from The Deck and Boat Book of the United States Navy, 1914 edition

HANDLING BOATS IN A SURF

82. (1) The most dangerous duty which a ship’s boat is called upon to perform is landing through surf. This requires greater skill than any other work in an open boat, and lack of skill or inattention on the part of the coxswain is so likely to result in a loss of life that a novice should never attempt to steer a boat through heavy surf to a beach. The skill necessary to make a successful landing through surf can be obtained only by practical experience gained first as an oarsman and later as a coxswain.

(2) If it is absolutely necessary for an inexperienced crew to land through a surf, the safest method should be adopted, which is to back in, keeping bow to sea, and every time a sea approaches pull to meet it with a good headway, then back in as fast as possible after it passes.

(3) If this is impracticable, a fairly safe method is by towing a heavy drag over the stern.

(4) The great danger in landing through a surf is that of “broaching to.” The breaker lifts the stern, forces it to one side until the boat gets broadside on and capsizes. Sometimes, though rarely, a heavy sea gets under the boat, buries her bow, and turns her end over end.

(5) It should always be remembered that surf, when viewed from seaward, is exceedingly deceptive and is always much worse than it appears. On an open seacoast any surf visible from a small boat to seaward would probably be dangerous.


MANAGEMENT OF OPEN ROWING BOATS IN A SURF

83. The following rules are published by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

I. Rowing to seaward. -- (1) As a general rule, speed must be given to a boat rowing in a heavy surf. Indeed, under some circumstances, her safety will depend upon the utmost possible speed being attained on meeting a sea. For if the sea be really heavy, and the wind blowing a hard, on-shore gale, an approaching heavy sea may carry the boat away on its front and turn it broadside on or up-end it. A boat’s only chance in such a case is to obtain such a way as shall enable her to pass, end on, through the crest of the sea and leave it as soon as possible behind her. If there be a rather heavy surf, but no wind, or if the wind is off shore and opposed to the surf, as is often the case, a boat might be propelled so rapidly through it that her bow would fall more suddenly and heavily after topping the sea than if her way had been checked.

(2) It may also happen that, by careful management, a boat may be made to avoid the sea, so that each wave may break ahead of her, which may be the only chance of safety in a small boat; but if the shore be flat and the broken water extend to a great distance from it, this will often be impossible.

(3) The following general rules for rowing to seaward may therefore be relied on:

(a) If sufficient command may be kept over a boat by the skill of those on board her, avoid the sea if possible, so as not to meet it at the moment of its breaking or curling over.

(b) Against a head gale and a heavy surf, get all possible speed on a boat on the approach of every sea which cannot be avoided.

(c) If more speed can be given to a boat than is sufficient to prevent her from being carried back by a surf, her way may be checked on its approach, which will give her an easier passage over it.

II. Running before a broken sea, or surf, to the shore (flat beach). -- (1) The one great danger, when running before a broken sea, is that of “broaching to.” To that peculiar effect of the sea, so frequently destructive of human life, the utmost attention must be directed. The cause of a boat’s broaching to, when running before a broken sea or surf, is that her own motion being in the same direction as that of the sea, she opposes no resistance to it, but is carried before it. Thus, if a boat be running bow on to the shore, and her stern to the sea, the first effect of a surf or roller, on its overtaking her, is to throw up the stern, and, as a consequence, to depress the bow; if she then have sufficient inertia (which will be proportional to weight) to allow the sea to pass her, she will in succession pass through the descending, the horizontal, and the ascending positions, as the crest of the wave passes successively her stern, her midships, and her bow, in the reverse order in which the same positions occur in a boat propelled to seaward against a surf. This may be defined as the same mode of running before a broken sea.

(2) But if a boat, on being overtaken by a heavy surf, has not sufficient inertia to allow it to pass her, the first of the three positions alone occurs – her stern is raised high in the air, and the wave carries the boat before it, on its front or unsafe side, the bow deeply immersed in the hollow of the sea, where the water, being stationary, or comparatively so, offers a resistance; while the crest of the sea, having the actual motion which causes it to break, forces onward the rear end of the boat. A boat in this position will sometimes, aided by careful oar steerage, run a considerable distance until the wave has broken and expended itself. But it will often happen that, if the bow be low, it will be driven under water, when, the buoyancy being lost forward, while the sea presses on the stern, the boat will be thrown end over end. Or if the bow be high, or protected by a bow air chamber, so that it does not become submerged, the resistance forward acting on one bow will slightly turn the boat’s head, and the force of the surf being transferred to the opposite quarter, she will in a moment, be turned broadside to the sea, and be thrown by it on her beam ends, or altogether capsized. It is in this manner that most boats are upset in a surf, especially on flat coasts.

(3) Hence it follows that the management of a boat when landing through a heavy surf, must stop her progress shoreward at the moment of her being overtaken by a heavy sea, and enable it to pass her. There are different ways of effecting this object:

First. By turning a boat’s head to the sea before entering the broken water, and then backing in, stern foremost, pulling a few strokes ahead to meet each heavy sea, and then again backing astern. If a sea be really heavy and a boat small, this plan will be generally safest.

Second. If rowing to shore with the stern to seaward, by backing all oars on the approach of a heavy sea, and rowing ahead again as soon as it has passed to the bow of the boat, thus rowing in on the back of the wave; or, as is practical in some lifeboats, placing the after oarsmen with their faces forward, and making them row back at each sea on its approach.

Third. If rowed in bow foremost, by towing astern a pig of ballast or large stone, or a large basket, or a canvas bag, termed a “drogue,” or drag, made for the purpose, the object of each being to hold the boat’s stern back and prevent her being turned broadside to the sea or broaching to.

(4) A boat’s sail bent to a yard, loosed and towed astern, the yard being attached to a line capable of being veered, hauled, or let go, will act in some measure as a drag, and will tend much to break the force of the sea immediately astern of the boat.

(5) Heavy weights should be kept out of the extreme ends of a boat, but when rowing before a heavy sea, the best trim is deepest by the stern, which prevents the stern being readily beaten off by the sea.

(6) When running before a sea, a boat should be steered by an oar over the stern or on one quarter.

(7) The following general rules may, therefore, be depended on when running before, or attempting to land through a heavy surf or broken water:

(a) As far as possible avoid each sea by placing the boat where the sea will break ahead of her.

(b) If the sea be very heavy, or if the boat be small, and especially if she have a square stern, bring her bow around to seaward and back her in, rowing ahead against each heavy surf, sufficiently to allow it to pass the boat.

(c) If it be considered safe to proceed to the shore bow foremost, back the oars against each sea on its approach, so as to stop the boat’s way through the water as far as possible, and if there is a drag, or any other appliance in the boat which may be used as one, tow it astern to aid in keeping the boat stern-on to the sea, which is the chief object in view.

(d) Bring the principal weight in the boat toward the end that is to seaward, but not to the extreme end.

(e) If a boat worked by both sails and oars be running under sail for the land, through a heavy sea, her crew should, unless the beach be quite steep, take down her masts and sails before entering the broken water, and take her to land under oars alone, as above described. If she have sails only, her sails should be much reduced, a half lowered foresail or other small headsail being sufficient.

III. Beaching, or landing through a surf. -- (1) The running before a surf or broken sea, and the beaching, or landing of a boat, are two distinct operations: the management of boats, as above recommended, has exclusive reference to running before a surf where the shore is so flat that the broken water extends to some distance from the beach. On a very steep beach, the first heavy fall of broken water will be on the beach itself, while on some very flat shores, there will be broken water extending four of five miles from the land. The outermost line of broken water, on a flat shore, where the waves break in three or four fathoms of water, is the heaviest, and therefore the most dangerous; and when it has been passed through in safety, the danger lessens as the water shoals, until on nearing the land, its force is spent and its power is harmless. As the character of the sea is quite different on steep and flat shores, so is the customary management of boats, on landing, different in the two situations.

(2) On the flat shore, whether a boat be run or backed in, she is kept straight before, or end-on to the sea until she is fairly aground, when each surf takes her further in as it overtakes her, aided by the crew, who will then generally jump out to lighten her, and drag her in by her sides. As above stated, sail will, in this case, have been previously taken in, if set, and the boat will have been rowed or backed in by the oars alone.

(3) On the steep beach, on the other hand, it is the general practice, in a boat of any size, to sail right on to the beach, and in the act of landing, whether under oars or sail, to turn the boat’s bow half around, toward the direction in which the surf is running, so that she may be thrown on her broadside up the beach, where abundance of help is usually at hand to haul her as quickly as possible out of the reach of the sea. In such situations, we believe it is nowhere the practice to back a boat in stern foremost under oars, but to row in under full speed, as above described.

I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am

My best take on the lyrics from a 1911 recording by Harry Champion

You don't know who you're lookin at, now just you look at me
I'm a bit of a nob I am, belong to royalty.
I'll tell you how it got about, I married widow Birch
I was King of England when we doddered out the church.
Outside the people started shouting hip hooray
Says I "Go down upon your knee, it's coronation day!"

I'm Henery the Eighth, I am
Henery the Eighth I am, I am
I got married to the widow next door
She's been married seven times before
Every one was a Henery, she wouldn't have a Willie or a Sam
I'm her eighth old man named Henery
Henery the Eighth, I am.

I nipped to Duke of Cumberland, a pub up in the town
Soon with one or two monarchs I was holding up me crown
Seated on the bucket, what the commons call their own.
Surrounded by me subjects I was sitting on the throne.
Up came the potman, he said "Now get off to bed"
Says I "Now say another word, and off'll go your head!"

I'm Henery the Eighth, etc.

The undertaker called and to the wife I heard him say
"Have you got any orders, ma'am, we're very slack today
"I picked up number seven for ya, for the golden gate
"Let's have a pound upon account of Henery the eighth"
Oh, when he measured me with half a yard of string,
I dropped upon me marrow bones, and sang God Save the King!

I'm Henery the Eighth, etc.