in,
who, quietly ignoring the owner of the yacht, went up to his master and
said--

"Tay's riddy, sor."

"Breakfast, you mean," said Mabberly, with a smile.

"Sure I wouldn't conterdick--ye, sor, av ye was to call it supper--but
it was tay that I put in the pot."

At breakfast the conversation somehow turned upon boats--ship's boats--
and their construction.

"It is quite disgraceful," said Jackman, "the way in which Government
neglects that matter of boats. Some things, we know, will never be
generally adopted unless men are compelled to adopt them. Another
biscuit, Barret."

"Instance something, Giles," said Mabberly, "and pass the butter. I
hate to hear sweeping assertions of an indefinite nature, which no one
can either corroborate or confute."

"Well, there is the matter of lowering boats into the water from a
ship's davits. Now, I'll be bound that the apparatus for lowering your
little punt astern is the ordinary couple of blocks--one at the stem,
the other at the stern?"

"Of course it is. What then?"

"Why, then, don't you know what would happen if you were lowering that
boat full of people in a rough sea, and the man at the bow failed to
unhook his block at the exact same moment as the man at the stern?"

"Yes, I know too well, Giles, for I have seen it happen. The boat, on
the occasion I refer to, was hung up by one of the blocks, all the
people were dropped into the water, and several of the women and
children drowned. But how is Government to remedy that?"

"Thus, Bob, thus. There is a splendid apparatus invented by somebody
which holds fast the two blocks. By means of an iron lever worked by
_one_ man, the rod is disengaged from both blocks at the same instant.
You cannot work it wrong if you tried to do so. Now, the Government has
only to compel the adoption of that apparatus in the Royal and Merchant
Navies, and the thing is done."

"Then, again," continued Jackman, devouring food more ravenously in
proportion as he warmed with his subject, "look at the matter of rafts.
How constantly it happens that boats get swamped and lost while being
launched in cases of shipwreck at sea, and there is nothing left for the
crews and passengers, after the few remaining boats are filled, save
loose spars or a hastily and ill-made raft; for of course things cannot
be well planned and constructed in the midst of panic and sudden
emergency. Now, it has been suggested, if not actually carried out,