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By Root 665 0

were one thing; legislation was another. It took almost a decade of agitation before Samuel Plimsoll managed to push through his bill on load lines and finally sink the infamous coffin ships. The delay was largely due to the objections of shipowners, who regarded the measures as uneconomic and lobbied Parliament to drop the subject. Plimsoll finally became so exasperated by their flannellings over the measure that he lost his temper in the House of Commons and shook his fist at the Speaker. His outburst had cheering results. Public opinion swung his way and the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876 finally introduced the Plimsoll Mark. But not all of the delays were the fault of callous shipmasters or indifferent government. It took most of the nineteenth century before the argument between steam and sail was finally settled. During that time, the design and tonnage of steam ships evolved with bewildering speed. Shipping changed so rapidly that legislation could not keep up. It would have needed a separate Act for every category of vessel to allow for all eventualities. The casualties, meanwhile, continued to increase. During the 1880s, an average of 3,000 people died every year on merchant ships alone, and it was not until the turn of the century that the figures began to decline.

In 1890, a parliamentary committee considered legislation on bulkheads (vertical watertight divisions spaced down the hull sealing one part of a ship off from the next) but, despite the Titanic’s grim example, even this change was not introduced in all large ships until 1929. A further Shipping Act in 1890 also made it compulsory for all British ships to carry lifeboats, lifebelts, lifejackets (then made of cork), ‘and other appliances for saving life at sea as are best adapted for the safety of the crew and passengers’. The Act was vague about provision and numbers, and neglected entirely the vexed question of ships above 10,000 tons. In practice, therefore, many shipowners skimped on the expenses, filled the boats with cargo or made access to safety equipment awkward if not downright impossible. Arguments still flourish about lifeboat provision on the Titanic, which at 60,250 tons was outside the terms of the legislation. Though there were twenty lifeboats, with provision for 1,178 passengers (23 per cent over the legal requirement) the ship was actually carrying around 2,200 passengers. After the disaster, some legislation was promptly enforced. All passenger or cargo-carrying vessels, of whatever tonnage, had to have a lifeboat place for every passenger, safety drill had to be regularly rehearsed, wirelesses monitored at all times, and all ships built double-hulled.

The greatest twentieth-century aid to saving lives was not initially the most obvious. By the turn of the century, wireless sets allowing communication between ship and shore were being developed. One of the first sets was fitted on the East Goodwin light vessel, allowing it to make contact with the North Foreland light. It proved its worth within a year when the ship was rammed. With the radio, the crew of the sinking ship were able to communicate with the shore and to send for help. By the outbreak of the First World War, many larger ships were fitted with wireless sets, although their initial range was limited and their signal fuzzy. But radio’s arrival had broached the last great distance. Now, when a ship left port, it was no longer adrift on a wide wild sea, but linked to land, however ethereally, through the airwaves. Crews could receive and transmit weather reports, ice warnings, distress signals, jokes, insults and instructions. They were no longer sailing into the great unknown.

Progress in the past eighty years has been equally swift. Any ship that gets into trouble in British waters now has a recognised and well-established procedure to follow. A boat in danger within sight of the coastline would radio through a Mayday call, picked up either by the coastguard or by other nearby vessels. The coastguard then decides whether to send help and in what form (helicopter, speedboat