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Seeking Safety at Sea

ONE MORE TRAGIC LESSON—RESULTS OF TITANIC DISASTER—LONDON CONFERENCE ON SAFETY AT SEA—LIFE-BELT DRILL—GIANT RAFTS—LIFESAVING SUIT—STORAGE BATTERIES FOR LIGHTS—DOUBLE HULL ABOVE WATER—SUBMARINE BELL—REGULATION OF TRAFFIC

With the sacrifice of another thousand human lives in the sinking of the Empress of Ireland the world has received one more tragic lesson in solving the problem of achieving safety at sea. Drastic rules governing navigation in narrow, much-frequented passages in times of fog are expected to result. Perhaps, as George Uhler, supervising inspector general in the service of the United States, said, “There is only one safe way for vessels to navigate a fog, and that is to stop until the weather clears.”

Results of Titanic Disaster

The foundering of the Titanic in 1912 eclipsed all previous disasters and led to much searching of heart as to the means of providing better security at sea. Inquiries were conducted in New York under Senator W. A. Smith of Michigan, and in London under Lord Mersey, sitting as wreck commissioner with five experts as assessors. In both cases recommendations were made that liners should have boats for all, regular boat drill, more efficient wireless telegraphy arrangements, and improved subdivision in construction. Lord Mersey’s report showed that six out of fifteen of the main compartments of the vessel were damaged, that the ship filled and went gradually down by the head without capsizing, and recommended improvements as mentioned and supervision of ship designs. The recommendations of improvements were generally endorsed by the Merchant Shipping Advisory Committee of the Board of Trade, who did not however concur in the matter of supervising ship designs. The Board of Trade appointed two committees—one (Bulkheads), with Dr. Denny of Dumbarton as chairman, to consider the best means of improving the subdivision of new ships, the second (Boats and Davits), with Professor Biles as chairman, to consider questions relating to design and handling of boats, supply of motorboats, etc. The Board of Trade also laid draft rules before Parliament requiring (1) great increases in the number and capacity of boats to be carried by all classes of passenger vessels, and (2) the submission of the designs of new ships for examination of stability, proposed subdivision, etc.; and the board also took steps to secure international agreement as to wireless telegraphy and all questions affecting safety at sea. The draft rules went considerably beyond the recommendation of the Advisory Committee, and met with very serious opposition from many quarters, but many steamship companies proceeded even before official action was taken to supply boats for all on board their vessels, while the White Star Company announced that improved subdivision would be built into the Britannic, and that the Olympic would be similarly improved.

London Conference on Safety at Sea

As a later result of the Titanic disaster a conference of maritime nations was called in London and a safety-at-sea treaty drawn up. The question of submarine signals between vessels, such as might have prevented the latter catastrophe, was discussed in the conference, but the treaty adopted does not require the equipment of ships with these devices.

An important decision of this conference was that a continuous watch should be kept by all vessels of over thirteen knots speed carrying more than 200 passengers and making voyages of more than 500 miles between two ports, and by all other passenger ships when more than 500 miles from land, and by all cargo boats on voyages that lead them more than a thousand miles from land.

When everything possible has been done to prevent accidents, it remains to reduce to a minimum the life and property loss attendant on such accidents as will happen even to the best of ships and navigators. There are three important items to be considered in this regard: first, means of calling help from shore or from other vessels; second, devices for escaping safely from a sinking vessel; and third, means of so constructing a vessel that it will not sink no matter how hard hit.

Each Tragedy Has Its Lesson

From each appalling tragedy of the sea we laboriously spell out some lessons which are to teach us how to escape these strokes of fate for the future. Then comes another tragedy, and shows us the futility of these dearly bought lessons. From the Titanic, we deduced that what is needed is a plentiful supply of lifeboats and life rafts. Given enough of these to easily carry all the passengers and crew, and so terrible a disaster as that which engulfed this peerless ship would, we believed, become impossible. Then came the tragedy of the burning Volturno, and practically all those who were “fortunate” enough to get into the lifeboats were drowned, and all who stayed with the burning ship were saved.

Thus was the chief lesson drawn from the Titanic shown within a year to be very much less—for all its value—than a certain security against wholesale death at sea. And now we have the frightful case of the Empress of Ireland to emphasize this point. The Empress had lifeboats; but so swiftly fell the shattering stroke—they could not be launched. The accident occurred in a quiet river, where, had there been time enough, these lifeboats could have saved every man, woman, and child on board in the most orderly fashion. In a word, the lifeboat “cure” would have been perfect had the conditions of the Titanic disaster obtained.

Life-Belt Drill

Now the cry is “life belts,” and a universal knowledge of how to use them. We are told that very few of the bodies recovered from the Empress were encircled with life belts. Very probably if all the passengers who could get to the decks, and so were not carried down in their cabins, had worn life belts, most of them would have remained afloat in the water until rescued. But possibly they never thought of life belts; and it is a fair conjecture that many would not have known how to put them on if they had thought of them. Most passengers take the whole voyage on a “liner” without once studying out how best to attach to themselves the life belts which hang ready for them in their cabins.

A life-belt drill would be an excellent thing for the first day out. The passengers would find it entertaining, and they could each in this way learn that the particular life belt which belonged to him was in order, and what to do with it if an alarm came. A little instruction of this sort, and every passenger—at a midnight outcry—would be more anxious to get on his life belt than his clothes before he rushed up on deck to see what was the matter. If a lifeboat drill is necessary for the crew, a life belt drill is necessary for the passengers.

Mr. Nixon Suggests Remedy

This is only one of many suggestions arising out of the Empress of Ireland disaster. Mr. Lewis Nixon, the shipbuilder, believes that hundreds of lives might be spared in sea disasters with an efficient lifesaving suit that would keep persons warm when in the water. He said it was perfectly possible to have a lifesaving suit that would be comfortable for many hours in the coldest water.

Mr. Nixon declared that to jump from a deck high above the water filled most persons with terror, and he mapped out a safety slide which could be shot out from the deck of a vessel in a few minutes. Moreover, Mr. Nixon asserted that a light ray that will penetrate a fog must be worked upon by scientists, and he added that he had expected to see before this a direction indicator.

Giant Rafts

The shipbuilder asserted that he still thinks that vessels will be built with the upper after structure constructed after the fashion of a giant raft. He said that from what he had read there seemed to have been ample warning in the instance of the latest disaster to have prevented the crash if proper precaution had been taken.

“With every loss of a vessel we look for lessons, find them each time, and then ignore them,” said Mr. Nixon. “The Titanic had one weak spot, the edge of a berg struck the vessel exactly there, a combination against which the odds were almost infinite. This lesson, it is true, was heeded, and later vessels will have double bottoms to above the waterline.

“But the slowness with which she sank misled in other directions. It is true more boats are now carried because the passenger is entitled to his chance, even if the combination of slow sinking and calm is not in the doctrine of probabilities likely to occur frequently. But more boats if they cannot be launched are an aggravation in a heavy sea and on a vessel with a heavy list.

Lifesaving Suit

“It’s true we do not build vessels to collide with one another, yet we have had many collisions of late. We build to avoid fire, yet fire still stands out, to my mind, as the great peril at sea.

“But let us read our lesson from recent wrecks. In all, many have been lost who might have been saved with an efficient lifesaving suit.

“It is not only necessary to have the man in the water kept afloat until relief comes. We all know of the gruesome sight of numerous corpses floating on the ocean, dead from exposure, after the loss of the Titanic. It is perfectly possible to don a lifesaving suit that one can be comfortable in for many hours in an icy sea.

“It may be said that such a device is too bulky to be carried and that it will not often be used. Yet if such devices had been available the greater part of the passengers of the Titanic and the Empress of Ireland would now be alive.

“Boats are being improved all the time, and all will soon have power.

“Have you ever noticed a lot of people coming out of a theater where there were plenty of exits? Can you imagine what it would be to take them down in a number of elevators, even if the number of elevators were ample, in time of panic?

More Individualism in Saving

“Then think of a vessel, pitching and tossing, with passengers in terror, unused to ship passageways and stairways, and expect them to be embarked in orderly fashion in a short time. More and more is it impressed upon me that there should be more individualism in lifesaving.

“Recent happenings have shown that relief can usually be had as a result of calling by wireless.

“So the passenger, even though thrown or landed in the sea, could be buoyed up by the hope of ultimate relief if he felt reasonably safe from death by drowning or exposure during the time taken by the relief ship to come. So I think we must adopt a life suit which will keep one warm as well as afloat. There should be exhibitions daily on deck, where passengers should be shown how to don such suits, and those who had never done so should be required to don them.

Chutes Down Ships’ Sides

“Since, under certain conditions, which have been of frequent occurrence of late, safety lies in getting afloat, there should be regular chutes down which one could slide and be delivered clear of the vessel. When one thinks of jumping from the deck of a vessel as high as a house, the terror of contemplation results in demoralization just at a moment when the keenest wit is needed. Of course, this does not argue that we must not have the best boat and boat-lowering equipment possible.

“The safe transfer of all passengers into the lifeboats is, of course, the most desirable outcome, but, as we see, this is not always possible.

“A side-wiping blow delivered by such a vessel as the Storstad would sink almost any vessel, though I am inclined to think that the heavy scantlings of large vessels like the Lusitania, the Imperator, or the Vaterland, would break off the stem of a vessel so much smaller and so localize the damage.

“Our aim must be of course to keep them apart. Years ago I endeavored to have experiments made with various kinds of light rays with a view to fixing the courses of Staten Island ferryboats in fogs.

“There may be found if not a light ray a dark one that will penetrate fog, and while we have no light-ray transformers like current transformers, if they do penetrate, their presence can in some way be made manifest.

“I have expected before this to see some direction indicator, to the end of which I called attention when the Titanic sank. But in this last accident there seems to have been ample warning of approach and enough knowledge of location to have prevented disaster, were proper precaution taken.

Storage Batteries for Lights

“Of course we must hear both sides, but personally I am far more disposed to lay blame when two vessels collide than when one collides with a berg or a derelict. In a channel where sea room is limited and currents due to enormous tidal rise exist, more than the usual care at sea should be exercised.

“There should be on all passenger vessels storage batteries that would light up enough lights in passageways and about the decks to enable passengers to move freely, and special colored lights, well understood, to show the means of reaching the upper deck.

“These are the lessons. They have all been known all the time, but heeding them can only be arrived at through crushing disaster that will hold the attention of travelers by sea long enough for them to show their appreciation of the lines which best safeguard life at sea.

“After all, the transatlantic lines will provide such safety as modern ingenuity may evolve, and they will install devices in deference to demands of the traveling public. The difficulty is that the greater part of such public are fatalists when they go to sea.”

Double Hull Above Water

Alexander MacGregor, engineer commander, retired, Royal Naval Reserves, who lives in Inverness, Scotland, after a lifetime on the seas of all the world, declared that such an accident as befell the Empress of Ireland spells certain and quick destruction to any steamship of the prevailing type now engaged in passenger as well as cargo traffic.

“Double hulls extending well above the waterline are the only safeguard for the ship, and individual unsinkable garments for the passengers their only certain protection,” Mr. MacGregor said. “I knew the Empress of Ireland. She was of the same construction type as the Titanic. She, and practically every other, except four of the largest passenger steamships out of New York, has only a double shell far below the waterline, a protection only from damage about the keel. It cost more than $1 million to reconstruct with a double hull one of the biggest transatlantic service steamships after the Titanic went down. The expense and great reduction of cargo capacity have been a bar to general adoption of that type.

“Under the rules of the sea, the Empress of Ireland appears to have been properly at a standstill and the collier steaming on in the dense fog against the rule. If the Empress had a double hull it would have been practically impossible for the other to have torn out both her shells, which usually are built four feet apart, and opened up all the bulkheads.

“Passenger vessels navigating narrow waters like the St. Lawrence should have lifesaving apparel close at hand for passengers. Boats are of no use if you can’t get to them. Few men could last long in the icy waters of the St. Lawrence at this season.”

Mr. MacGregor for eighteen years was marine superintendent of the Dominion Atlantic Railway, whose steamships plied between New York, Boston, and Nova Scotia. He retired a few years ago.

Submarine Bell

Another opinion is that the use of the submarine bell would have prevented the collision of the Storstad and the Empress of Ireland. The bell is in use on lightships, but seagoing vessels use only the receivers, and the utility of the warnings by sound underwater between approaching vessels is not appreciated. Many think that publication of the facts would aid in making the use of the apparatus compulsory, and point to the time when those who could spread the knowledge of the useful wireless system hesitated to “do anything that would advertise a patented article.”

The report of the American Commissioners to the International Conference on Safety of Life at Sea, touching on submarine bells, says: “While the American delegation was convinced of the value of submarine bells, it did not press their compulsory use, as this bell is patented and sold only by one company. In the official recommendations (No. 5) the use of this bell is recommended by lightships on important outside stations where fog is frequent. Congress has appropriated money for this purpose in the United States.”

The question has been raised by Mr. William Spiegel, whose patent on the submarine bell was granted in 1888, whether the fundamental invention is no longer protected by the patent laws. His patent was bought up about five months before its expiration in 1905. But whether or not subsequent and patentable improvements have been made, if the bell will prevent collisions in fog it should be used, and, if necessary, its use should be made compulsory.

Regulation of Traffic

It is probable that the wider investigation of the disaster will deal with traffic regulations or their absence which made the collision between the Empress and the Storstad possible. There are no regulations separating the paths of eastbound and westbound steamers in the St. Lawrence, although at the point where this collision occurred the river is nearly thirty miles wide and the depth of water ample for the whole distance across. The Empress of Ireland had gone out from Father Point and was proceeding down the river at a distance of three miles from shore, which is apparently the custom. The Storstad, with her 11,000 tons of coal, was steaming westward at about the same distance from shore, and this, too, seems to have been the custom. Cargo-carrying tramp steamers have equal rights with passenger ships in the St. Lawrence, and the path along the south shore off Father Point and Rimouski seems to be common to both classes of traffic both eastbound and westbound. It is not so long since the Empress of Britain, sister ship to the lost Empress of Ireland, ran into the collier Helvetia, but in that case the collier came off second best. Obviously, we must have more painstaking rules for the navigation of the Gulf and River.