OIL-COVERED BATHERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 November 1923, Page 1

OIL-COVERED BATHERS.

LONDON. slept. 10. Notwithstanding the operation of the Oil in Navigable Waters Act of 102 d, which came into force in January last, miller which the discharge or escape of oil from vessels within British territorial waters is punishable with a fine of £IOO, complain-ts have been rite throughout the summer of bathers, and especially those at some of the southern resorts, being covered with thick, black •rrouse which ruins their costumes and is only removed by the application of petrol followed by hot baths. Thousands of sea birds, razor-bills, guillemots and scoters, have been found with their feathers so clogged with the filth that they have been unable to rise from the water and have drifted to shore, there to perish, miserably of starvation. Proposals have been put forward from time i<> time for dealing with the oil waste from ships, and a new kind oi filter barge, specially built for the purpose for service on the River Thames, was tried last January. Xow. however, a process has been invented for u=o on board ship. The bilge and oil-tank ballast is passed through the apparatus, which returns the oil to the oil tanks and the purified water is pumped into the sea devoid of any trace ' f a*practical demonstration of the new apparatus is to take place within the no'-t few da vs. at which prominent shipowners and' engineers will Ik- present.