Lifejacket

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A lifejacket is a personal floatation device. It is worn, as the name suggests, like a jacket. The function of a lifejacket is to turn a person who has fallen into the water on their back and to keep their head above the water. That’s why most lifejackets have the most flotation material on the chest with only a smaller amount high in the neck behind the head.

The first lifejackets were worn by the crew manning a rescue boat, the rowing boats that launched from the beach or harbour and rowed out to ships stranded in the surf during storms. They were made of linen and cork.

It took a while and several accidents later for them to become more common on ships. They evolved with the evolution of technology; the cork was replaced by solid foam blocks and the linen by polyester. Modern lifejackets are still from these materials, but a version that is fire resistant. And they are bright orange or yellow. The law says they must be of a bright colour, so pink would do just fine as well.

Lifejackets are marked with the ship’s name and home port. To help identify people and or bodies, or to help identify a ship that has gone down and lifejackets have come up floating empty.
In addition, life jackets are equipped with a whistle and a light. The light is blinking in the well known SOS -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . pattern, and is activated automatically when the lifejacket gets wet.

Besides lifejackets with solid flotation pieces like foam or cork. Also inflatable lifejackets exist. These are much smaller to wear and store. These lifejackets are inflated by a CO₂ cartridge that can be opened by pulling a string or because the lifejackets gets wet. For this last purpose, a salt tablet is holding back a spring. The salt tablet will dissolve when getting wet, releasing the spring and opening the CO₂ cartridge. It might happen that rain is enough to (slowly) dissolve this tablet, and then suddenly when you’re on deck POOF you got an inflated banana around your neck.

Item type

Survival

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