BOAT-LOWERING APPARATUS is the name given to certain ropes and pulleys for lowering boats from ships quickly and safely, in case of emergency. Every passenger ship is compelled by law to carry a certain number of boats. depmding on the tonnage; and every ship of war necessarily carries boats (see BoAr) for mutter services; but until recent rears the apparatus was very inefficient for lowering these boats from the davits Or cranes by which they are usually suspended. In shipwreck or other emergencies at sea, the boats were, until recent years, often so difficult to extricate that they could not be lowered in time to save the crew and passengers; or in lowering they capsized, and plunged the unhappy into the sea. Many inventors have recently directed their ineenuity to this subject. with a hope of devising a remedy. In Lacon's apparatus, the principal feature is the employment of a friction-brake. by which one man can regulate the rate of descent to varying degrees of speed. Capt. Kynaston's duiengaging hooka are intended not only to lower boats quickly and safely when suspended over the side of the • ship, but also to hoist them out quickly when they happen to be stowed in-board. Wood and Rogers's apparatus resembles Kynaston's in this: that the actual lowering from the ship is effected by the crew on shipboard, leaving to the person or persons in the hunt only the duty of disengaging it from the tackle. But the apparatus which now eng,ages most attention Is Clifford's, the leading principle of which is. that the lowering aml the disengaging are both effected by one man seated in the boat. Two ropes or lowering pendants descend from two davits, pass through blocks or sheaves, then through ()tiler lilocks, within and near the keel of the boat; and tinally, round a roller, placed horizon tally beneath the seat on which the mauager of the boat takes his place. Iiy means Of it
winding rope, held in one hand, he can -regulate the speed with which the other two ropes uncoil themselves from the roller, thus graduating the boat's descent to the writer's level. When lowered, the two ropes can be thrown off and the boat set free. The slings or lifts are intended to prevent the canting or upsetting of the boat. The lanyard belongs to the lashings which hold the boat to the side of the ship; but by the thimbles slipping off the prongs the boat is liberated. The efficiency of the apparatus is most remarkable. In 1856, by order of the admiralty, experiments were made with the starboard-cutter of H.M.S. Princess Royal. Twelve men got into the boat while it was hanging front the davits: it weighed, with the crew and• the gear, nearly 3 tour; nevertheless, this cutter, thus laden, was successfully and quickly lowered by one of the 12 men, to a depth of 40 ft. front the davits to the water. Many other experiments of similar kind were made. Clifford's apparatus is now supplied to many ships of war and merchant-vessels; mad many lives have been saved by its means, under circumstances which would almost cer tainly have proved fatal under the old mode of lowering boats from the davits.
Other systems have since been partially adopted; but none has yet been found which is wholly satisfactory to naval men.