SAFETY AT SEA

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1020, 10 July 1930, Page 9

SAFETY AT SEA

LOADLINE ADJUSTED ON MERCHANT SHIPS LONDON CONFERENCE ENDED RUGBY, Tuesday. A convention giving the maximum loading £or all merchant ships belonging to 27 nations engaged in international trade was signed at the International Loadline Conference which has just ended in London. The con volition was signed on behalf of the following Governments: Australia, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Britain, Greece, Iceland, India, Irish Free State, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway. Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, Russia and United States.

Admiral of the' Fleet Sir Henry Oliver, who presided, in his concluding speech described the convention as ‘a great means of placing the international oversea carrying trade of the world on a basis of safety such as has never hitherto been attained ”

The convention provides for increases of freeboards in the winter months, particularly in the smaller classes of ships; defines with increased precision methods to secure the closing of openings in weather decks and the sides of 'ships and for the protection of crews; and revises the season areas that regulate the loading limits of all ships.