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The history of lifejackets

Being British ourselves, we will credit the invention of the forerunner of the modern lifejacket to Captain Ward, an RNLI inspector in the UK, who in 1854 created a cork vest to be worn by lifeboat crews for both weather protection and buoyancy.

Cork was used for many years. Anyone who has seen the film titanic will remember the cork lifejackets, available to some of the passengers.

This Century - lifejackets

Cork and kapok lifejackets were standard for many years. Sadly like most inventions War brought us the inflatable lifejacket - as worn by sailors and submariners. This military technology was then applied to consumer lifejackets and these have developed into the many styles that we see today.

In the 60's synthetic foams were developed and the foam lifejacket invented. This new technology brought with it the flexibility to produce all the variations that we currently see. Each sport could then have its own style of jacket, such as Ski or Angling vests.