Carley float
The Carley float (sometimes Carley raft) was a form of invertible
Description
The Carley float was formed from a length of copper or steel tubing 12–20 inches (30–50 cm) in diameter bent into an oval ring.
Not all Carley float tubing had a round outer cross section. Some had square cross sections. And those with square cross-section may have been exclusively associated with a square-shaped boat perimeter, similar to a punt.
Some variants included a
Operation
Simply by casting it over the side, the lightweight Carley float could be launched more rapidly than traditional rigid lifeboat designs, and without the need for specialised hoists.
Despite these shortcomings many seamen did owe their lives to the Carley float. Chinese sailor
A shrapnel-ridden Carley float carried
In fiction
External image | |
---|---|
Scene from In Which We Serve |
The 1942 British war film In Which We Serve centres on a group of survivors clinging to a Carley float. As they suffer from both the elements and repeated strafing attacks, the story of how they each came to be there is told through a series of flashbacks.[10]
In the 1964 film Ensign Pulver, after an altercation on deck during a storm, the captain (played by Burl Ives) falls overboard in an apparent state of shock. The title character Ensign Pulver (Robert Walker), upon finding the captain cannot swim, releases a nearby Carley float as a life preserver. The captain in his state can't swim to the boat, so Ensign Pulver jumps in and pulls the captain onto the liferaft. The two spend some time in the raft together before washing up on an island.
In the 2016 film USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage the crew are stranded in South Pacific clinging to square-shaped Carley floats.
References
- ^ a b c "Horace Carley: Unknown Inventor". CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 24 March 2008.
- ISBN 1-57958-278-8.
- ^ a b
Ashton, John; Challenor, Cathy; Courtney, Bob (1993). The scientific investigation of a Carley float (PDF) (Technical report). Australian War Memorial. pp. 1, 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2008.
The float comprises a hard rolled copper tube ... Diameter of tube ... 12 in ... 20 in ... [figure 1 shows oval ring shape]
- ^ a b U.S. patent 734,118 – Life Raft. Horace S. Carley. (Filed May 14, 1902; Issued July 21, 1903.)
- ^ ISBN 1-84486-032-9.
- ^ ISBN 0-7360-0215-4.
- ^ Henry John Newbolt (1919). Submarine and Anti-Submarine. Longmans, Green and Co.
- ^ Fisher, Robert C. (1997). "Within Sight of Shore: The Sinking of HMCS Esquimalt, 16 April 1945". Retrieved 26 March 2008.
- ^ "Unknown HMAS Sydney II sailor named after 80 years". Department of Defense Ministries. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ISBN 0-8386-3862-7.