| The earliest attempt of Inflatable Boats were | | | | deck space. Passenger ships on the other hand had a |
| observed by ancient carved images of animal skins | | | | difficult task as in order to accommodate this |
| filled with air being used as one-man floats to cross | | | | requirement they had to stack lifeboats one on top of |
| rivers. These were before the days of air | | | | the other in order satisfy the requirement for the large |
| compressors so they were inflated by mouth. Often | | | | amount of passengers and crew. In addition, warships |
| these images were mistaken for early scuba gear, but | | | | had a hard time with this as their crews were also |
| in fact they were the first generation of Inflatable | | | | large crews and deck space was not abundant. |
| Boats. | | | | Goodyear had discovered a way to better |
| Back in the year 1839 the Arthur Wellesley, the 1st | | | | manufacture the Inflatable Boats in between the two |
| Duke of Wellington tested the first inflatable pontoons | | | | World Wars but unfortunately, the conservative though |
| while he was Leader of the House of Lords. | | | | of the time held back its production. The inflatable |
| Shortly thereafter in 1900 to 1910 the advances of | | | | boats that get produced were life rafts of |
| rubber manufacturing made it possible to attempt | | | | square-shaped inflated rubber cylinders with a rigid |
| rubber Inflatable Boats. These crude creations were | | | | floor. These inflatable rafts were stacked vertically |
| only usable as inflatable rafts using paddles. There | | | | aboard warships on deck. |
| were inherent manufacturer defects as they tended to | | | | Then came along Pierre Debroutelle with his 1937 |
| split at the seams and folds due to less than optimal | | | | design of the Inflatable Boat. It was the first known to |
| manufacturing processing of the rubber. | | | | have the now traditional U-Shaped inflatable tube. It |
| With the 1912 loss of the RMS Titanic and then the | | | | was so revolutionary that it was the first boat of its |
| World War I losses of war ships to torpedoes | | | | kind to gain certification from the French Navy. Later in |
| launched by submarines, inflatable boats for use as life | | | | 1943 a wooden transom was patented on 10 August |
| rafts was obvious. | | | | 1943. Today, you can see the similarities in this version |
| The most prominent cause of the loss of life on the | | | | as compared to today's inflatable sports and pleasure |
| Titanic was the lack of lifeboats. There was such a | | | | boats. |
| shortage of life rafts that no more than 50% of the | | | | As with many things, World War II changed the need |
| passengers could have been saved if each one had | | | | for and thereby the industry on Inflatable Boats. |
| been used to its capacity | | | | Submarine attacks in the Battlefield of the Atlantic |
| Thanks to the first SOLAS treaty was designed to | | | | created escalated numbers of casualties among |
| avoid such a disaster happening again. The most | | | | merchant ships as well as the many warships. |
| prominent points it made was to make certain that | | | | Now the US warships started to use rubber life rafts. |
| ships had sufficient Lifeboats so that every person | | | | And since the rubber and manufacturing processes |
| aboard the ship had access to a place on a lifeboat. | | | | were significantly better due to quality increases than in |
| This was not a difficult feat with cargo ships because | | | | the prior 35 years, the Inflatable was back, bigger and |
| their crews were small and the ships had sufficient | | | | better than ever before, and now it was boat-shaped. |