SAFETY AT SEA

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 138, 8 December 1926, Page 17

SAFETY AT SEA

KEEL RAIL APPLIANCES

SUGGESTION BY BOARD OF TRADE,

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, 23rd October. _ It is some years since Captain e'. F. Lovrndes (Gisborne) introduced 10 the shipping world liis patent keel rail for attachment to ships r lifeboats, and since then he has been steadily forging ahead. Most of the companies have realised the necessity for this life-saving apparatus, but so long as it. i* not a Board o£ Trade regulation to fit the apparatus a number of the companies are not inclined-to incur the extra expense. In a recent official publication, however—"lnstructions. as to the Survey of Life-saving Appliances"— the Board of Trade'deals with the subject and suggests the use of such an appliance. "A useful addition to open boats," it is stated, "to enable persons to cling'to an upturned boat is to fit hardwood bilge keels having holes cut at intervals to form suitable hand-grips under the'turn of the bilges, or suitable keel rails^or other equally satisfactory appliances of an- approved type. Bilge keels when fitted should extend from amidships to, but clear of, the chocks, and should be secured to a doubling plank well fastened to the bottom planking and timbers by brass screws, care being taken that the bilge keels will clear all obstructions when the boat is swung out. The bilge keel fastenings must not penetrate the bottom planking." During the last few months an additional number of companies have fitted some of their ships' boats with the Lowndes gafety appliance. Among these are the Argentine Government, the Liboatos Oil Company, British tankers, the Royal Mail, the Union Castle, and Messrs. Furness, Withy, and Co. The Southern Railways, one of the original companies to see the necessity for the device for the cross-Channel service, has now applied it to nearly all their vessels. The Midland Railway, which hag a service to the Continent, has also fitted the device to the lifeboats of three of its vessels.

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