Judging not only by the details we receive from the survivors of lost ships, but from what actually comes before our notice as we travel to and fro, it appears as a fact indisputable, that not only are steamboats ill supplied with the requisites for saving life in case of shipwreck, but that what they have are seldom of use when wanted. With long boats on board that can only be hoisted out under favourable circumstances, cutters and gigs at the davits lashed and secured, and covered with tarpaulin, filled with hay perhaps, or vegetables, containing neither oars, compass, or tow-rope, is it a wonder that in nearly every case of shipwreck we find the loss of life aggravated by the confusion and mismanagement which accompanies the lowering of boats, or the attempted construction of a raft? A few hundred pounds would amply supply every ship with the requisites for preservation of life in addition to those they already possess, and of what account is this sum in the grand total of the cost of a steam-ship? Air-boats, or life-buoys, are by no means perishable or costly articles, but how much less sad would have been the history of sinking and burning troop-ships, had they been supplied with them?[31]
Of what avail is the splendid discipline and admirable courage that is displayed by soldiers in burning and sinking ships, when each man has but to wait the hour when he must go overboard and drown helplessly. I would not only have each soldier in a troop-ship provided with a life-buoy, but I would also that each man, previous to sailing, should be made to go once into deep water with the life-buoy on, so that he might be convinced in smooth water that the cork would uphold his weight—a fact more difficult to believe when the trial has to take place in a hurricane, and from a sinking ship.
Each vessel carries (or rather should carry) a sufficient number of spare spars to replace those that may be carried away; there is seldom a call for the largest of these in a well-managed ship, yet they form part of her furniture, and are generally lashed on deck or under the chains.
By a little management these spare topmasts and yards might be so fitted, without impairing their utility, as to form a raft, in conjunction with casks, in a very short time. The crew might be practised shortly after leaving port at launching these spars and connecting them; the passengers would be instructed equally with the crew; and in emigrant and troop ships those who could swim might at once be sent overboard (with their life-buoys) to assist in the construction of the raft.[32]
To make this more plain, let us suppose a ship, whether carrying troops, emigrants or passengers, to be twenty-four hours out of port; an order is posted up that all hands are to muster on deck with their life-buoys at a given hour, when the fire-bell will be sounded. The ship or steamer is hove to, the spars are unlashed, launched, and the raft is put together, the boats are lowered, and the passengers then see at least that the means of safety are provided for them. Those that can swim can go overboard if they please and lend a hand. Hoist everything on board, and you have lost perhaps three hours of your passage time, but a vast deal has been accomplished towards saving life, if the ship that night should run upon a rock and perish. Everything would be in its place, and all that could be done would be done.
I fear that there would be much opposition to such a plan on board passenger ships, for when danger is far off there is little disposition to submit to any arbitrary regulations, even though adopted for their own safety; but in emigrant and troop ships the practice might be enforced. I would have troops and emigrants mustered regularly with their life-buoys on, and the swimmers formed into a squad with a certain duty appointed for them. Each man should know his station in the hour of danger, and the fire-bell be sounded once a week for practice. A little ingenuity in the formation of buoys, adapted to the peculiarities of the frame of the raft, would so secure a large body of men in the frame that, even if they perished from exposure or starvation, they would still be found there floating, and although suspense might have made death more terrible to them, this would be preferable to their being washed off one by one, after vain attempts to cling to rolling casks, and spars, and hen-coops, lashed together, with no more system than the urgency of the moment suggested to the few who, under ordinary circumstances, are prepared, in case of shipwreck, to make a rational effort for the preservation of their lives; for the want of a lashing, or an axe, or a tow-rope for a boat at such times will peril the lives of all; but, when all is provided, confidence and courage are there also, and life may be saved.
They say drowning men will catch at a straw; let us give our brave soldiers something to catch at, in the hour of emergency, that will serve to keep them at least a short time above water; and let our “Royal Mail lines� take some precautions of this nature for their passengers, and charge for it extra, if they like, in the passage money.
Shortly after the loss of the “Amazon� I was taking a passage in one of the West India boats, and I observed that, in the ship’s fire bill, which was exposed, the crew and officers only had been stationed. I ventured to suggest to the captain that an extra clause might be inserted, to the effect that those passengers who chose to render assistance in case of fire should assemble with their blankets in some part of the ship specified, there to be placed under the charge of one of the ship’s officers; for it seemed to me that, daily perusing such a regulation, a hundred able-bodied passengers would be found, at the sound of the fire-bell, ready with their blankets, which, under the direction of an officer, they would proceed to wet if necessary. This plan, I thought, would not only render the passengers useful, but would keep them away from the boats, and, being prepared to act as a disciplined body in case of danger, the silence so necessary in these cases would be observed among them. The captain did not agree with me; but, as he did not inform me how I was in error, I was led to believe that captains of large boats get testy sometimes from serving in the Tropics, and object to passengers having any opinion in matters connected with their own safety.
CHAPTER XXIII.
“HERCULESâ€� FAILS—LAND CRABS—MR. BOBBINS—“RUSHINGâ€� THE SHIP—NEW YORK.