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SOCIETY NAVAL ARCHITECTS AND MARINE ENGINEERS. 



Ten cubic feet per person (0.283 cubic meters) are provided in lifeboats (Art. XXXIV), 

 so that the number of persons for whom there are hfeboats may be readily learned from the 

 table. Thus, the lifeboats on a vessel 300 feet long must accommodate at least 755 per- 

 sons, and on a vessel 900 feet long must accommodate 4,100. 



So far as voyages from the United States are concerned, the requirements laid down 

 in the table in Article XLIII do in fact require lifeboats for all those on board the steamers 

 which carry passengers from the United States across the Atlantic to the ports of Europe. 

 The exceptions are so rare as to demonstrate the general operation of the rule of the con- 

 vention. Careful examination has been made of the returns of the 215 ocean steamships 

 which carried over 12 passengers from^ ports of the United States across the Atlantic to 

 ports in Europe during the calendar years 1912 and 1913. During the two years these 

 steamships made 2,691 such voyages. Compliance with the requirements of the table already 

 mentioned would have secured lifeboats for all on board during such voyages, except in the 

 case of 33 voyages. The 'convention table, in other words, would have provided lifeboats 

 for all in 99 voyages out of every 100 from' the United States. These 33 voyages were 

 made by 25 steamers, the same vessel rarely twice carrying a number of passengers, requir- 

 ing the employment of the life-raft rule. These 33 exceptional voyages were (with the 

 exception of single voyages of three first-class German steamships) voyages to the Medi- 

 terranean, and in three instances were Greek steamers, which, with Mediterranean ships of 

 other nations, during the Balkan War carried many Greeks, Bulgarians, and others home 

 to join their respective colors. 



The vessels just considei"ed and others (in all 242), during 1912 and 1913, made 2,956 

 trans-Atlantic voyages to the United States from the ports of Europe, where they were under 

 the supervision of British, German, French, Italian, and other foreign authorities. On 359 of 

 these 2,956 voyages the number of persons for whom lifeboats are provided by the table in 

 Article XLIII of the convention is less than the total number who were actually on board, 

 and in such cases (about 12 per cent of the total, mainly from Mediterranean ports) life rafts 

 in addition would be required. The lifeboats, however, must provide for at least 75 per 

 cent of those on board. In one typical case of an Italian steamer 1,960 persons were on 

 board, of whom 75 per cent would be 1,470. The minimum lifeboat capacity required by the 

 convention table for such a vessel is 1,306, so that under the convention the vessel would 

 have been required to increase its lifeboats or reduce the number of passengers. In an- 



