Life-Preservers
All canoes should have a good cork life-preserver in them when the owner ventures away from land. I never but once ventured any distance without one, and that is the only time I was ever in need of a life-preserver. The ordinary cork jacket is best. It can be used for a seat, and when spread on the bottom of your canoe, with an old coat or some article thrown over it for a cushion, it is not at all an uncomfortable seat. Most canoes have airtight compartments fore and aft—that is, at both ends—and the boat itself is then a good life-preserver. Even without the airtight compartments, unless your boat is loaded with ballast or freight, there is no danger of its sinking. A canvas canoe, as a rule, has enough woodwork about it to support your weight when the boat is full of water.
An upset canvas canoe supported me for an hour and a half during a blow on Long Island Sound, and had not a passing steamer rescued me, the canoe would evidently have buoyed me up as long as I could have held on to the hull.