CAPSIZING LIFEBOATS ONE OF GREATEST PERILS IN SHIPWRECK

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6807, 10 January 1929, Page 10

CAPSIZING LIFEBOATS ONE OF GREATEST PERILS IN SHIPWRECK

Many Lives Lost in This Way NEW ZEALANDER’S INVENTION TAKEN UP

LONDON. Photographs which have been published of the sinking of the Vestris indicate that many lives were lost through the capsizing of some of the lifcboffls. This is an an old story. In the tragedy of the Egypt and the Hammonia the same thing occurred. Boats were capsized mainly in launching them, f The passengers were thrown into the water, and only the very strongest could find support from the slippery keel itself. A New Zealander’s invention to obviate the loss of life which so often occurs from this cause has been brought to the notice of practically every shipping company in the world. Captain P. P. Lowndes, for many years wellknown in the New Zealand service, invented a device some time age which makes it possible for people to cling with sonic degree of safety to the bottom of an upturned boat. At ordinary times a metal bar lies against the keel. When the boat is turned upside down these bars fall outward and auto- ■ matically lock, thus providing a solid hold, or even permitting a person to pass his arm over the bar. With the purchase thus afforded it is also possible to get the boat right side up

again. The Board of Trade liavo approved of the device, and have recommended it to shipowners. One hundred ships have been fitted with the apparatus which means about 1000 boats. The London and North Eastern Railway have 15 ships so fitted, the Southern Railway 33 ships, and the Belfast Line three ships. John Chambers Line have just ordered the device for two ships, and the Canadian Pacific Railways arc having it fitted to another of their vessels, thus making the fifteenth ship to adopt the device. As the sacrifice of precious lives grows greater and greater through lifeboats capsizing, one is justified ini blaming tho many shipping companies for their parsimony in refusing to adopt this humane: device, Granted that it is a commercial enterprise, the travel-1 ling public nevertheless have a right to know the risk they Tun if ships’ boats have no such device affixed. The need for it is not denied, but while ever greater and greater luxuries arc provided to attract the travelling public, this simple device fo the benefit of passengers should tho time come when the yarc struggling for their lives, is largely neglected by the more powerful shipping companies. The reason is easy to sec. So long as it is not made compulsory by the Board of Trade most of the companies will not face the slight extra expense — a few hundred pounds in a large liner. Sooner or later the public will demand this prtection. In the meantime in every wreck the heavy toll of lifves lor lack of it will continue. Waterlogged Lifebelts.

At the inquest on the victims of the Rye lifeboat, in which the whole crew of 17 perished, a grave question was raised, as to tho efficiency of the lifebelts worn by the crew. Major W. B. Hacking, a member of (he lifeboat crew, said: lam very anxious about this because T was in the boat when the new jackets were first used. I tried their buoyancy by going into the water, and they were perfectly buoyant at first. I was perfectly horrified, however, to find that these jackets were all waterlogged when found after the capsizing of the boat. A jacket should bo as light as a feather. These were heavy and would have drowned any man. I believe they arc a French patent. Dr Henderson was asked what lie thought of the belts, and said that they were tremendously heavy, so much so that it was almost impossible to lift them with one hand.

Major Hacking did not know whether the lifebelts were perished or not. Years before the war, he explained, the old cork jackets were used. They were changed after a man had had his face injured bj'.onc of them. “I was the first person 'to use one in the boat,” he said, ‘'and I think it is time for enquiry, since -ther boat 3 arc using the same kind of belts.”

Immediately after the inquest, Commander Drury, R.N., deputy chief inspector of the R.N.L.1., and Commander R. LlOyd Hamer, the district inspector, went, into the question, of the lifebelts with the local secretary, Mr Leopold Vidler, the Mayor of Rye. An order was given to have tho lifebelts found on the bodies dried in preparation for a test.

Mr Tidier said that tlicy very much resented Major Hacking’s allegation. The lifebelts were in perfect condition and Major Hacking’s statements were unfounded. “We have enough evidence,” he said, ‘‘to be able to refute' emphatically Major Hacking's remarks. ’ ’ Men who helped pull the bodies from the sea said that -they were astounded to find the belts so heavy and so tight round the neeks of the men. Mr D. ■ Oilier, coxswain of the No. 1 crow at Dungeness Point, said that when he took the jacket off one of the bodies ; it weighed -101 b. Now, two days aftcr- | wards, it weighed 201 b. He added: “I have reported this to the Lifeboat Institution. Ido not know why] the coxswain of the Eyo Harbour boat] had these things in his boathouse. , “The E.N.L.I. sent this type of belt to us (Dungeness) some years ago, but we sent them back. We found that] they went up round our necks and prevented us from working. “The belts we now have, after a test of 4S hours, only weighed a few pounds more. The belts wc took off the Eye Harbour men had increased from 4lb. to 401 b. in a few hours. No can could swim with such a weight round his shoulders.”