PASSENGER SHIPS

Southland Times, Issue 20786, 29 May 1929, Page 5

PASSENGER SHIPS

BETTER LIFE-SAVING APPLIANCES.

ACCOMMODATION FOR ALL URGED.

Rugby, May 27.

The subject of boats and other life-saving appliances on passenger ships has been under consideration by a committee of the International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea, now sitting in London. At a previous International Conference held in 1914, which followed the loss of the Titanic, very great public interest was centred in this question of life-saving appliances, as the lifeboats on the Titanic were sufficient for 1178 persons, but only 652 left the Titanic in boats out of a total of 2201 persons on board. ' The popular demand was for boats for all, and the conference made provision to meet this demand.

The convention of 1914 did not come into operation as a convention, but national regulations adopted many of the convention provisions, and for some years past practically all ocean-going passenger ships have been required to comply with the conveni tion standard as regards the number of life- | boats carried. Experience gained since 1914, ' however, has shown the firm necessity for ■ boats being carried so as to be readily ; available for launching, and it has also i proved that where this requirement is not ! complied with the provision of a large i number of lifeboats may be a source of ! danger. ' The Life-saving Appliances Committee has therefore kept before it two main principles ■ —firstly, that all life-saving appliances on a ship shall be readily available, and secondly, that they shall be adequate. On these matters the committee’s proposals are, firstly, 'that every lifeboat on board should be so carried as to be readily available in emergency and no boat should be carried which will impede the prompt handling of the boats that are available, and secondly, that these readily available boats on oceangoing passenger ships should provide accommodation for all persons on board. In addition the committee proposes that buoyant apparatus be provided which will float in the sea and provide persons with something to which they can cling if, by reason of the rapid sinking of a vessel, it has been impossible to get them away on the boats. Such apparatus is a definite additional measure of safety and is to be provided in a determined proportion to the number of persons on board. Regarding the use of life rafts, it has been found that on certain special voyages life rafts have proved to be of greater service than boats. The committee contemplates that administrations might be satisfied that rafts will be more useful than boats and allow rafts in substitution for boats over and above certain specified minimum accommodation in lifeboats, such minimum being sufficient to ensure that in the North Atlantic passenger trades, and in most of the other trades, lifeboat accommodation will be provided for all. In view of the improved reliability of motor lifeboats the committee expresses the opinion that where more than a certain number of lifeboats are carried one or more should be a motor boat fitted with wireless installations and searchlights. —British Official Wireless.