Lifeboat (shipboard)
A lifeboat or liferaft is a small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship.
Recreational sailors usually carry inflatable liferafts, though a few prefer small proactive lifeboats that are harder to sink and can be sailed to safety.
The cover serves as protection from sun, wind and rain, can be used to collect rainwater, and is normally made of a reflective or fluorescent material that is highly visible.
Modern lifeboats carry an Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) and either a radar reflector or Search and Rescue Transponder (SART).
They would encumber the decks, and rather add to the danger than detract from it.In the late 1880s, Maria Beasley improved the design of life rafts.
It was not until after the sinking of RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, that a broader movement began to require a sufficient number of lifeboats on passenger ships for all people on board.
Even though the 1,178 person capacity of its 20 lifeboats slightly exceeded the required 1,060, it still fell over 2,000 shy of the ship's maximum carrying load of 3,330 people.
During World War II and the Battle of the Atlantic with convoys going to northern Russia through the Arctic Ocean it was found that the chance of the crews of merchant ships surviving in open lifeboats was not very good unless they were rescued in a couple of hours.
These balsa liferafts were designed to hold five to ten men on a platform suspended on the inside or fifteen to twenty-five hanging lines placed on the outsides.
[4] TEMPSC (Totally Enclosed Motor Propelled Survival Craft) are mandatory on all merchant vessels, tankers, MODUs, Floating Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms and some fixed offshore oil and gas platforms per 1983 Chapter III amendment to IMO SOLAS 1974.
TEMPSC offer superior protection against fire on the water, poisonous gases and severe weather conditions (especially heat, cold and rough seas).
[citation needed] The Life Saving Appliance (LSA) requires that the following be provided;[6] Liferafts in general are collapsible, and stored in a heavy-duty fiberglass canister, and also contain some high-pressure gas (in commercial models, usually compressed air) to allow automatic inflation to the operations size.
[citation needed] Since 2006[7] smaller self-rescue lifeboats have been introduced for use by boats with fewer people aboard: these are rigid dinghies with carbon dioxide-inflated exposure canopies and other safety equipment.
Like the lifeboats used before the advent of the petrol engine, these self-rescue dinghies are designed to let the passengers propel themselves to safety by sailing or rowing.
[citation needed] Some ships have a freefall lifeboat stored on a downward sloping slipway normally on the stern of the vessel.
[citation needed] USN liferafts are stowed in heavy-duty fiberglass canisters and can be launched manually or automatically should the ship begin to sink.
Automatic launching and inflation is actuated by a change in pressure sensed by a hydrostatic release device should the ship begin to sink.
Survival equipment includes: manual reverse osmosis desalinator (MROD), bottles of fresh water, individual food packets, fishing kit, signaling mirror, rocket and smoke flares, flashlight, spare sea anchor, first aid kit, paddles, spare batteries and bulbs, and aluminized mylar sheets ("space blankets") to aid in caring for victims of hypothermia.
[11] In 1870 the yawl City of Ragusa became the second small lifeboat to cross the Atlantic Ocean, from Cork to Boston with a two-man crew, John Charles Buckley and Nikola Primorac (di Costa).
