board, and show a signal to the shore.
The life savers now bend on a strong hawser to the lower line of the whip, and by hauling on the upper line the hawser is drawn rapidly out to the wreck. Attached to the bight of the hawser is a. second tally-board, which directs how and where the end of the haw-. ser should be secured to the wreck. The tackles are now attached to the sand anchor, and the shore end of the hawser is straight and taut, when it is lifted several feet in the air and further tightened by the erection of a wooden crotch, which constitutes a temporai-y pier, the wreck answers for another, while the hawser line forms the suspen• sion bridge connecting them.
A snatch-block is then thrown across the hawser, to which the breeches-buoy is attached. The ends of the whip are made fast to each
side of the buoy, and it is drawn by means of the whip out toward the wreck, travelling the upgrade empty, and coming down with greater velocity with the person rescued, and by this means brought safe to shore. The life-car is frequently used in place of the breeches buoy, when there are many women or children to be saved, or invalids, or a large number of persons to be rescued with despatch.
In bringing this paragraph to a close, I take this opportunity of acknowledging the kindness of Captain C. C. Goodwin to myself per sonally when serving under him, and also the very friendly feeling always exhibited toward me by the Cleveland Life-Boat crew. Cap tain Goodwin and his gallant crew have each been awarded the United States life-saving gold medal of the first class for their re peated successful acts of heroism.