THE SHIPS OF TO-DAY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 239, 9 October 1907, Page 6

THE SHIPS OF TO-DAY.

(Melbourne Age.) Almost- evorv one ninst have been struck by the" great increase in the safety of liiV at sea. Ships are throngincr the ix>rts raid c-ccan traces ot tiio world !p larger and larger nmm>crs, and rrr- being urged at swifter speeus, yet disastrous wrecks and collisions arc becoming actually rarer occurrences. There is no llhisson ahou. wu»; general feeling, for it is corroborated inllv by the statistics of the sea. Dr. El"-ai-, 'in lecturing before the institution of Civil Engineers on the design •of brought forward some figures which, though tragic _ in. themselves,. are very hanpy in their implications. Prom 1881 to 1833 British ships to cue number of 1982, exclusive of fishing smacks, were lost at sea Ironi al causes—foundering., stranding, collision and missing—so 99 sailors perish; mo- in them and 332 passengers. It m&ht well be imagined that a record like this could hardly be improved upon if the nature of storms at sea and 'the intricacies of navigating along dangerous coasts are t.aiien into consideration. Out of the vast number of passengers carried m lintisn ships during a year twenty-five years ao-o only 111 lives were lost. let m thfc three years ended 1906 this marvellous achievement was surpassed, and to a very surprising extent. in this recent group of three years the losses of British ships were only 604 •with the drowning of 1394 sailors and 133 passengers. Thus in twenty-five years the number of sailors lost at sea has been reduced to less than onefourth of what it was. Moreover, oi the 133 passengers in British ships lost from 1903 to 1906 more than one liundved were drowned in a disaster which occurred in a single excursion steamer. During three years amongst all the other travellers in British ships not more than thirty lost their lives through shipwreck. Even a hundred years ago such a result would have appeared miraculous, and in the days of Columbus all would have been inquiring eagerly as to the particular patron saint to whom sailors and ship builders were addressing their prayer so prosperously, so that they too might _ share In t'ho attentions of so efficient a o-uardian. But according to Dr Klo-ar, the saving of life is to be ascribed to human forethought and skill. • To the proper protection of openings in the weather deck, associated with the strict limitation ot loading now enforced by the Board ot Trade, he assigns the greater part ot the improvement,. though some of it; Is due to tlie increased size of ships, j the greater strength of their materials and the higher elaboration of the equipment by which they are handled. But contributing cause ought alfo to be taken into account. This Is the better standard of living amongst the sailors and officers, especially in the wariness of officers towards 'strong drink. It might also be said now that the chief danger at sea is not the mountainous billow- or the uncharted rock, but the uncorked bottle in captain's or mate's cabin. If ships' officers drank now as they did in the days of the old sea dogs, there would be appalling disasters every month. But fortunately navigators are learning better, every year that they must steer clear of the flowing bowl, and be very watchful about springing that sort of leak which transfers the contents of a case of whisky into the mariner's bilge. _ Still amid the hardships and monotonies of sea. life the abuse of alcohol is a real danger, and it says much for the sense of duty amongst officers in the British mercantile marine that they have handled their ships so as to lose the lives of only 133 passengers, in all weathers, from 1903 to 1906. But e-i'idently a good deal has yet to be done to bring the cargo boat up to the standard of safety of the passenger liners. The loss of 1394 sailors in the last three years tells of unseaworthy ships as well as of unseaworthy ; officers. In the Ballad of the Bolivar, Kipling flashed out a picture of the dreadful intent in some of these doomed cargo boats:—

Just a pack o 3 rotten plates puttied up with tar, In we came, and time enough, 'cross Bilboa Bar. Overloaded, undermanned, meant to founder, we Euchred God Almighty's storm, bluffed the Eternal Sea. And then he finished up with this sinister couplet of song from the- unhappy crewSeven men from out of Hell. Ain't the owners gay 'Cause we took the Bolivar safe across the Bay? Here we get a glimpse into the most appalling depths of commercial depravity, the rumour of which haunts the minds of the poorest sailors and stokers. It must be seldom indeed that human nature reaches such a pitch of devilishness as to send a crew to a watery grave for the insurance value of a rotten ship and a sham cargo, but too often must many lives he lost through neglect to take account of wear and. tear in weakening the structural strength of a ship. Then there are the mistakes that stupid and besotted officers make in loading a weak ship. When a giant wave picks a vessel up at the middle and leaves bow and stern high and dry for the moment, the strain on the loaded shell of a thing is intense, and is followed by - a different one when two waves hold up the ends of the ship and let the middle sag. This is the racket that breaks a rotten ship in n wild storm. Many a ship declared missing has collapsed through ignorant loading and accumulated injuries. ~By extension of the same sort of forethought and oare as is now applied to passenger ships the safety of cargo boats will be increased.

The subdivision of. large ships into water tight compartments by bulkheads has beeu an important factor in the increase of seaworthiness. Quite recently Australians were intensely interested in the fate of the large White Star liner that ran upon the rocks in Cornwall. The marvellous operation of cutting off the stern half of the vessel, with its machinery, and towing it away for rebuilding, has given tho world a memorable demonstration of the power of modern engineering on the sea. In the Lusitnnin, of the Cunard" line, still more TPcon.t provisions are added for safety at s°a in the shape of powerful appliances, for closing quickly the necessary openings between the different c^mpMrhijents into which the ship is divided. Tho advent of the steam turbine means an increase of safety as well as of speed at sea. The steady, r-mcoth rotation of the turbine makes the- driving machinery almost a'i reliable as possible, though at an ciKrmt of 08.000 horse power it is to -pvri the 32.500 tons of" this splendid ■•■'•:!;■> 'hrr.uvch the water at the rate of 2 ! •■' Jv. --nts an hour. The equipment "•■ ',•.[■ Lusitaiiifi as a cruiser or scout in time of Avar increases the safety of British travellers by 5,0a in another

direction, though her armament is such as would not exactly add to the comfort of seafaring for people at war with Britain. But amongst the modern victories of peace may well b9 classed the triumphs of the ship builder and mariner in carrying the vast commerce of the British Empire on the seas with so little loss of life and property.