The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-02-06
TULE PRESERYERS
ARE THE BEST
AN ECHO FROM THE WRECK OF
THE VALENCIA - INSPECTOR
BULGER ON LIFE BUOYs.

Among the survivors from the ghast-
ly wreck Of the S. S. Valencia on the
ragged coast of Vancouver Island was
Professor Frank Bunker, bound to
Seattle to take charge of the citys
school system He had the awful an
guish of seeing his wife and two chill
dren perish before his eyes and is at
present much quoted in the coast paper
as to the details of the disaster.
one particular charge he makes is
that the life-preservers Of the Valencia
were made of "rushes which sink and
are not buoyant like cork" The state
ment is further made that the ship
was inspected at Seattle two weeks be-
fore her loss and in view of the fact
that Captain Bolles and Bulger, in
spectors of hulls and boilers are now
in Honolulu, the matter was enquired
into by the Star.
Il do not know anything about the
lost steamer Valencia" said Inspector
Bulger for I had nothing to do with
her. She was inspected at Seattle and
we have nothing to do with that. On
/ L
may speak in general terms for there
is a misrepresentation regarding the
sustaining powers md efficiency of the
tule buoys. Some people refer to them
as being made of rushes, well, they are,
but the air spaces in the tule are so
large and so well protected that they
form a much better life buoy than does
cork
Il have been sixteen years in the
business of inspecting vessels and 1
willingly put myself on record as to
that.
after the terrible Gen Slocum dis
aster in New York Admiral Louis
Kempff of the U. S. Navy, was detail
ed to make an inspection of the differ
ent life buoys in use round San Fran
cisco. He did this thoroughly and
proved conclusively the buoyancy of
the tule preservers. AS an instance,
he took one tule life belt that was six
teen years old and immersed it with
weight of twenty-eight pounds. 1t
foated for SO days. A human being
of the average weight of $50 pounds will
require an assisted buoyancy of only
6R pounds when in the water, The
British Board of Trade requires buoys
with a buoyancy Of 14h pounds but
the United States regulations insist
on a buoyancy of "a pounds and that
regulation is lived up to.
| AT Hilo quite recently we made
some experiments in the matter of the
respective merits of buoys before some
of the island captains and the advan-
/ tage of tule over cork was effectively
/ demonstrated"
1t was pointed out to the inspector
/ that Notwithstanding the vigilance of
| the officers charged with inspecting, it
would be a simple matter for captain
or company so inclined 70 replace good
life buoys with poor ones when the
! inspectors were out of sight, that is to
keep one set for purposes of inspection
and to fill up the racks with trash.
Il don't believe it for a minute" he
said What would be the use? The
buoys cost only ninety-five cents and
for so slight a cost no vessel is going
to take the desperate chance of losing
her papers altogether.
There is one matter in this life buoy
question which must be remembered, :"
he said "A strong man and good
swimmer in heavy sea will not last
more than three hours and a half, on
the average, under wreck conditions.
! Most of US would only last an hour
while women and children would perish
| in little or no time. The conditions of
! the Valencia wreck were such that life
| buoys or lack of them had little to dc
| with the terrible loss of life. Its a
bad coast. Jagged granite rocks stick
up along there and I can easily under
stand how impossible it was for other
| steamers to get near enough to give
! assistance, with the heavy sea run
! ming"