The New York herald., 1879-08-09
would turn over and bury their passengers in the

steamers plying between this port aud England
have sufficient number OF boats and life preseryers
taken together, to give each passenger u chance to
float an hour If the ship goes down. On some there
are life preservers enough Tor every soul board
but on of the steamers that carry steerage
sengers are there boats enough to give each one a
seat In a boat. Yet there is probably not one OF
the steamers that does not carry more boats than
she is required by government to carry.
None OF the lines between New York and England
sail under the American nag. and none. therefore.
come under the inspection OF the American govern
ment for no American or English law of inspection
is held to apply to . foreign vessel The British
law according to its letter. guarantee GER
tain protection to all board. for the Passenger
act declares that passenger ships must carry ~
many boats as are sufficient. in the Judgment of the
mgrant officer at the port of clearance to carry all
the persons on board. One of these must be long
boat and one must be hfeboat properly fitted.
y Vessels or 600 tons and over must carry ut
least two lifeboats.
The subject however. in England is practically,
left to the control Of the Board Trade and under
their rules the letter of the law is not carried out
unless indeed, "the judgment of the emigrant off-
GER is that the boats can carry many more persons
rule of inspection in this country the number of
persons be definitely fxed, for our inspectors
multiply the length OF boat by Its breadth of beam
aud that by the depth lin feet and divide the product
by ten. The quotient Ia the quota of passengers
Even this rule gives a boat more passengers than
good sailor would care to trust in one For rats
the American rule is that there must be for ocean
service three cubic feet OF buoyancs H. OF alright
cylinder) for each passenger. For sound and bay
service there must be two cubic feet for each passe
ger The English rule Of inspection the reporter is
q great number Of ships officers.
THE LAW THAN oBEYED
As was said, probably every English passenger
steamer plying to this port carries more boats than
her certificate OF inspection requires. The most of
them carry ten. These are carefully inspected by
the government officer before each voyage, and q
test Is always made OF the efficiency of the crew by
an inspector drill That officer all hands being on
deck gives the word suddenly to lower some one Of
the boats choosing one at random. Three minutes
are then allowed at the expiration of which time
"
order is given to lower some other In addition
to this drill the of most steamers
every Sunday. in the use OF the boats when the
comparison Of the different lines, in regard to
the completeness Of their outfits life saving ap-
plances and the efficiency OF their life saving SER
vice. was undertaken by the reporter. but owing to
the real pretended ignorance of the agents the
different lines. ana the curt refusal of the
captains to give the information asked for to the
public, the result OF the investigation is not
plete As far IS 1t goes, however it will be found
of great interest and this especially account OF the
fact stated by statsticans that there has been
late years marked decrease in the number of ves-
sells lost but that the decrease in the number lives
THE WHITE STAR EQUIPMENTS.
Mr. Cortis, of the White Star line said that his
company had had no experience in the use OF life
RATS, but had adopted them believing from the ex-
oi the alins ,a aaes wSaia , prove owe
been procured for the Adratc and two would be put
each steamer OF the line they arrived in order
at this port. The White Star steamers carried ten
boats each, which would hold average seventy
persons each. while the largest would accommodate
ninety. He should say there 1000 life pre-
servers and life buoys board each ship including
one for each sailor. His ships had permission to
carry about twelve hundred persons each. including
the crew. He declared it was nipracticable make
different parts OF the ships buoyant that they could
be used as RATS
RATS not yet on board. but that there were
eight boats, and he showed them and their equip
ments with pride These boats lay under the dsvts.
along the bulwarks either side of the ship with
their keels blocked. Their aggregate capacity is
than the 1000 cubic feet required by the certi-
cate and the two RATS are therefore outside of the
legal requirements The boats all .'double-end-
ers' aud .cinker built" which means that the
boards composing their outsides laid like the
clapboards ON an old-txshioned house, making them
very stanch. There are lockers at both ends. The
sides of the smaller boats under the gtfhwales
lined with cork. covered with watertght canvas,
and along the sides OF the two barges (Which life
boats are alright compartments. One compass
for each boat il kept the spar deck ready to be
shipped instantly. The two jolly boats hang from
the forecastle davts and are kept always ready tor
instant use IN ornaiy ina, .ner xeels
taut. The other boats are kept covered with canvas
Each boat has "jigger" rigging. -t.-
In each boat there is mast, boom, .gaff aud jib
and mainsails. 1t has three four spare oars.
besides for each osrlock. 1t has also grapple
anchor, with forty five fathoms either OF iron cable
or rope . rudder one or two water casks, according
to the number of people it IL intended to hold
tanning eighteen and thirty-six gallons each; two
iron dppers for bailing, two "ring or lie buoys.
with eighteen fathoms of line. and twelve life belts
Enough lite belts kept stored in the stateroom
steerage few life buoys and on the bridges
three four more. SO tar the reporter could
boat accommodations for 600 at the outside tin-
Guiding the rafts). The ships certificate allows her
to carry 1906 passengers. and with this number .
crew OF over one hundred would be necessary.
THE TRANSATLANTIC COMPANY.
MIR. L. de Beban. of the Transatlant c Company,
said that each his line carried eight boats
and more life than those of any other line
in comparison with the number OF passengers. They
did not carry rafts rs it was difficult to get people
Mana nf hnaf nfo
cient capacity to accommodate 700 persons in ALL and
it not to carry enough tor all the ships
passengers, as they would take up too much room.
He thought that the only real danger to ocean
steamers was from collision, and il was impossible
The captain of the st. Laurent of this line de-
clared, however, that he had eight boats all life-
boats. which he could take on every soul on
board and that he had more lite preservers than the
ship ever carried of persons on board all told.
OFFICIAL COURTESY.
Captain Cook of the Gallia (Cunard line), testify
considered that the HERALD knew too much already.
IAN know is," he said. "that my ship is full Of
cork. 1 carry life preservers enough for everybody
board, aud good many more" Mr.. Allen. of the
ne declared that there two life preservers
in each stateroom. How many were provided for
the steerage passengers he could not say could
he give exact information about the boats The life
preservers. he saia were carried out or Difference
server was twenty-four pound shot. The longer
stayed aioa in the water in OF disaster at
the worse of he was. 1t was not calculated that
any disaster would but. IL any occurred
it was not expected that anybody would be saved
Mr.. Underhill. OF the Williams Guion line. said
he did not know about the boats carried by the
steamers OF his line. He did know. however. that
the Arizona. the newest and largest OF the line
ried ten boats. He did not know anything about
lferafts and could not say how many life preservers
carried. A few deer hair mattresses, of
kind had been put board, and excellent lite
preservers. one OF them being sufficiently buoyant
to support several persons In the water.
Port Captain Duer. Of the same line. had not much
information to give. The ships of the line would
carry Thousand twelve hundred passengers,
sixty to one hundred of whom were cabin passen-
gers. He did nos know whether life preserver was
carried tor each passenger. The Wyoming. Wiscon-
sin and Nevada carried each eight boits and the Ar-
zona and Montana ten each. He did not think rats
were as good rs boats as they were liable to be
disabled by having holes broken in them. The best
he thought, were those of rubber In case of dis
aster he would get into boat rather than raft
The chief officer of the Wisconsin said that her
eight boats would accommodate Mt least thirty-nve
persons each. He did not know how many life pre-
servers carried With the the Wisconsin
could carry 1850 souls.
AN OFFICER WHO KNEW HIS SHIPS EQUIPMENT.