Speed, Elegance and Luxury : 353 



operations. Testimony offered at pre-trial hearings revealed that both 

 ships were guilty of irregularities and particularly that both ships 

 were operating at or near full cruising speed in fog or in the pres- 

 ence of fog. Both vessels were relying on radar and though both 

 ships admitted knowing for twenty minutes that they were approach- 

 ing each other and though both were moving at a combined speed 

 of forty-five land miles per hour, neither ship signaled nor spoke to 

 the other by radio phone or radio telegraph during this period. 



A trial which was to pool all the cases and claims, which accord- 

 ing to reports at one time totaled some $100,000,000, has been settled 

 out of court. Even had this trial been carried through it would have 

 had only an indirect bearing on present safety of life at sea. The only 

 purpose of the trial would have been to assign blame for this par- 

 ticular accident. 



Recommendations and acceptable standards regarding safety of 

 life at sea have from time to time been set forth by international con- 

 ventions. The last convention in 1948 did not give a ship equipped 

 with radar any authority to violate or exceed existing standards of 

 conduct. These standards require a substantial reduction of speed of 

 all vessels in the presence of fog. 



It seems obvious that it is high time for a new convention on 

 safety of life at sea to deal with the use of radar in navigation, with 

 lifeboats and their launching devices and a score of other problems 

 new and old. Until new standards are set vessels operating in or near 

 fog and maintaining high speed even though relying on radar are 

 clearly violating existing written standards. 



When safety at sea is under discussion attention naturally turns to 

 the protection of the lives of passengers on ocean steamers. It is in- 

 teresting to note, however, that one of the earliest and most effective 

 devices for the protection of life as well as property on the high seas 

 was applied to cargo vessels. Aside from being effective it was also 

 economical, for it consisted of no more than some lines of paint, judi- 

 ciously and conspicuously placed on the outside of the freighter's hull. 



After an appalling set of losses to British freighters an English 

 Member of Parliament, Samuel Plimsoll of Derby, introduced a bill 

 requiring that all freighters sailing under British registry should 

 carry a series of marks, which he devised, to show the safe limits to 

 which the vessel might be loaded under various conditions of sail- 

 ing. These ranged from a relatively deep load line or water line, per- 

 mitted in the Mediterranean and other protected waters, to a more 



