INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA. 



By E. T. Chamberlain, Esq., Honorary Associate. 



[Read at the twenty-second general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in 



New York, December 10 and 11, 1914.] 



The International Conference on Safety of Life at Sea assembled at London on 

 November 12, 1913, and ended its labors on January 20, 1914, when accredited repre- 

 sentatives of the thirteen principal powers signed the most comprehensive inter- 

 national agreement relating to the merchant marine which has ever been effected. 



Even the casual student of the history of American diplomacy will find satis- 

 faction in the attainment of an agreement which so fully accords with the principles 

 of benevolence, freedom and reciprocity enunciated in respect of maritime commerce 

 by Benjamin Franklin and other fathers of the republic and since consistently 

 followed, with but slight deviations through temporary causes, as the permanent 

 maritime policy of the United States. 



To American commerce and industry such an international agreement is of 

 large and direct value. During this summer all forms of gainful occupation in 

 America have had brought home to them the measure of their dependence, hitherto 

 unappreciated, upon the freedom of ocean transportation. What the shock of war, 

 temporarily shutting up in harbors the ships which conduct our international ex- 

 changes, has done on a vast scale, in a lesser degree conflicting maritime regulations 

 by different nations also effect in delay and obstruction to commerce. Every year, 

 under normal conditions, two million passengers, in round numbers, cross the At- 

 lantic between the United States and Europe, much more than half of whom are 

 either our own citizens or those who come to make our country their permanent 

 home. Measures, accordingly, such as the conference incorporated into the Inter- 

 national Convention on Safety of Life at Sea, intimately affect the peace and 

 happiness of homes throughout the United States. The London Conference and 

 its conclusions are of special interest to the Society of Naval Architects and Marine 

 Engineers. The influence which the United States exerted in shaping the conclu- 

 sions of the conference was due in a large measure to the helpful co-operation 

 of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers in the work of prepa- 

 ration in this country for the conference and to the active work of six of its 

 members who constituted a majority of the American delegation. The more dif- 

 ficult subjects treated in the Convention relate directly to the technical work of 

 many members of the Society, and these, I understand, will be discussed in other 

 papers at the annual meeting. 



In the order of their signature to the Convention, which was executed in the 

 French language, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the 



