progress to the shore, than was possible under
the old construction.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

The car, as will be seen by the foregoing drawings, is suspended from
the hawser by means of short chains attached to the ends of it. These
chains terminate in rings above, which rings ride upon the hawser, thus
allowing the car to traverse to and fro, from the vessel to the shore.
The car is drawn along, in making these passages, by means of lines
attached to the two ends of it, one of which passes to the ship and the
other to the shore. By means of these lines the empty car is first drawn
out to the wreck by the passengers and crew, and then, when loaded, it
is drawn back to the land by the people assembled there, as represented
in the engraving at the head of this article.

Perhaps the most important and difficult part of the operation of saving
the passengers and crew in such cases, is the getting the hawser out in
the first instance, so as to form a connection between the ship and the
land. In fact, whenever a ship is stranded upon a coast, and people are
assembled on the beach to assist the sufferers, the first thing to be
done, is always to "get a line ashore." On the success of the attempts
made to accomplish this, all the hopes of the sufferers depend. Various
methods are resorted to, by the people on board the ship, in order to
attain this end, where there are no means at hand on the shore, for
effecting it. Perhaps the most common mode is to attach a small line to
a cask, or to some other light and bulky substance which the surf can
easily throw up upon the shore. The cask, or float, whatever it may be,
when attached to the line, is thrown into the water, and after being
rolled and tossed, hither and thither, by the tumultuous waves, now
advancing, now receding, and now sweeping madly around in endless
gyrations, it at length reaches a point where some adventurous wrecker
on the beach can seize it, and pull it up upon the land. The line is
then drawn in, and a hawser being attached to the outer end of it, by
the crew of the ship, the end of the hawser itself is then drawn to the
shore.

[Illustration: THE CASK.]

This method, however, of making a communication with the shore from a
distressed vessel, simple and sure as it may seem in description, proves
generally extremely difficult and uncertain in actual practice.
Sometimes, and that, too, not unfrequently when the billows are rolling
in with most