STEAMBOAT DISASTERS.

257

GENERAL LIBRA University

MICHIGAN

national compacts, to come out by one route and return by another, as is the rule by the Cunard and the Inman Companies. We never take up a paper (especially in the season of fogs and full lists of passengers) without looking for a terrible collision, involving the loss of many precious lives: the catastrophe must come sooner or later, and, until it does come, nothing will be done in regard to the establishing of what is generally known as the "ocean-lanes." In the early part of 1874 an effort was made by a committee appointed by the Social Science Association, in conjunction with the Institute of Technology of Massachusetts, to examine into and report on the subject of "ocean-lanes" the writer was chairman of the committee, and his associates were chosen from among prominent merchants of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; and Professor Benjamin Peirce was a member; much correspondence ensued; the report of the writer, dated early in January, 1875, winds up with the following words: "Your committee deem it to be of very small importance whether we adopt the Maury, Wyman, Inman, Cunard, or the Blunt tracks, as compared to adopting some well-defined courses. So long as we avoid a too near approach to the Virgin rocks, Cape Race, and Nantucket Shoals, and keep our track to the west as narrow as possible when on the fishing-grounds, it matters little which we adopt; what we require is, a general concurrence of opinion among steam-lines." Referring to Professor Peirce's views as expressed at a meeting on the 20th of May, and alluded to in a report of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, the report goes on to say: "These views are of primary importance, and, if they can be carried out, will do more to meet the question of safety to life and property than all the figures on latitude and longitude, fog, icebergs, and collisions."

The effort failed mainly for want of a concurrence of opinion among the managers of steamship lines, and collaterally for want of the active coöperation of Professor Peirce, who, although in Europe, and much interested in the subject, could not give time to it. This matter of defined courses, out and home, stands first in importance in discussing the preventives of grave ocean disasters. Assuming that the discipline on board of the principal steamers carrying only first-class passengers and cargoes is as nearly perfect as can be expected, there is still room for improvement in the life-saving appliances; many of the boats wrongly classed as "life-boats are very heavy, and, in the long run, will be less useful in saving life than lighter boats would be, and they fail altogether as compared to

rafts. Besides their defects as "life-boats," they are generally so badly stowed and fitted for lowering as seldom to be found ready for the duty expected of them.

In discussing the matter of rafts, it will be well to keep in mind that wooden and metallic rafts, depending on being tight for their integrity, while less liable to injury from the attacks of vermin and fire than India-rubber rafts, may have imperfections without showing them; whereas the latter, if kept partially inflated, will at once show a leak. In cases where persons throw themselves overboard to escape fire, the wooden and the metallic rafts are more likely to injure them when they are launched than the softer rubber rafts; so that, on the whole, and disregarding the very important matter of cost, we think the rubber raft is best. Steamers should have more rafts than boats, and every movable seat on deck should be a life-preserver. Every door should be fitted to be easily unhung and made available as a raft, and after all this is done the ship herself should be as nearly unsinkable as possible; this can only be accomplished by having the engine-room, the boiler-room, and the cargo spaces absolutely shut off from each other; and the lower deck, on which the ship depends principally for the integrity of the cargo-compartments, should be of iron, and every hatch should be secured so as to be as tight as a man-hole in a boiler. Every compartment should have its own pump and its own chemical device for putting out fire. Add to these precautions careful packing of valuable goods, in water-tight casks or bales, so that each package shall be a floating power, and then stowing them intelligently, so that the lighter goods shall be put in the fine ends of the ship, and we shall have some approach to an unsinkable ship. Instead of one collision-bulkhead, generally placed rather too far from the stem, there should be two, so that, in the event of a rupture filling the forward compartment, the ship's trim shall not be materially affected. Supposing the forward compartment to be stowed full of floatable packages, every one can see that a rupture filling all the vacant spaces among the goods would not interfere materially with the trim or the safety of the ship. This matter of packing all valuable goods in perfectly tight casks or bales, while of great importance to underwriters, is also of great importance as a life-saving measure.

Next in importance are the signals and the lights. Fog-signals by whistle should denote approximately the course the ship is steering. There have been, of late, several publications on fog-signals: one bas an automatic arrangement by which a signal is given for

every two points of the compass; another still further subdivides the code, so that the most accomplished deck-officer, with nothing else to do, could not fail to make mistakes! The safest fog-signal should denote simply whether the ship is going northerly, southerly, easterly, or westerly. As to lights, the electric light has lately been highly recommended as the best to denote the position of an approaching ship; but grave doubts exist as to the effect upon the vision of the party showing it, so that we have some doubt as to its adoption as the principal light for a steamer. The usual screenlights-the port one red and the starboard one green-are generally much too small. A steamer of large proportions should have lighthouses large enough for a man to enter, and the light should be capable of being seen much farther than the twopenny lights in general use.

Having said thus much as to preventives in ocean-steamers, we now come to the peculiar class of steamers running in our sounds, bays, rivers, and along our coast. The late lamentable accidents. by collisions and by fire have elicited many loud and some unreasonable comments; there is much to be said both for the public and for the parties controlling the steamers; great stress is laid upon discipline and organization, and one writer goes so far as to include the drilling of the crowd of passengers; strict man-of-war discipline is out of the question on board of craft where the crew and firemen may walk on shore whenever they please; but there should be frequent inspection by the representatives of the laws and by the officers of the steamers. Now, as these craft can not afford to have a full crew, well drilled, for each boat and each raft, they should have at least a competent seaman as captain to each, and he should be held responsible for the efficiency of his boat or raft; to provide men to man all the boats and rafts at present, we must depend on the waiters and sub-officers and passengers, and all except the latter should have stations assigned to them in the event of a call to quarters. There should be at least one raft and one boat for every one hundred persons permitted to be carried, and these should be so hung and so stowed as to be accessible to the most inexperienced traveler. In harbor, or excursion-steamers running on short routes, the so-called life-preservers required by law to sustain twenty-four pounds of dead-weight should be kept in sight, handy to be got at, and they should have strings strong enough to hold the considerable strain on them when a person jumps overboard from a height. There should be posted at several

points on the steamer and in every state-room a clear illustration of the mode of attaching the life-preservers, and every chair, every seat, every door, should be a life-preserver; add to this a lot of the round life-buoys, called after the inventor the "Cartes buoy," slightly fastened to the deck-rails; and in such cases as the Narragansett and the Seawanhaka, burned near Hell Gate, there will be a fair chance of saving many that might otherwise be lost. These buoys should have life-lines several fathoms in length attached to them. It is also recommended to follow the example of the skipper on board of whose ship St. Paul was a passenger, who, according to Scripture, cast anchor out of the stern.

In the case of the Stonington, which ran into the Narragansett, her bow being stove, it is assumed that she had no means of anchoring, and so she drifted away; when, if she had been furnished with a stream-anchor near the stern, she might have been kept nearer to the scene of the disaster and have saved more persons; and so with the Narragansett, it is possible that, by anchoring immediately by one end or the other before she grounded, the fire might have been less destructive; at all events, no one can deny that a stream-anchor and hawser near the stern may sometimes be a valuable aid in saving life. The steamer New York did excellent service in the late disaster, and her officers and crew no doubt deserve credit for their prompt assistance, but they do not, we feel sure, desire to be classed as "brave and gallant heroes" for merely doing their duty. Pending the decision of the Commissioners, we say nothing as to the culpability of the sister steamers beyond the fact that at such a time and in such a place, knowing full well that they must meet near that locality, there must be great blame somewhere. After all that has been said, we must not lose sight of the fact that the traveling public is responsible for many of the sins of omission and commission so lavishly attributed to the owners, masters, and crews of the floating palaces in which one can go to New York cheaper than he can stay at home; the traveling public should examine into the safety arrangements, in preference to the furniture of the cabins, the amount of plate-glass, the gilding, and the cuisine.

Referring to ocean accidents, a word may be said as to the manner of rescuing persons from a ship on fire, or in a sinking condition. In the case of the steamer Connaught, lost in October, 1860, when she first sprang a-leak and then took fire, the whole crew and passengers, numbering over six hundred persons, were rescued by the brig Minnie Shiffer, Captain Wilson, who made fast to her by a hawser.

In the case of the Central America, Captain Herndon, in September, 1857, when four hundred and nineteen perished out of five hundred and ninety-two, there was no attempt to make fast to the wreck, and one of the rescuing vessels, the brig Marine, hove-to under the lee and drifted away so far that, before many could be taken off, the steamer went down. Although the sea was somewhat rough, it would have been very easy, if the proper measures had been taken, when the rescuers were seen bearing down on the steamer, to have got a hawser to her, and probably, as in the case of the Connaught, all might have been saved. Captain Herndon, a gallant officer of the United States Navy, went down with the ship, refusing to leave her; besides the Marine, a schooner ran down close to the stern of the steamer. Only three of the steamer's boats were available; by the time they had left for the second trip, the brig Marine had forged ahead and drifted five miles to leeward; one boat was stove alongside of her, and the others were damaged. Soon darkness set in, the bailing was discontinued, and the steamer went down.

After the ship sank at 8 P. M., many persons were left on the débris of the wreck until at about 1 P. M. of the next day the Norwegian bark Ellen came along and picked up forty-nine persons. The thrilling account of this remarkable case was obtained from the "United States Nautical Magazine" of January, 1858. In the case of the Amazon, lost by fire in the Atlantic many years since, the steam could not be shut off, the engineers having been driven from their posts, and she went careening about at full speed, swamping nearly all the boats, with the loss of many lives. The sinking of the Birkenhead troop-ship near the Cape of Good Hope affords a brilliant illustration of military discipline: the ship struck a rock, bilged, and sank, pending which the soldiers were called under arms, and with their colors flying went down with the ship, few surviving to tell the tale. Want of space prevents the mention of many other cases where the value of discipline became prominent. One of the most effective means for saving lives in vessels of war was recommended by Admiral Ryder, of the British Navy, consisting of a life-preserving hammock. The ordinary article with a hair mattress floated nine minutes with a six-pound shot attached to the middle, and by simply oiling the ticking it floated two hours and a half; and by filling the ticking with cork-shavings a hammock was estimated as capable of sustaining two or three persons indefinitely. The writer, after reading Admiral Ryder's account, made some ex