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Kapok Aboard Ship The Navy Department is Making Extensive Use of This Fiber for Mattresses, Pillows and Cushions--Its Life Preserving Qualities HOUSANDS of lives have been lost at sea; but the average man. in planning his trip abroad, rea- sons that his life will not be in danger. So it seems, at any rate; for there is very little being said about the peril of the sea. Perhaps the truth of the matter is that the traveling public thinks about it very little, 1f at all,' "the idea' of insuring safety never has appealed strongly to the public mind, and as the percentage of casualties at sea is very low, and the ships look big and strong, the average man does not worry about it. The fact is, however, that the peril of the sea is still with us; travel by water is fot safe; ships do look big and strong, but the ocean is bigger and stronger; wind, fire, fog, high speed, and carelessness will continue to cause shipwrecks; and, in case of shipwreck, it is exceptional when all lives are saved. Even if the percent- -age of loss is comparatively low, there is a loss, and nobody wants to be reported. in the list of . missing. Hence, it behooves the public to think about it. There was the General Slocum dis- aster, for example; 955 lives lost out of a total passenger list of 1,358. And the Titanic disaster; the passengers on that ill-fated ship entrusted them- selves to the tender mercies of the deep, without investigating to see what would happen to them in case of shipwreck. Passenger steamers are still in the trans-Atlantic service; they are not unsinkable; and in event of great disaster it would be next to impossible to take all hands off in boats promptly. What happens to the rest? [ene slogan "Safety First', that is being shouted in railroad and factory circles, has not been heard yet in shipping circles--not distinctly. Com- petition on the high seas is very keen, indeed; ship owners are not in the business for simple enjoyment, and so they must figure closely on the capital cost of their ships, and not put in too much _ non-revenue-pro- ducing investment. The internal ar- rangement of the ship must be such as to give ample cargo and passenger @pace, sO that she can carry a big load; and the arrangement must also By F.C. Coburn, Naval Constructor, U. S.N LIEUT. S. P. EDMONDS be such that cargo can be handled expeditiously so that the ship may not be held in port too long, He must make his ship pay. As to the safety of ships, something is being done. There was held in London a year ago an International Conference on Safety of Life at Sea, to which came delegates from all the major ship-owning and_ ship-building nations. These were delegates pleni- potentiary and had commissions under their governments' seals, as would any aiubassadors. Fhey agreed upon a convention, very comprehensive in its scope and very thorough, as' theré was a large representation of naval archi- tects. That convention, like any other treaty, must be submitted to the vari- ous governments for ratification, and, if ratified by our Senate, then the Congress will be under obligation to pass legislation putting it into effect. Let us hope that this comes to pass, for it will go a long way toward im- proving the traveler's safety. Even the ships built under that convention will not be perfectly un- sinkable; and there will be thousands of the older ships still in business. Might it not be well for the average man to know something about the risk he takes in going to sea? The problem today, in case of ship- wreck or fire at sea, involving aban- donment of the ship, is to keep the passengers and crew afloat and alive until picked up. In days gone by, the problem was NAVY AVIATORS WEARING KAPOK LIFE SV PRESERVERS AT WORK ON A WRECKED AIR PLANE Sa ae i a Ni al ik a iii eB