SAILORS CALLED HIM THEIR FRIEND
“WAS the vessel loaded above the Plimsoll line?” The queswas asked recently at an Inquiry Into the loss of a British ship, and once again the name of Samuel
Plimsoll, “the sailors’ friend,” was heard. , Appalled by the number of ships lost at sea because of their being overloaded with cargo, he fought for years to have some safety measure adopted, and, finally, in 1876, the Merchant Shipping Act was passed. All British mercantile ships had to be marked with the Plimsoll line, 18 inches long, running through the cen-
tre of a 12 inch disc, and setting the - limit which the water was allowed to reach when the ship was loaded. With that Act was banished the “coffin ship,” a leaky vessel, loaded
down with cargd^which the owners sent to sea hoping it would never return, so that they could claim the in-
surance money. Thousands of sailors lost their lives in this way before Samuel Plimsoll won his fight.
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Bibliographic details
Northern Advocate, 31 October 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)
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166SAILORS CALLED HIM THEIR FRIEND Northern Advocate, 31 October 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)
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