Evening star., 1928-11-20
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

The terror of such disaster at sea
as that of the sinking of the BRUSH
steamer Vestris. with the loss OF more
| than 100 passengers, brings snuooer
! az one realizes the mightiness OF tne
ocean and the frailty OF man. WnaI
has mans ingenuity accomplished in all
the centuries toward overcoming the
ocean? How is it that watertlgnt
| compartments which were supposed, AZ
least by laymen, to make snip un, unn,,
| sinkable. or that would hold 1t up untli
! the radio could summon relieI: naVS s
| failed utterly in the case OF the VeStrlS! !
It is not the function OF newspaper
to answer why the modern t; oevlces
broke down: that Is for official 1nVeSu-
cation. The catastrophe. however, opens
I'm a question as to what are the mou-
ern DEVELOPMENTS of safety at sea.
X y X &
Accident insurance statistics have
long been used to prove that there Is
more danger to the average man OF
woman that he or she Will ole from
fall out of window at home tnan tnat
they will perish as passengers upon Z
modern steamship. insurance agaIls.
accidents takes that as a basis Tor low
/
rates against window falling.
In an article upon Safety OF Life
at sea" written by Rear Admiral j. q
Tawresey, u. S. NJ, and publSnso IN
Merchant Fleet News. the writer conf
ments upon the exaggeration oil safety
at sea, even now. He says:
t'There is no reason for any one 10
grow hvsterical as regards the risk TO
lives at sea. neither is there any reason
tn follow the enthusiasts that declare
the nronenade deck of passenger
steamer the safest place In the Worlo'
Statistics for the last 55 years may
show, as asserted in the recent shp-
ping conference at London, that pas
sengers on British ships traVeleo Ine
average of 20000,000 passenger miles
ner annun to one drowning, or, for the
last FIVE years, one drowning TO eacn
| ann 00O 900 passenger miles Travelled
small as that risk Is, 1t does not erase
from our minds the Titanic. the EN-
nress of Ireland and the Drumrnono
Castle. in addition to the scores OF otn-
er vessels with much smaller numoer
of messengers that have gone 10 sea
and never been heard from.
'"The loss of 200 passengers per yea
drowned per annum for more than 5U
wears is loss of upward OF 10000
lives. If Columbus. following his flrst
VOYAGE, had continued to the present
time to make one VOYAGE OF 5000 n1lles
each month, he would still be 4,OOO,Ooo
short of the average 2o,0OO,0OO pasSen-
ger miles to one drowning OF pas
senger. b.
"The other side Is that. according to
the averages. there would have been IN
that time a loss of $1,000 passengers by
drowning. notwithstanding the fact that
Columbus would still he short OF the
average mileage While the average
rate Of loss of life over the s. years
hos been much reduced for the last
five years. II is a risk which should sti'l
engage our attention and that cnaI-
lerges our ingenuity to effect turtnef
reduction"
There have been many devices IN
vented for making voyaglng SAFER
which have been discarded a1Ier q
practical trial Many more so obviously
impracticable that no test was neceS-
sary. It has been proposed tnat
false and f1oatable deck shoulo cover
all vessels, so that when the Vessel
sinks the deck would float OF, In sec
lions. like so many llfe-saving ra1ts,
thereon. The inventor meant well,
without actually seeing waves 40 to 90
feet high rolling over the RATS. as tney
do over lifeboats, capsizing them un-
nercifully. The impracticabillty OF
such RATS getting free from the rig.
cing and other deck obstruction ana
away from the deadly vortex whlch
sinking ship creates generally was not
considered.
Some years ago II was boasted that
all compartments of q ship could De
instantly closed by pressing an electric
button on the bridge, so that in case
shin began to leak the leakage would
be confined to the particular compart-
ment, while all the others would re-
main watertight and the ship would be
unsinkable. IT was found that such
an electric device was so complicated
that ii was almost always out OF order
so far as many compartments -2re
concerned. Now that is all abandoned
and compartments are closed only by
men under orders, stationed at every
door. That Is far more reliable than
complicated electricity. especially in
the Navy with a disciplined personnel.
Again quoting Admiral Tawresey:
There is no such thing as an unsink-
able ship. nevertheless the surest way
TO save life is to save the ship. The
safety provisions that can be built into
new ship. even though they may not
prevent ultimate foundering. will length
en- the time that she can be kept
afioat. Every additional hour that the
vessel is kept afioat multiplieS in in
creaSing ratio the chance to receive
help"
Among the new devices and inven-
tionS which have come into use within
the last Ave years Is the radio compass.
ThiS Is used In more than one way for
guiding ships near shore. Radio waves
for the common run. However, don't