life buoy vs lifesaver

life buoy

noun
  • Something that rescues one from difficulties. 

  • A buoyant object (most commonly torus-shaped) that is used as a life-saving device by keeping a person afloat. 

lifesaver

noun
  • Someone or something that saves lives. 

  • Someone or something that is very useful or helpful. 

How often have the words life buoy and lifesaver occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )