INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA. 299 



Where such emergency apparatus is installed with a range of 100 nautical miles communica- 

 tion with the dynamos in the ship's engine-room is not required. This form of installation is 

 somewhat more expensive than the usual installation but is of the most efficient type yet de- 

 vised, and its use as the main wireless installation, rather than as an emergency installation, 

 is thus encouraged by the convention. 



OPERATORS. 



The London Radiotelegraphic Convention of 1912, which has been ratified by the prin- 

 cipal maritime powers, provides that every radio station on shipboard shall be in charge of 

 a certificated operator able to transmit and receive messages at the rate of 20 words a min- 

 ute (first grade) or 12 words a minute (second grade). The London Radiotelegraphic Con- 

 vention of 1912 divided wireless stations on shipboard into three classes : First, those which 

 maintain a constant service throughout the 24 hours; second, those which maintain a service 

 during limited stated intervals of the day or night; and, third, those having no fixed hours 

 of service. That convention provided that wireless stations on shipboard should be arranged 

 according to these classes by the Governments concerned. This classification, however, had 

 been suspended to await the action of the recent conference. At this conference nations dif- 

 fered as to the meaning of the classification, the American delegation holding that this former 

 classification dealt with the commercial operations of wireless ship stations and that their 

 use for purposes of safety at sea required a dififerent arrangement. Representatives of cer- 

 tain other nations held that the London conference of 1912 had taken up the matter of safety 

 at sea and that the present conference could only complete the work of classification outlined 

 at the former conference. 



The American delegation insisted on the principle of a continuous wireless watch on all 

 ships by operators, aided, if necessary, by watchers not skilled in the transmission of mes- 

 sages. Several of the continental nations insisted that the better plan would be to main- 

 tain the continuous watch on a relatively smaller number of vessels and to provide these with 

 skilled certificated operators. Article 34 of the convention represents a compromise between 

 these divergent views. It lays down the principle that on all ships equipped with wireless ap- 

 paratus the Governments respectively shall require a continuous watch to be maintained dur- 

 ing navigation as soon as they consider that it will be of service for the purpose of safety of 

 life at sea. The United States has already expressed itself in favor of the continuous watch 

 for purposes of safety of life, and it is understood that at the time the convention takes 

 effect the British Government will be prepared to take the same view. The German represen- 

 tatives expressed some doubt as to whether on less frequented routes, as along the west 

 coast of Africa, a continuous watch could be effectively maintained, and Italian representa- 

 tives doubted the need of it on short voyages on the frequented routes of the Adriatic, where 

 ships may employ the ordinary means of communication by flags and lights. Pending the 

 conclusions on such routes, which are mainly in waters not frequented by vessels over which 

 the United States has control, the convention provides (Art. 33) for two first-grade op- 

 erators on all ships with an average speed of 15 knots or more, carrying 25 or more passen- 

 gers. This includes most trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific passenger steamers in trade with 

 the United States. A continuous watch is also required on ships of an average speed of 

 more than 13 knots, having on board 200 persons or more, passengers and crew, making voy- 

 ages of more than 500 miles between two consecutive ports. Trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific 

 passenger steamers in trade with the United States not included in the first group fall, with 



