"Dead man's float" (and not in OED)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 6/1/2014 07:47 PM, David Barnhart wrote:
>I first heard _dead-man's float_ in the late 1940's (probably 1948 or so.
>My recollection is that it was face-down in the water so it didn't matter if
>you breathed or not.  You were supposedly dead.  It's the position
>instructors liked to start out young inexperienced swimmers (such as
>myself).

It seems now to be called the "survival float", so I assume one must
breathe once in a while.

Joel

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