3-071-287 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Trial of life-saving apparatus on the Serpentine, Hyde Park, 1883. 'An experimental trial of the working of marine life-saving appliances...the new lifeboat, Arab, is to be stationed at Padstow...About twenty men of the crew of the Eastbourne life-boat station...equipped with cork jackets, were assembled to work the different kinds of floating craft, traps and gear...when the crew purposely upset their boat, to show how quickly it would right itself, the spectators were greatly pleased. They were next called upon to notice Mr. Copeman's invention of an article which is convertible at will from an ordinary deck-seat into a serviceable sea-raft...At one time there were in the water mattresses, pillows, belts, swimming plates, oil-skin dresses, and ship's furniture, all constructed with the object of saving life at sea[Devices demonstrated included] Mr. Williams's portable pontoons...Sexton's buoyant deck seats...Messrs, Pocock Brothers' cylinder bed, Mr. Holmes's life-preserving mattress, and Mr. De la Sala's canvas boat...The scene...when the water was covered with all sorts of rafts, canoes, buoys, and swimming gear, men and lads delighting in the fun of such ventures, and all in perfect safety, was very amusing to those on shore'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.