CREWS TOO SMALL

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 February 1929, Page 2

CREWS TOO SMALL

A SHIPPING QUESTION. Captain Harold Grenfell, R.N., retired, in a statement in London to the Press in connection with the Vestris inquiry at New York, makes the allegation that “all seamen are aware that no ocean-going passenger ship belonging to Great Britain or any other country carries the proper number or proportions of seamen required to lower, clear, or manage life-saving boats and appliances,” reports the “Christian Science Monitor.” It is sufficiently unusual from a seaman’s point of view, he says, at this period of the world’s acquaintance with organisation of maritime affairs for any well found and properly con- ! ditioned ship of considerable size like • the Vestris to founder in the open sea through action alone upon heF of wind or waves even in the worst conceivable weather. . “Quite apart from the Vestris in- j qviry,” he said, “there is a general point of great importance that needs

> to be impressed upon the attention, i of the travelling public since its ser- ■ iousness applies irrespective of the question whether the ship herself be > sound in structure and condition. ■ “It is one that is particularly vital because it is related not to material things, but to men. Owing to the pressure of competition under the system by which our merchant shipping is run in order to save cost on wages and increase available passenger accommodation, the number of deck hands carried even in our finest liners is limited to the bare minimum capable of carrying on the ordinary duties of the ship under normal weather conditions. “Every boat lowered in a seaway from a ship demands the services of at least three trained and capable searien (in the navy five is the number for any boat of the size of a liner’s lifeboat) to get her into the water with safety. Besides this, two quali-. fied seamen are absolutely necessary to attend within board to the lowering of every boat, one hand to each fall. “In a ship carrying 10, 12, or 14 boats one thus sees that for their proper use 30 or 40 men is the lowest figure that can include the smallest factor of safety. Add to this number eight to a dozen men taken up by the difficult and responsible task of lowering and we reach a total —from a seaman’s standpoint absolutely irreducible —minimum of from 40 to 50 trained and competent sailors.”