Can anyone name the oldest liferaft mentioned in literature? The design parameters issued 'from above' must have been pretty good, one of our first modern battleships, BB-3 USS Oregon's architect using those exact measurements in it's design. Oregon was mostly remembered for it's superb ridability in rough seas.It was stripped and welded up as a floating ammunition dump in WW2 in the Pacific. It broke free from it's berth in Guam during a Typhoon that sank manned and manuevering ships and was found floating 500 nautical miles away unscathed. The idea of a manueverable, powered liferaft or dinghy comes from the same mindset as a lost hiker 'walking out.' Captain Bligh or Shakelton aside,survival resources are better designed around 'hugging a wave' and staying put near your last known position for rescuers.Many ships in fact will launch their ship's boats if possible and these can act as 'herders.' As for the RN and it's traditions? Many of our modern lifeboat ideas came from a lowly RAF rank named Shaw after witnessing a bungled launching of lifeboats. He had another name, Colonel T.E. Lawrence, late of the army.