LIVES FOR CARGO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 1514, 9 November 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

LIVES FOR CARGO.

LOWERING OF THE PLJ.MSOLL LINE.

MAGISTRATE ON THE EXTRA PERIL. A striking picture of British seamen, dying at their posts was drawn by the Cardiff stipendiary (Mr. T. W. Lewis) in giving the finding of the Board of Trade inquiry into tho loss of the steamship North Briton off Ushant on March 4.

The sol© survivor of the crew of twentyone was the boatswain, Oscar Jan sen. Tho court found that the primary cause of tho vessel's loss and the loss of life was '"insufficient freeboard." Dealing with this aspect of the cose, the stipendiary said : " For some time before the vessel foundered, and when her condition was hopeless, the crew —those twenty brave men of that brave class the British mercantile marine—stayed together on the deck with their pipes in their mouths, silently, calmly, and dauntlesslv facing death. Without a murmur or a cry thoy perished in the sea. Their lives were sacrificed to 130 tons additional freight."

Tho court recommended the following question for the serious consideration of the Board of trade: —"Do the disasters to vessels (owing to causes ascertained and unascertained) that have occurred sinco | March ISO 6, when tho rules for assigning freeboard were revised, and whereby numerous vessels had their freebord reduced, call for further immediate revision of such rules?" Extra 130 Tone. Tito reduced winter* freeboard assigned to the North Briton In March 1906, and authorised by the Board of Trade, permitted an increase in dead-weight displacement of 130 tons, said the stipendiary, making a total dead-weight displacement of 3310 tons. Actual experience of the reduced freeboard proved that tho reduction was a dangerous encroachment on the freeboard —the margin of safety—that had been previously maintained. On her last voyage the vessel was loaded to her winter marks. According to law she was not overladen, but the court was satisfied that consistently with safety the loading was excessive. Dealing with the allegation of tho survivor, Oscar Jausen, that three warships passed close to tho sinking North Briton without paying any heed to tho distress signals, tm> stipendiary was not disposed to credit the evidence," though he regarded it as honestly given. Having regard to tho man's temblo hardship.-; be lore ire was rescued, it appeared to too court that as to some of tlje incidents hia memory was impaired, and as to otnors contused. His story of the warships was described by the lOiiu as highly improbable. The probable explanation was that they were seen some other time by Jansen.

Raising the Plimsoll Mark. The finding of the court brings into prominence again tho Board of Trade regulations of iiio6, whereby was raised the i'limsoll mark—the load-line mark painted ou the sides of all British merchant vessels to indicate the limit of submergence allowed by law, and so-called from Samuel Plimsoll, by whose efforts the Act to prevent over-loading was procured. . Captain Aialyard, of the Loudon Nautical School, said that the consensus of opinion among sea captains of cargo and sailing vessels was strongly against the lowered ireeboard. and thai the rinding of the court and its recommendation to the Board of Trade would bo heartily approved.

" Personally, I have no hesitation in stating that the reduction of the freeboard— that is, of' the distance Between tho main deck and the old salt-water load-line mark —have greatly reduced a vessel's saiety at sea, and I hold with the court when it suggests that recent disasters call for a revision of tho. rules.

" Before 1906 it was found that boats were loaded with as much cargo as they could conveniently and, 1 think, safely carry. But competition with foreign ves sels, which, according to the laws of their respective countries, could load ajore than our vessels, was becoming so ksen that the Board of Trade saw fit to raise the saltwater load-line maiked on the hull, thus enabling the owners to ship more cargo. It can bo reckoned that a Idooo-ten steamer increased her carrying capacity by 30-35 tons for every inch that the freeboard was lowered. Tho ship, as a result, sank deeper in the water.

" The effect, in a heavy sea, is that the vessel cannot rise so easily as she used to. (she is more ' laboursome' and -more difli* cult to manage; the water rushes over her with greater • ease. In fact, her sailing qualities have been interelcred with—tor tho worse."