Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/219

LEFT SAFETY AT SEA 175 SAFETY AT SEA throughout its whole career. The ship having been completed in accordance with requirements, the law looks next to the officers and crew and to the equipment of life-boats and other safety appliances. Rules cover the nature and stowage of the cargo and the depth to which the ship may be loaded. A limit is set to the num- ber of passengers that may be carried, and these must never exceed those for whom accommodation is provided in life- boats and life-rafts of approved type. Rules for the avoidance of collision have been drawn up through international agreement, covering as fully as possible every situation that can arise when ves- sels are meeting or crossing each other's courses. Among the most important features involved in the prescribed designs of ships, is the requirement for a thorough sub- division of the ship into water-tight com- partments of such size that the flooding of one or even two of these compartments through collision or stranding will leave the ship with sufficient buoyancy to re- main afloat. Where communication is necessary between adjoining compart- ments, water-tight doors must be fitted with arrangements for closing quickly, and in certain cases, automatically. Other requirements as to the ship itself have to do with boilers and machinery, with steering gear, with pumps and fire- fighting apparatus. The rules governing life-boats are especially strict and include methods of stowing and launching, — fea- tures which were too often neglected until made the subject of special rules in recent years. The laws which have been mentioned as covering the construction of ships have reduced to a minimum the chances of foundering in the open sea. Disasters of this nature, formerly among the most common of disasters at sea, are now ex- tremely rare and should be practically unknown except when a small ship is contending with a hurricane of great violence. A vessel of size sufficient to be rated as a passenger carrier, constructed in accordance with present-day laws, with water-tight compartments that are in fact water-tight, with cargo properly limited and properly stowed, and handled in ac- cordance with the dictates of sound sea- manship, should be able to ride out any gale so long as she has plenty of sea- room. It is near the shore that gales and fog are most to be feared; for there conditions may prevent the manceuvers that would insure safety. Danger from fire, once the most dreaded of all sea dangers, has been robbed of most of its terrors by the substitution of steel for wood in the interior fittings of steamers as well as in construction of the hulls; and it is only when a cargo of explosives or inflammable material is carried that the danger from this source becomes great. Here, again, modern law steps in to protect passengers, by limiting the conditions under which inflammable cargo, and especially explosives, may be carried. As a rule, they are not per- mitted at all on ships designed primarily for passenger traffic. No degree of perfection in the equip- ment of a ship can insure the safety of the ship or the passengers and crew unless the use of the equipment is thor- oughly understood. On a well-ordered ship, drills are frequent, especially in fighting fire and handling boats, and these drills are doubly useful if they in- clude participation, — necessarily super- ficial, — by the passengers. Every pas- senger should understand the significance of danger signals and what his part is to be in co-operation with the officers and crew. Every passenger should be fur- nished a list of all signals which concern him, together with information as to the location and fitting of life-belts, and, most important of all, the number and location of the life-boat to which he is assigned. A preliminary drill at lowering boats should always be held before leaving port and the boats inspected as to their fittings and equipment; and as soon as convenient after leaving port, a drill at "Stations for Emergency" should be held, and each passenger required to go to the life-boat which he is to enter in case it becomes necessary to abandon the ship. In addition to the normal equipment of the boats, each one should be provided with provisions and water sufficient for all occupants for at least a week. Other important items to be insisted upon are: compass, lead-line, lantern, rockets and other fire-works for signaling, buckets for bailing and other necessary purposes, mast and sails (may be useful for "sea- anchor"), navigational books and instru- ments. Information should be given to all boats, of the course and distance to the nearest land or steamship lane. Boats should be instructed to keep to- gether if possible under authority of the senior officer of the group. The rules regulating all of the matters that have been described are for United States vessels established by Congress and by regulations of the "Steam Boat In- spection Service" of the Department of Commerce, and are published in a pam- phlet entitled "General Rules and Reg- ulations prescribed by the Board of Supervising Inspectors." For many years before the matter of safety at sea was taken up seriously by various maritime governments, many of