The Inflatable Boats Beginning

The earliest attempt of Inflatable Boats were observed by ancient carved images of animal skins filled with air being used as one-man floats to cross rivers. These were before the days of air compressors so they were inflated by mouth. Often these images were mistaken for early scuba gear, but in fact they were the first generation of Inflatable Boats.

The 1st Duke of Wellington in 1939, Arthur Wellesley had tested the development of the Inflatable Pontoon Boat during his term as the Leader of the House of Lords. Then in the early 1900s due to technology advances in the manufacturing process of rubber, it was then possible to make the Inflatable Raft from rubber. Obviously during this time period, the Inflatable Boats were not mechanically propelled, so the only way to navigate these Inflatable Rafts was to paddle. Due to inherent flaws in the rubber manufacturing process the Inflatable Boats tended to split at the seams.

Later, with the tragedy of the Titanic's sinking along with the losses of life in WW! On War Ships which were sunk by enemy submarine torpedoes, there was a real need for Life Rafts in the form of Inflatables. If you were not aware, the major cost of life on the Titanic as well as many other ships of the time was the lack of Life Boats. Can you imagine going on a ship and there were twice the number of people on the ship than there were seats on the Life Boats.

This disaster was shortly there after created the initial SOLAS treaty to avoid such catastrophes again. The main premise of the SOLAS treaty was to ensure that there were adequate numbers of lifeboats aboard all vessels so that every person had a space on a life boat in the event of an emergency. [http://www.imo.org/Conventions/contents.asp?topic_id=257&doc_id=647]

This was not a difficult feat with cargo ships because their crews were small and the ships had sufficient of deck space. Passenger ships on the other hand had a difficult task as in order to accommodate this requirement they had to stack lifeboats one on top of the other in order satisfy the requirement for the large amount of passengers and crew. In addition, warships had a hard time with this as their crews were also large crews and deck space was not abundant.

Goodyear had discovered a way to better manufacture the Inflatable Boats in between the two World Wars but unfortunately, the conservative though of the time held back its production. The inflatable boats that get produced were life rafts of square-shaped inflated rubber cylinders with a rigid floor. These inflatable rafts were stacked vertically aboard warships on deck.

Then came along Pierre Debroutelle with his 1937 design of the Inflatable Boat. It was the first known to have the now traditional U-Shaped inflatable tube. It was so revolutionary that it was the first boat of its kind to gain certification from the French Navy. Later in 1943 a wooden transom was patented on 10 August 1943. Today, you can see the similarities in this version as compared to today's inflatable sports and pleasure boats.

As with many things, World War II changed the need for and thereby the industry on Inflatable Boats. Submarine attacks in the Battlefield of the Atlantic created escalated numbers of casualties among merchant ships as well as the many warships.

It was now that the War Ships found the real need for Rubber Life Boats which helped the rubber industry to yet improve again in quality of materials and production " now the Inflatable Boat was shaped like a traditional boat and was better than it had ever been before.

Today's modern Inflatable Boat is no longer just a Life Saving device, it has now crossed over to the recreational side of things due to its low cost of entry and it varied use. If you are looking for a boat on a budget, you definitely need to check out an Inflatable Boat!

Don't even think about Buying an Inflatable Boat without checking out Wyatt Crouch's editorials on Inflatable Watercraft so you do not get Sunk buying the wrong one.