“The cause of a boat’s broaching-to when running before a broken sea or surf is, that her own motion being in the same direction as that of the sea, whether it be given by the force of oars or sails, or by the force of the sea itself, she opposes no resistance to it, but is carried before it. Thus, if a boat be running with her bow to the shore and her stern to the sea, the first effect of the surf or roller, on its overtaking her, is to throw up the stern, and as a consequence to depress the bow; if she then has sufficient inertia (which will be proportional to weight) to allow the sea to pass her, she will in succession pass through the descending, the horizontal, and the ascending positions, as the crest of the wave passes successively her stern, her midships, and her bow, in the reverse order in which the same positions occur to a boat propelled to seaward against a surf. This may be defined as the safe mode of running before a broken sea. “But if a boat, on being overtaken by a heavy surf, has not sufficient inertia to allow it to pass her, the first of the three positions above enumerated alone occurs; her stern is raised high in the air, and the wave carries the boat before it, on its front or unsafe side, sometimes with frightful velocity, the bow all the time deeply immersed in the hollow of the sea, where the water, stationary or comparatively so, offers a resistance, whilst the crest of the sea, having the actual motion which causes it to break, forces onward the stern or rear end of the boat. A boat will, in this position sometimes, aided by careful oar-steerage, run a considerable distance until the wave has broken and expended itself. But it will often happen that if the bow be low it will be driven under water, when, the buoyancy being lost forward, whilst the sea presses on the stern, the boat will be thrown (as it is termed) end over end; or, if the bow be high, or it be protected, as in most lifeboats, by a bow air-chamber, so that it does not become submerged, that the resistance forward, acting on one bow, will slightly turn the boat’s head, and the force of the surf being transferred to the opposite quarter, she will in a moment be turned round broadside by the sea, and be thrown by it on her beam ends or altogether capsized. “Hence, it follows, that the management of a boat, when landing through a heavy surf, must, as far as possible, be assimilated to that when proceeding to seaward against one, at least so far as to stop her progress shoreward at the moment of being overtaken by a heavy sea, and thus enabling it to pass her. There are different ways of effecting this object: