LIFE-SAVING RAFTS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 488, 12 July 1890, Page 5

LIFE-SAVING RAFTS.

SAFETY FOR PASSENGERS. It is not, perhaps, generally known that by new regulations of too London Board of Trade, all British passenger steamers are now required to carry boats or life-rafts sufficient to give ten cubic feet of space for each passenger. They are licensed to carry ■ the sanio space for each member of the crew. These regulations are not, however, to como into force until November Ist next, by which time all steamers will have to be fitted with sufficient life-saving con- \ trivances, as they should havo been long ago. In these colonies the shipping companies are already bestirring themselves in the way of providing life-rafts, etc., and the Union S.S. Company of New Zealand and the Northern S.S. Company of Auckland are having rafts built for all their steamers. Yesterday afternoon a specimen of a lifesaving raft for use «t sea, constructed by Messrs Dunn, Smith, Drummond and Co., of Customs-street West, was publicly exhibited and tested in the Auckland Graving Dock, and aroused considerable interest. The raft is about 16ft. long, sft. 9in. beam, and consists of two largo cylinders of galvanised iron, which form the sides and the sustaining power of the raft. These cylinders each contain five watertight and airtight compartments, soldered insido and out. The framework of the raft is of wooden battens, and the whole structure is very compactly and strongly put toect.hcr, and. at the same timo, extremely buoyant. A weight of I,ooolb was placed on the raft as it floated in the dock, and three pretty substantial men were added to the load, yet the raft was only half submerged. It is built to carry 130 persons, and is fitted with oars, rowlocks, life lines, etc., complete. , If overturned in a sea, tho raft will still be quite as useful, for both sides are alike. There is no danger of its capsizing, and on a Ice shore especially it would bo vory useful. By lengthening tho davits and raising the chocks on which the present boats are carried in steamers, it will be possible to stow those lifo-rafta underneath tho boats, thus economising space. In tho event of a stoamer going down, these rafts would at will float clear and be ready for use at a moment’s notice.

The s.p. Wellington, for instance, will require uro of these rafts in addition to her boats.

This raft is remarkable as being the firet manufactured in Auckland, and almost the first in the colony. The Northern Company intend ordering 14 of them. The Union S.S. Company are also providing their vesse’s with rafts, on the American principle. They havo imported two from the United States made of tulerurhes bound together and sown in canvas, but are now man facturing some in Dunedin of different materials. The iron cyli-.dcr rafts arc believed to be the more serviceable one-*.