“SAFETY FIRST” IN OCEAN STORMS

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 61, 6 December 1926, Page 11

“SAFETY FIRST” IN OCEAN STORMS

PRECAUTIONS OF CAPTAINS. Many thousands of travellers are now experiencing the unchanging routine with which a storm is greeted on the great oceans. Directly the approach of heavy weather is indicated, the staff-captain—usually accompanied by one of the other officers—starts on a tour of the main deck. Every storm door is shut, and one by one the portholes are screwed down. As a further protection, “dead lights”—metal covers to the portholes —may be fixed to protect the glass and save the outside cabins from flooding (says S. Donald Cox in the Daily News”). , , .. Continuing their tour below, the officers inspect the doors of all the watertight compartments and satisfy themselves that they move easily, and that there is nothing to impede them. Then, proceeding to the upper deck, they make sure that everything is ship-shape there. Nothing is left to chance. Each boat is inspected, and every effort is made to prepare for any emergency that mav arise.. Yet this is done, so unobtrusively that passengers rarely notice it. As a rule it is only when the order comes for all passengers to go below—a precaution taken ,if the waves are breaking over the ship—that those who are free from sea-sickness realise that they have to face a real the meantime an army of stewards are rapidly transforming the public rooms. They first turn their attention to the heavy pieces of furniture, the big plant stands,, and anything else which, may be displaced by the rolling of the ship. With the aid of heavy ropes they Issb these objects to the pillars and other fixtures. Then they tackle the tables and chairs, lasning them into barricades, securing them to fixtures and padding them, wherever possible, with mats and cushions to protect passengers who may be so unlucky as to collide with In the pantries and kitchens, . too, the approach of a storm is the signal for great activity. Crockery that is not absolutely essential is put. hway, and everything that is possible is done to lessen the inevitable damage. . Yet, in spite of every precaution, a storm is a very expensive occurrence. Some , chairs and tables must be kept in use, and crockery and glassware are needed for the hardier passengers. As a result, dozens of chairs and tables are always damaged, while the number of plates and glasses ■which are destroyed is often remarkable. One stormy week will frequently involve a shipping company in a bill for damaged equipment amounting to ten or fifteen thousand pounds. Nor is the damage limited to equipment : a storm alwavs means more work for the ship’s doctors. Every "old hand” is agreed that the passenger in a storm should sit tight and hold tight.” It may take. longer to walk round a lounge, hanging on to whatever rail or fixture may be handv, than to stride across it, but it is safer. The man who attempts to cut across the floor may find himselt flung off his feet and pitched to the bulkheads. At the best, this is undignified; at the worst it may easily result in fractured limbs or even more serious injury. . . The passenger who is at sea during a storm is better advised to follow the example of the ship’s officers and play for “safety first.”