The passengers on a ship in Manasquan in 1850 were the first to use a Francis life car to get safely to shore.

Scotland's Ayrshire was shipwrecked off the coast of New Jersey. It held 200 immigrants. Over the course of two days, passengers were evacuated from the ship in a small, metal capsule.

They had a rope and pulled the life car back and forth between the boat and the shore.

It became the inspiration for the lifeboat, which was invented 30 years later.