The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1896-11-24

"
ter front Of a large commercial city
and look closely at the big ocean
steamships and sailing ships moored
along the wharfs, you viii notice
that many Of them have n White
circle and lot of white lines mark
ed on their sides, close 10 the water,
almost as IL some bad boy had been
chalking a picture there Of n griddle
cake and O gridiron, but when you
find that hundreds Of ships are mark
ed just the same way, those painted
light colors having the marks in
black, you know that those marks
really mean something of impor-
tanoe in connection with the ships
on which you sec them. II yen
should notice more closely, you
would soon discover that all the
ships belonging to Great Britain,
even the magnificent passenger
steamers, like the Lucania and Teu-
tonic, were marked with those queer
signs, and that ships of no other ma
ton had them, If you were 10 ask
some sailor what the mark meant,
he would tell you briefly that 1t il
the Plimsol mark, and you would
be no wiser than before-in fact, he
probably would not know much
more than that bare fact himself.
That ugly mark, however, is the
safeguard to hundreds of vessels on
the stormy ocean and to thousands
of lives and to millions Of dollars
worth Of freight. It has only been
in use about 20 years, only properly
used for the last 10 years, and Is
stin adopted by only one great sea-
faring nation in all the world.
Twenty-Five years ago it was no
uncommon thing for ships to 60 out
TO sea laden with valuable cargo and
hopeful human beings never to be
seen or heard of again People on
shore, even the owners of the car
goes and relatives of the passengers,
would take il Rs something they
must be prepared to expect on 40
count Of the dangers Of the ocean.
Finally one man determined to make
a study Of the subject and see IL
such terrible tragedies were really
unavoidable. He was an infexible
Englishman named Plimsoll, and q
member of parliament He spent
day after day along the docks watch
ing ships loading and unloading,
coming in and going out He talked
with shipowners, captains and sail
ors. He saw ships sent to sea with
leaky bottoms, rotten spars and
wornOut rigging, with rusty boilers
and rattletrap engines. He saw them
loaded until even in the still waters
of the harbor their upper decks were
down to the waters edge, and this
overlooking seemed TO be the worst
and most frequent fault
Then he went back to parliament
and introduced a bill to put a mark
on the sides of ships to show how
deeply they could with safety be
loaded. The mark suggested was n
circle with n horizontal line through
its center. When this horizontal line
was down to tho waters edge, no
more freight was to be put into a
vessel. She was to be considered
loaded. Immediately Mr.. Plimsol'
brought down upon himself the
wrath of shipowners, while every
body else laughed at his cranky idea,
but he was not going to be downed.
He published n book telling all he
had learned about the criminal over.
loading of vessels and their wretch.
ed condition when sent to sea-
At last he got a vague sort Of an
act passed, giving the board of trade
power to survey ships going 20 sea
and to stop those which seemed tc
be unseaworthy. This was in 1873,
and during the first nine months oi
the act 266 vessels were surveyed
and 256 of them found unseaworthy.
. At least one in every ten was found
to be SO dangerously overloaded as
+ to be in almost q sinking condition
| before leaving the dock. or coursc
this opened the eyes of the board oI
trade and of parliament, and Plim
soils mark became an established
feature on British seagoing ships
= but its establishment was Tough
I against by shipowners inch by inch
1t was nicknamed the pancake
and ridiouled and treated with con
: tempt in every way. Some shipown
S srs put the mark ON their smoke
stacks in defiance and derision
, Plimsoll held to his idea, however
even getting himself suspended from
the house Of commons one day 70
S being too blunt and violent in hi
: plain talk upon the subject. The re
n suit was the merchant ahinninR an