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"WISDOM IS KNOWING WHAT TO DO NEXT, VIRTUE IS DOING IT." DAVID S, JORDAN. In a recently issued general rules and regulations prescribed by the board of supervising inspectors, of the steamboat inspection service, as ap- proved by the secretary of commerce and labor on Sept. 5, rule 3, section 4 contains the following: "All life- boats shall be fitted with such davits and gear as will enable the boats to be safely launched in less than two minutes from the time the clearing away of the boats-is begun." Al- though during the last few years the rules regarding the construction of lifeboats and rafts have been amended "THE. Marine REVIEW will involve an extra cost of only the very smallest fractional percentage of the total cost' of the ship: Att though the matter of life-saving ap- pliances has received some considera- ble attention through our columns some further comments on. the. sub- ject will not.seem -amiss.at this sea- son of the year. From past experience we know that a: lifeboat or iraft is--of little, or no use if.'same. cannot be. safely and quickly launched when needed, and in conjunction herewith would emphasize a few of the principal requirements of an ideal system of lifeboat davits in effecting the safe launching of life boats. In doing this we wish to recall 67 of the Larchmont's eight boats reached Block Island." In the case of the ill-fated Colum- bia, on the Pacific coast last year, the surviving second officer testified with others that the reason the star- board lifeboats could not be launched was that the ship took a heavy list to port immediately after the collis- ion. We can go even further back to one of the most appalling disasters in the annals of the trans-Atlantic service,--the loss of the French liner La Burgoyne. There the principal cause of the great loss of life was the frantic and successful efforts of the passengers to enter the lifeboats before they were raised and, swung clear of the ship's side; it will be pee" - . STEAMBOAT 'LOWELL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC CHARITIES, NEW YORK CITY. from time to time, in order to insure such craft coming from the hands of the builders as seaworthy as _ possi- ble, this is the first time, strange as it may seem, that a limit has been set on the time necessary to launch the same. : When building a ship the owners and builders endeavor to have each detail of construction and fitting as near perfection as possible. In meet- ing the demand for speed and comfort, however, life-saving appliances have received but cursory attention, and it is only when some shipping disaster accompanied with great loss of life brings the matter forcibly to the owners'* notice that life-saving equip- ment gets the consideration it merits. The demand for better safety appli- ances made by the steamboat in- spection service has increased from year to year, yet the best in this line a few incidents. of shipwreck, such as the Slocum disaster, when Captain William Van Schaick, at the inves- tigation, testified that there were but seven men in the crew of the General Slocum and that six men were fre- quired to launch a lifeboat properly. Again, in the case of the steamer Larchmont, the report of the steam- boat inspection service contained the following: "While it is true that the Larchmont was equipped with boats -- and rafts in excess of lawful require- ments, only a sufficient proportion of her boats to cover the boatage pre- scribed for passenger steamers of her tonnage was efficiently davited. It is therefore necessary that the surplus boats be handled by davits provided to raise, swing out and lower her prescribed .compfement of life- boats, and this, in our opinion, ac- counts for the fact that only five remembered that when the crew tried to drive the terror-stricken occupants from the boats they were accused of themselves desiring to occupy them. These contribute but a few typical experiences where under usual condi- tions an insufficient and incompetent crew, insufficient davits, a listed ves- sel and_ panic-stricken passengers, jointly or separately may swell the list of casualties which at intervals shock and horrify the world. Inasmuch as we believe that there are ship owners, builders and archi- tects who will find themselves some- what at a loss as to how best to conform with the aforementioned rules and requirements we would again take the opportunity to draw their attention to the Welin quadrant davit, which, so far as we know, is the only davit on the market that can overcome these difficulties, par-