DISCUSSION ON TWO PRECEDING PAPERS. 27 



struction, with the full approval of his colleagues, felt impelled to call attention to the serious 

 obligation still remaining with those who owned and operated ships to do their utmost to 

 render them safe under the ordinary conditions of navigation, as indicated in the following 

 paragraphs taken from the report of the American Commission to the President of the 

 United States : — 



"It is not claimed that ideals have been attained ; indeed, there is always room for im- 

 provement and progress. But a good beginning has been made, and it is believed that the 

 spirit shown by the representatives of the various countries participating in the Conference 

 afifords ample evidence that there will follow, through the instrumentalities provided by the 

 Convention, still further developments in ship construction and arrangement which will in- 

 crease the safety of travel at sea. 



"It is well to bear in mind, however, that there can never be absolute safety at sea any 

 more than there can be complete security of travel by land. Even perfection of material, 

 where such is obtainable, must be accompanied by vigilance of personnel and the exercise of 

 careful and prudent seamanship. In fact, we may accept without reservation the absolute 

 accuracy of the following paragraph from the summary of the work of the committee on 

 Safety of Construction, as given in the closing address of Lord Mersey, the President of 

 the Conference: — 



" 'It is important to point out that, even after the most careful attention to all practicable 

 details of design which increase the safety of a vessel at sea, there still remains the possi- 

 bility of a serious and totally destructive accident. Therefore, it is imperative that those 

 charged with the management of vessels should never relax their vigilance on the supposi- 

 tion that any vessel is unsinkable. On the contrary, they should strive to add to the safety 

 provided by the vessel itself that very great increase in safety which results from prudent 

 and skilful management and navigation.' " 



The Chairman: — Any further discussion on these oapers? 



Mr. Theodore Lucas, Member: — I should like to ask a question in regard to the table 

 on page 16, that perhaps could be explained in connection with the factors under Column A. 

 It seems that small ships have a factor of 1.00. Does that indicate that there would be no 

 bulkheads at all in these small vessels, or would it be exclusive of the bulkheads perhaps at 

 the bow or collision bulkhead and the machinery bulkheads? 



It is gratifying to see the interest at the present time that is given to the subdivision of 

 ships. I had the pleasure about fourteen years ago to present before this Society a paper 

 in which I drew attention to the great lack in that direction, particularly subdivision and 

 also stability. We have recently had an accident upon the St. Lawrence River where the 

 collier Storstad ran into the steamer Empress of Ireland, and the ship heeled over and 

 went down through loss of stability rather than lack of subdivision. It would seem wise 

 that some attention should be given to this question of stability, because it would not be so 

 difficult to establish for a ship certain standards of heeling capacity to which the ship could 

 be measured under different conditions. We note here in these subdivision tables that they 

 do take care of different character and density of cargo. That could be applied as easily to 

 the other, and perhaps a reasonable factor will result. 



A member suggested that a committee might be appointed from the membership of the 



