SAFETY ON SHIPS

Evening Star, Issue 18034, 31 July 1922, Page 10

SAFETY ON SHIPS

REDUCTION in manning,

A COMPLAINT AND A REPLY.

In tie course of a lengthy letter to the editor of the Wellington ‘Evening Pose, Mr W. T. Young, general secretary of the Federated Seamen’s Union, protests against “the vastly increasing danger to passengers and crews of certain ships tradinz abroad from ports or New Zealand and a considerable reduction in their manning. He does so with the hope of securing to the seamen’s organisation some practical co-operation to eliminate the danger in the interests of those using ships as a medium of transportation. He refers to disasters of the past, and trusts that no similar disasters will occur in the future because there were insufficient men to man the boats. Ho mentions the case of the Maunganui, of the Union Company’s fleet, which was recently converted from a coalburner to an oil-burner. As a coal-burner she carried thirty-four men in her stokehold and engine room departments, twentyi'even being firemen and trimmers in the stokehold and six greasers and a donkeyman in the-engine room. As an oilburner shO-is carrying fifteen men in the same department —a total reduction in the manning of nineteen. She has fourteen boats and a number of rafts, and is perto carry exactly the same number of passengers with the reduced manning, although the efficient manning of the boats has been • reduced. In the case of the Tahiti, she carried thirty-seven men in the stokehold a a a coal-burner and only fifteen as an oil-burner—a reduction of twenty-two men in the manning of the ship* The Niagara when a coal-burner (dhe made only one voyage os such) carried fifty-six men in the stokehold department. Ab an oil-burner her complement is twenty-six-x? .reduction of. thirty. , Mr I'onng-states that, as far as he can recollect, the Niagara had twenty boats and at number of rafts, and carried a large number of passengers. Recently the motor ship. Hauraki, a vessel of 4,425 tons net and 7,500, gross, arrived in New Zealand. She is not a passenger ship, but carried fourteen men less, as an oil-burner than sha would as a coal-burner. The Makura when a coal-burner carried forty-eight men in the stokehold and only sixteen as an oibburner—a reduction of thirty-two men. She carried a large number of. passengers, and has; some sixteen boats and a number of rafts, the : efficient manning of which has been reduced because there has been a reduction in the number of the crew. Mi Young trusts that the authorities will find 1 time to do something practical to protect the people against maritime disasters. UNION COMPANY’S REPLY. ■ The Union Steam Ship. Company states that, in acconkmce with the Board of Trade regulations, the ship® referred to, in common with other British ships, carry sufficient boats to accommodate the whole of the crew and also the full number of passengers for which the vessels are certified. Mr Young has overlooked that the Board of Trade regulations now in force do not permit rafts on oversea ships aa part of tne life-saving equipment, and that consequently no rafts are carried on the ships mentioned. Boat drill is carried out regularly, and the whole of the crew is trained in boat-handling, and every man knows his boat station and the duties he is required to perform should! necessity arise.

It ia pointed! out, further, that the Niagara, with twenty boats, carried 269 men, thus providing thirteen men to operate each boat 5 the Makura, with fifteen boats, carries 168 men, thus providing eleven men for each boatj the Tahiti, with thirteen boats, carries 134 men, thus providing ton men for each boat; the Maunganui, with twelve Large and three small boats, carries 140 men, thus providing ton men for each large boat, and six men for each small boat. “From the foregoing,” says the company, “it will, be clear that tho steamers mentioned Have not been prejudiced by tho withdrawal of a number of lifl stokehold hands who were not specially qwdffledl in the handling of boats, and it would appear that Mr Young’s real conhem ia as to the effect upon his union of the change-over to oil.”