A prayer and a life jacket are just about all there is to rely on when a torpedoed seaman takes the big jump from his sinking ship. Kapokthe silky, white, feather-soft down from the pods of the kapok treeis the buoyant filling of most life jackets, many life rafts and lifeboat airtight compartments. It can support up to 35 times its own weight. In peacetime, kapok's biggest use was in mattresses, upholstery padding and the like. Most (and the best) kapok came from Java. The Japs put a stop to that. Now, as demand...
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