“As a general rule, speed must be given to a boat rowing against a heavy surf. Indeed, under some circumstances, her safety will depend on 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, it can only be by the utmost exertions of the crew that any headway can be made. The great danger then is, that an approaching heavy sea may carry the boat away on its front, and turn it broadside on, or up-end it, either effect being immediately fatal. A boat’s only chance in such a case is to obtain such way as shall enable her to pass, end on, through the crest of the sea, and leave it as soon as possible behind her. Of course, if there be a rather heavy surf, but no wind, or the wind 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; and it may, therefore, only be when the sea is of such magnitude, and the boat of such a character, that there may be a chance of the former carrying her back before it, that full speed should be given her.
“It may also happen that, by careful management under such circumstances, 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 extends to a great distance from it, this will often be impossible.
“If sufficient command can be kept over a boat by the skill of those on board her, avoid or ‘dodge’ the sea, if possible, so as not to meet it at the moment of its breaking or curling over.
“Against a head gale and heavy surf, get all possible speed on a boat on the approach of every sea which cannot be avoided.
“If more speed can be given to a boat than is sufficient to prevent her being carried back by the surf, her way may be checked on its approach, which will give her an easier passage over it.
“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, whether it be given by the force of oars or sails, or by the force of the sea itself, she opposes no resistance to it, but is carried before it. Thus, if a boat be running with her bow to the shore and her stern to the sea, the first effect of the surf or roller, on its overtaking her, is to throw up the stern, and as a consequence to depress the bow; if she then has 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 to a boat propelled to seaward against a surf. This may be defined as the safe mode of running before a broken sea.
“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 above enumerated alone occurs; her stern is raised high in the air, and the wave carries the boat before it, on its front or unsafe side, sometimes with frightful velocity, the bow all the time deeply immersed in the hollow of the sea, where the water, stationary or comparatively so, offers a resistance, whilst the crest of the sea, having the actual motion which causes it to break, forces onward the stern or rear end of the boat. A boat will, in this position 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, whilst the sea presses on the stern, the boat will be thrown (as it is termed) end over end; or, if the bow be high, or it be protected, as in most lifeboats, by a bow air-chamber, so that it does not become submerged, that 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 round broadside by the sea, and be thrown by it on her beam ends or altogether capsized.
“Hence, it follows, that the management of a boat, when landing through a heavy surf, must, as far as possible, be assimilated to that when proceeding to seaward against one, at least so far as to stop her progress shoreward at the moment of being overtaken by a heavy sea, and thus enabling it to pass her. There are different ways of effecting this object:
“1. 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 the sea be really heavy and a boat small, this plan will generally be the safest, as a boat cannot be kept more under command when the full force of the oars can be used against a heavy surf than by backing them only.