NEW OCEAN TRIUMPHS

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 16 November 1929, Page 11

NEW OCEAN TRIUMPHS

TRAN’S ancient enemy, the sea, is losing the age-long fight. Old Father Neptune, who wields a vicious trident at times, is before the bar of justice. He must admit that he lias a master. From time immemorial it has been the other way round. The sea has been the master, and man the frail voyager. A conference on safety of life at sea, recently held in London and attended by representatives from 18 maritime nations, reveals the extent of safety brought by man to travel on the sea.' The recommendations of the conference are notable, but more surprising, perhaps, are the revelations of the degree of safety that now attends every traveller on the sea. The conference held that all ships should be looked upon as potential lifeboats, and declared that all vessels in excess of IGOO tons —with certain exemptions—should be compelled to carry wireless equipment, supplemented by automatic alarms always in operation or presided over by operators. “It is not sufficient,” says Admiral Bichard, president of the conference, “that a ship in distress shall be able to send out a call for assistance, but provision must be made for the reception of such calls by other ships in a position to render aid.”

“Boats for all” was another recommendation of the conference; a sufficient number of" boats to care for all persons aboard in case of wreck or other emergency,, and so arranged for launching that their safe departure from the parent ship will be assured. Stricter navigation rules and regulations were also recommended by the conference, as well as new rules for internal ship construction. There are other developments in the matter of safety of life at sea. There is tlic radio compass, ice patrol, meteorological reports from shore to sea by radio, and scientific determination of ship stability, to sav nothing of fireextinguishing and other safety appliances. “The direction-finder, the radio compass, scientific devices for bottom-find-ing, and scientific determination of ship stability are the most invaluable safety devices for ships and passengers ever brought forward by man,” declares Captain C. W. Willett, for 10 years a

SHIPS THAT DEFY GALES

ship’s master. “These things, operative for the last 15 years and perfected as the years advance, have revolutionised. sea travel.

I ■“Ship stability is a question of bal- ] ance and dates back to the first ‘,dugj out. ’ On this theory the Phoenicians i balanced their pirogues with rocks, and the traditional shipbuilder always had his ways and means of calculating stability. Many practical methods have been devised and employed by shipbuilders, masters, and steamboat inspectors. “Among these tests for stability, one method commonly used was to place sandbags on board ship to represent passengers oil on one side of the vessel, and in some cases orders were given to steam full speed downstream and .come about ‘hard over’ each way. If the vessel would not capsize, she had proved her ‘balance power.’ Another method was to rig up a lift at the deck site a practice used extensively for deck loads. When the purchase of a double block and falls could not put the deeks under, the vessel was deemed safe. An. other method was to set up a row of water tumblers on the upper dock, and on full-speed and ‘hard-over’ trials the full glasses should not spill any water by the heeling.

“Stability guesswork has been eliminated, ships are passed as seaworthy by rule and line, and safety to passengers is assured by decisions arrived at by master mathematicians.” It is to the radio and the radio compass, however, that credit" must be given, more than to any other agency for increasing safety at sea. The radio keeps open the ocean lanes, the radio compass aids a vessel to keep its proper course during fog. It is a fascinating story of how, out of the ends of the earth, there comes a crackling through the night, messages of position, of derelicts sighted, of storms in the offing, of fears and misgivings. From many remote places there come to the Hydrographic 'Office radio messages which embrace some of the information classified under these heads. It may be an iceberg floating down from the polar regions to warmer latitudes, it may be a lighthouse darkened by a hurricane, a buoy adrift, or weather conditions.