The Life-Boat
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THE LIFE-BOAT, OK JOTJBNAL OF THE NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, (ISSUED QUABTBELT.) Pares * VOL. IX.—No. 94.] NOVEMBEB 2xn, 1874. C DOUBLE NUMBERNc . EOYAL COMMISSION ON TJNSEAWORTHY SHIPS. REPORT THE British public, or at least those j unseaworthiness of British registered members of it which have the welfare of 1 ships. their country and countrymen at heart, That Commission presented its final and more especially those who entertain a ! Report before the late prorogation of due sense of the vast importance of its Parliament, which Eeport we print in Mercantile Marine, or who sympathise extenso in this number of the Journal, with the hardy and adventurous men who and on which we propose to offer a few are, as it were, its life's blood, have for many remarfcs. years felt that there was much which was That the deliberate conclusions of the unsatisfactory in the condition and charac- Commission, after having the advantage ter of our merchant seamen. From time to of examining a multitude of witnesses time the great Merchant Shipping Act of and access to official documents, should 1854 had been amended, and iu 1873 was materially differ from those of Mr. PLIM- passed a aew Act, a commentary on which sor.1, is not to be wondered at. A great will be found in No. 91 of this Journal, and admitted evil has awakened his enthu- which Act contained many important and siasm, and very much to his credit, since beneficial modifications of, and additions to, his enthusiasm has not expended itself in the former ones. mental aspirations and good wishes alone, Still the large number of ships and of but, at much labour and expenditure of lives periodically lost, contributed to time and money, it has produced positive maintain the impression iu the public results. mind, that the lives of our seamen were The Commissioners commence their ftot d,uly cared for, that the present system Report with a definition of the term 6f marine insurance often made it even seaworthiness, and rightly observe "that the interest of the shipowner to send it cannot be secured by any one precaution tmseaworthy ships to sea, and that more or set of precautions, but that it requires, might yet be done by legislation for the unceasing application of skill, care, and protection of seamen's lives. vigilance; and that a ship must be '" This general sense of uneasiness, of well designed, well constructed, well eonscientions awakening, if we may use equipped, well stowed, or she is not fbe term, was then fanned into a flame by seaworthy. And further, that she must tte unceasing exertions of Mr. PIJMSOLL, be well manned and well navigated, or a?l . ItP. for Derby, and a Royal Commission precautions as to construction and stowage was appointed to inquire into the alleged will be unavailing." That LIFE-BOAT JOUKNAI,.—VOL. IX.—No. 94. 170 THE LIFE-BOAT. [NOVEMBER 2, 1874. Overloading and Load Line.—The first j voyage, and wherever practicable left cause of unseaworthiness considered in j with the officer of customs or with the the Report is overloading. British Consul, by whom it should be On this head the evidence brought recorded." before them, as regards any rules by which the loading of vessels within safe limits Deck Loads.—Another frequent cause could be regulated, appears to have been of the loss of ships, especially in the very conflicting, and the conclusions at winter months, is the practice of carrying •which they arrive, briefly stated, are— deck loads. That the settlement of a load line It appears that the Canadian Legisla- should be mainly guided by the consider- ture has prohibited the carriage of deck: ation of the reserve buoyancy; that is to loads in timber ships across the Atlantic say, of the proportion which the capacity from the 1st October to the 15th March, of the watertight and solidly constructed with, however, an exception in favour of part of the ship which is above water, deals. Also several mutual insurance bears to the capacity of the part im- clubs forbid such cargoes during the mersed. winter months; on which the Commis- They qualify this statement, however, sioners observe that " as these rules ate by saying, " that there is no general prescribed by the shipowners themselves, agreement as to a rule by which the/ re- it cannot be supposed that the timber quisite amount of reserve buoyancy could trade would be injuriously affected by the fee determined, and it appears that except law." under definite circumstances it is not a They observe that, "The opinion o! determinable problem; that therefore dis- some witnesses is, that all deck loads cretion as to the proper loading of Ma ship should be prohibited; bales of cotton must be left to the sbipcwner, or, under being, it is said, frequently piled up on his directions, to the manager, on -whom the deck, seriously interfering with the the responsibility rests for sending the working of the "ship, and increasing tie ship to sea in a seaworthy condition, dangers of navigation." Nevertheless, and which responsibility it is inexpedient to although they consider " merchant ships diminish. We have, therefore, come to would undoubtedly be safer if they were the conclusion, though not without regret, lightly laden, and carried no deck cargoes/' that we cannot prescribe any universal they observe that " a merchant ship is a rule for the safe loading of all merchant machine employed for earning freight, and ships." And again they state: "From we are of opinion that it would be unwise all the evidence which we have collected for the legislature absolutely to prohibit oa this subject, we are of, opinion that an deck cargoes, except in the special case of Act of Parliament enforcing any scale of the timber trade." They "recommend, freeboard would be mischievous." however, that whenever a deck cargo ig They, however, " recommend that every carried, the quantity and character of such merchant ship shall have marked on each cargo should be stated in the log, and a of her sides, amidships, a vertical scale of copy of such statement left at the Custom feet downwards from the edge of her main House; the shipowner, in case of noa-r deck; the zero point of the scale being at compliance with the provision, if in faulfc the lowest part of the ijpper side of the or the master, to be liable to penalties." highest deck, that is, of the deck up to The Commissioners appear to attach which the ship is completely strong and j great value to the entry in the ship's logj watertight. A note of this reading to |and to the reports lodged with be entered in the log-book, after the Consuls abroad, and at the Custom vessel has received her fall load, imme- at home, of the amount of deck cargo 'diately before her starting on. her carried, and of the ship's freeboard, aa 2, 1874.] THE LIFE-BOAT. 171 shown, by the scale of feet marked on her | however, well-known precautions tending side. We admit that such records would to diminish this danger, but the application act as deterrents to grossJy dangerous i of these will be best left to the responsi- overtoading, as, in the event of disaster bility of the shipowner and to the practical and loss of life, the same could be appealed knowledge of the captain?' to as evidence of culpable and deliberate Unfortunately, the majority of captains indifference to the safety of the crew of of merchant vessels tare had no expe- the ship; we cannot, however, accept as a rience in the stowage of grain cargoes in logical deduction that because "a mer- , bulk; and therefore, when their vessels are, chant ship is a machine employed for perhaps for the first time, freighted to earning freight," the legislature should carry one, they are without practical not afford every reasonable protection to , knowledge in that isspect. And again, as the lives of her crew, who form a very i regards the responsibility of the ship- important part of the machine. Freight j owners, it is only too notorious that their is simply profit on capital. In like manner ; responsibility in the past has not sufficed a manufactory of gunpowder and a mena- j to prevent the deliberate and disgraceful gerie of wild beasts are machines for | consignment to destruction of a vast earning profit on capital; yet no one would i amount of valuable property and an tm- be so absurd as to release the proprietor I told number of human lives. Whilst, of ,the one from the obligation to take however, we are not sanguine enough, every possible precaution against explo- judging from past experience, to expect sion, or of the other against the escape of there will be no unprincipled shipowners Ms lions and tigers amongst a helpless in the future, yet let us hope that their crowd. increased liability under the Merchant Shipping Act of 1873, and _ the stronger Grain, Cargoes.—Cargoes of grain of all light of publieity brought to bear on their kinds, when stowed in bulk, are especially heartless conduct, will tend very largely dangerous, because they are liable to shift. to reduce the number of fatal disasters Although loaded to the hatchways, and to ships and their crews. close up to the beams of the deck in every part, the grain, from the motion of a Survey of British Merchant Skips.—fhe vessel at eea, will always settle down and next branch of the subject reported on by occupy less space.