This is a cutaway model showing seats and benches running lengthwise in the interior. A wheel inside turns a gear that keeps the inner cabin from rolling as the outer hull rolls in the sea. Four hatches on deck slide open for access. The telescoping mast with sail can be operated from inside. Two interior levers activate the propeller. There is a steering wheel forward connected by a line to the rudder aft. The model measures 32” L x 25” H x 8” W.

Many nineteenth-century inventors turned their attention to life boats, a large number of them focusing their efforts on simplicity of construction, ease of launching, and imperviousness to sinking. By contrast, George Tremberger, carpenter, and Michael Stein, patterns machinist, both Bavarian immigrants living in New York City, focused on the “comfort, convenience, and safety of the passengers.” Their main innovation was to design the boat as a cylinder in which the cabin rolled independently from the overall motion of the boat. A geared wheel inside allowed crew to adjust the cabin’s tilt by hand or to lock it in place. The inventors also fitted a telescoping mast, hand-lever-operated propeller, and external India-rubber bumpers for increased buoyancy.

Ref:

George Tremberger and Michael Joseph Stein, Life-Boat, U.S. patent no. 211,807, Jan. 28, 1879.

1880 United States Census, NARA film nos. T9-0896, p. 458A; T9-0897, pp. 33B, 43A.