Suggestions Eor reducing the toss by Eire on vessees. 213 



Her spar deck is of steel. Another steel bulkhead extends across the ship aft 

 of the engine room space, which isolates the purser's office, check room, etc., from 

 the other parts of the main deck. Her after cargo hold is similar to the forward one, 

 with the exception that no freight is stowed below the after orlop deck. 



The ship is fitted with about 300 sprinklers, of which there are about 1 1 5 in 

 freight spaces and the remainder in various parts of the crew's quarters and passen- 

 ger accomodations. In the cargo spaces each sprinkler covers from eighty to one 

 hundred and twenty square feet of floor space. Starting with a six inch pipe from 

 the pump the sizes are gradually reduced until the final connection to each sprinkler 

 had itself is a three-quarter inch pipe. 



It might be well to call attention to the fact that we have not seen fit to place 

 sprinkler heads in every stateroom as I really believe this to be unnecessary on a 

 ship arranged like the Alabama for the following reasons: 



Staterooms that are occupied only by passengers, and having a window opening 

 on a deck, as well as a doorway opening to the inside of the cabin, afford two oppor- 

 tunities to approach the fire, should a fire originate in a stateroom. A fire in a state- 

 room on a steamer used on comparatively short runs, is almost unheard of. There 

 are but three causes that I can think of that might cause a stateroom fire, two of 

 which the crew would be informed of very shortly by the person starting it having 

 to leave the room, namely, the use of the alcohol lamp, carelessness in smoking, or 

 possibly defective electric light wiring. To guard against fire originating in an un- 

 occupied room we have placed two thermostats in every room, which should give 

 an immediate alarm, and it is impossible for a fire originating in a stateroom to gain 

 rapid headway, owing to the construction of the room, and the athwartship bulk- 

 heads, as you know, do not burn very readily. We have abandoned the old fashioned 

 grill over the staterooms, and fitted them with solid panel transoms, which the 

 passengers may open or close at will. We find that as a rule they are kept closed. 

 This also has a tendency to pi event the spread of fire. Where a stateroom is cleaned 

 every day and contains nothing but bedding and towels, you can see that there is 

 very little, in fact nothing, there to start a fire. We have, however, placed a sprinkler 

 head in our inside rooms for the reason that they afford only one opening from which 

 the fire could be attacked by a stream of water. We have also placed a line of 

 sprinklers in the hallways between the inside and outside staterooms. The crew's 

 quarters are all sprinkled for the reason that in these rooms men accumulate cloth- 

 ing and junk of every description, which might possibly permit of spontaneous com- 

 bustion. We have also placed a sprinkler head under every stairway, and in what 

 is generally called locker spaces, as with the very best of care, employes are apt to 

 accumulate and throw papers, rags, and most anything into them, which in reaUty 

 should be thrown overboard. 



The following is a list of pumps, hose connections, etc., connected to sprinkler 

 system and hose lines: 



