LIFE-BELT DRILL
Now the cry is “life-belts,” and a universal knowledge of how to use them. We are told that very few of the bodies recovered from the Empress were encircled with life-belts. Very probably if all the passengers who could get to the decks, and so were not carried down in their cabins, had worn life-belts, most of them would have remained afloat in the water until rescued. But possibly they never thought of life-belts; and it is a fair conjecture that many would not have known how to put them on if they had thought of them. Most passengers take the whole voyage on a “liner” without once studying out how best to attach to themselves the life-belts which hang ready for them in their cabins.
A life-belt drill would be an excellent thing for the first day out. The passengers would find it entertaining, and they could each in this way learn that the particular life-belt which belonged to him, was in order, and what to do with it if an alarm came. A little instruction of this sort, and every passenger—at a midnight outcry—would be more anxious to get on his life-belt than his clothes before he rushed up on deck to see what was the matter. If a life-boat drill is necessary for the crew, a life-belt drill is necessary for the passengers.