through the sidewall of a well 53 formed in the bottom wall 18 the deployment strap 46 is then threaded aftwards underneath the life vest 44 up and over the back end of the life vest 44 forwards over the top of the life vest 44 and finally downwards over the front of the life vest 44 with its first end 48 hanging free a rigid cover 54 is attached to the housing 12 so that it can swing between an open position and a closed position the cover 54 is a generally planar substantially rigid member constructed of plastic or similar material and has an outer face 56 and an inner face 58 an upstanding inner ridge 60 extends around at least a portion of the perimeter of the inner face 58 and serves to help locate the cover 54 in the closed position hinge members 62 complementary to hinge members 42 of the housing 12 are disposed at the opposed top corners of the cover 54 in the illustrated example all or part of the cover 54 is translucent or transparent that is non opaque to a sufficient degree to allow viewing of the life vest 40 inside and also to discourage theft of the life vest 40 since it would be immediately obvious if it were missing from the housing 12 the cover 54 is attached to the housing 12 by aligning their respective hinge members 62 and 42 and then inserting one or more hinge pins 64 see fig1 through the hinge members 62 and 42 in the closed position shown in fig1 the lower portion of the cover 54 is secured to the.