Here is a link to the Cutty Sark Site in England,
http://www.cuttysark.org.uk/
I checked out the site several times and researched the book called "The Lore of ships by Tre Tryckare, but they have no history. Email me off BB at jbgroby@bellsouth.net and I'll send you a few photo's of a Cutty Sark I'm just about finished with.
A little history about life jackets......
They have been saving lives for nearly 150 years, but even though no one has ever given them an award for heroism, tens of thousands of people have been given the credit and provided all the proof necessary that they do the job for which they are designed.
They are personal floatation devices-"life preservers" or "life jackets" (with emphasis on the word "life")- and they've been in the forefront of lifesaving since 1852, the year Congress passed the first requirement that passenger steamboats on the nation's rivers carry a float or life preserver for every passenger.
A lot of water has swept over life jackets in the years since that first act of Congress. Life jackets have been there when it has counted, aboard sinking passenger liners, though several wars, on countless pleasure cruises, and amid storms on the oceans and great lakes. And everywhere they've been worn, they've brought people back alive.
Today's life jacket is the product of a considerable amount of research and development. Life jackets are now models of ingenuity in comparison to the original ones.
In earliest years of development, the "life preserver" was nothing more than a wood plank used by Norwegian seamen, an empty barrel or even a vest of cork blocks. But when Congress got involved, a gradual life preserver development process began. Legislation passed in 1852 set the first carriage requirement for life preservers and also created a Board of Supervising Inspectors. The Board quickly set requirements for life preservers on board commercial carriers and mandated that the devices be "furnished with ready and suitable means for secure attachment to the body of the person, or to enable persons to hold themselves securely hereto." Translated: A life preserver had to be wearable and designed to either be secured to the body or have hand-holds (typically rope) so that a person could hold onto it securely while in the water.
The following year, the legislation was amended to require "shoulder straps to all life preservers be recommended or other means attached, so as to prevent the same from getting in an improper position to the hazard of life."
Through the following years, the Board determined that inflated life preservers developed in the 19th century were not as dependable as uninflated types. They also voted to ban tin or metal components from use in life preservers because those pieces might be damaged through carelessness or oxidation. The cork-block type became something of the standard against which all other life preservers were measured.
Research and development of new designs continued based on the experiences of seamen and passengers involved in maritime disasters. At times, such research found materials that were being used for life preservers were unsuitable for such use. For example, the use of loose granulated cork was banned in 1857. Each new development added to the knowledge about life jackets and changed the requirements for such things as material, buoyancy, form and even the shape of the life jacket.
The use of kapok life preservers became the norm. Particularly on warships, because crew members were expected to wear their life jackets even while sleeping.
But the introduction of kapok was not without problems. First distributed in 1902, kapok was then prohibited in 1904 because it was found to be flammable and tended to lose buoyancy rapidly under the compression that typically occurred while being stored. However, developers did not turn their backs on the material, and it was once again approved in 1918.
Two years later, balsa wood was approved for use in life preservers because of it's light weight, excellent buoyancy and life span. Meanwhile, cork was still in wide use because of it's high buoyancy retention and the fact that it did not readily burn or deteriorate. In 1920, a regulation was passed that mandated that 5% of all shipboard kapok life preservers must be able to support a "downward gravitational pull of 20 pounds for two hours." The vests that did not pass the buoyancy test were condemned.
In 1928, the sinking of the Vestris, a British passenger steamer, influenced life preserver development. Many lives were lost, which led to the convening of an International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea in London in the following year. Rescuers who responded to the Vestris sinking testified that they found many bodies floating face down, even though they were wearing cork life vests. As a result, a US Navy captain urged that kapok life jackets be required for the merchant marines because they kept an unconscious individual's face and head above the water.
With the passage of the Motorboat Act of 1940, the US Coast Guard began to address the problems of recreational boaters- in addition to commercial boaters- in it's consideration of life preserver carriage. The Coast Guard recommended that life preservers designed for use on recreational vessels be able to support a person for shorter periods of time than required for ocean-going vessels and not be so bulky that people would not wear them. The Coast Guard developed a life jacket with lower buoyancy requirements and lesser performance that was intended for emergency use on recreational vessels.
World War II gave rise to extensive life jacket development, including inflatables, for use by submariners and sailors. The arrival of the "modern" inflatables opened the door for continued research and development in the post-war years. Boating safety specialists and the business community worked to adapt military advances in life preservers to the civilian market.
By 1964, the Coast Guard determined that recreational boaters' needs still were not being met by life jackets, so the agency developed a standard for "special purpose" devices to offer minimum restriction while still accommodating boaters' specific needs.
For example, this included specific models for water skiers and kayakers. Such life jackets, made from new materials such as closed-cell foam, are not as bulky as older styles and are more attractive and colorful. Participants in specific recreational activities can often be identified at a glance by the style of life jacket they wear, and these lifesavers have even become something of a status symbol.
In 1979, the Coast Guard published a notice in the Federal Register proposing to amend it's rules for the use of inflatable life jackets. But it was not until 1985 that the Coast Guard actually proposed and adopted extensive requirements for approving inflatable life jackets and additional requirements concerning their carriage on recreational boats. Continuing advances in technology are making the inflatables more reliable, as well as lighter and easier to maintain.