New Jersey as a colony and as a state, one of the original thirteen . e map, lies in a direction ofnortheast and southwest, or nearly with thesepoints, and vessels approaching our coast boundfor the harbor of New York are often carried to-ward this shore by the strong northeasterly windswhich prevail in the winter, and which art fre-quently accompanied by the thick weather whichis the especial dread of the mariner. **The condition which makes the New Jerseycoast especially dangerous is this: that for thegreater part of its whole extent there lies a bar,nearly parallel with the beach, and at a
New Jersey as a colony and as a state, one of the original thirteen . e map, lies in a direction ofnortheast and southwest, or nearly with thesepoints, and vessels approaching our coast boundfor the harbor of New York are often carried to-ward this shore by the strong northeasterly windswhich prevail in the winter, and which art fre-quently accompanied by the thick weather whichis the especial dread of the mariner. **The condition which makes the New Jerseycoast especially dangerous is this: that for thegreater part of its whole extent there lies a bar,nearly parallel with the beach, and at a distancefrom it, varying from three to eight hundredyards; upon this bar there are not more than twofeet of water, so that a vessel, driven by stressof weather, must inevitably be stranded long be-fore she gets near enough to the beach to enablethose on board to take any measure for the preser-vation of life. Not even a ships ordinary longboat can float over this bar. In some cases of shipwreck there are somefortunate escapes, and the chance of life is al- fVol. 4]. 338 NEW JERSEY AS A COL ways increased in proportion as the distance fromterra firma is lessened. But here the mariner seesthe land before him with a perilous space betweenthe shore and the treacherous bar beneath him,and without assistance from that shore he cannever reach it, but must perish in the very sightof land which, during his weary voyage, he haslonged for by day and dreamed of by night. This assistance the small appropriation is de-signed to render. Although a ships boat cannotcross the bar a surfboat will do this, and will livein a sea, and come to the shore when the keelboatswould be swamped. These surfboats, then, it isproposed to provide at suitable stations along thecoast, where the approach to the shore is mostdangerous. In addition to this it is proposed to furnish,at each station, a carronade of sufficient caliberto throw a ball, with a rope attached, over thevessel in distress, so that those on b
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