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November, 1914 different, and more difficult of solu- tion; it was frequently necessary not only to keep passengers and crew afloat, and alive, but also to transport them some distance to dry land; and even if picked up at sea, the elapsed time afloat was, as a rule, much longer than it.need be now. The reasons for this change in con- ditions are two; the increase in num- ber of ships on the seas, and the wire- less telegraph installations they carry. The greater of these is the latter; radio service is one of the greatest life-saving devices the world has known. Ever since the wreck of the Republic it has figured conspicuously in maritime disasters--in some cases because it was not used, as, for exam- ple, in the case of the Nantucket-Mon- roe collision, which could have been avoided had the wireless installations on the two ships been used. The greatest part of passenger traf- fic at sea is over well-traveled routes; where the S O §S call, followed by Name and position, will bring succor within a few hours. This condition should not, of course, operate to re- lieve ship-owners of the necessity of building ships as safe as practicable, and of navigating them so as to avoid risk, at all times; but when all pre- cautions have failed, and shipwreck does occur, the problem of temporary Support afloat and eventual rescue can be taken care of more easily than in the olden times. If the reader will but recall the sea tales of his early library, with their soul-rending accounts of long journeys after shipwreck; the long-boat, the Sig, the whale-boat, were familiar terms, and so were the breakers of KAPOK PODS BEING THE MARINE REVIEW eS SSS OPENED The boats, we read, had compasses, and sails, and one of the officers usually water, and the tins of biscuit. had a sextant. The yarns were pretty 'well standardized; only occasionally a real variation was turned out--like the one of the Casting Away of Mrs. Ilecks and Mrs. Aleshine. However harrowing any of those old tales are, they do not fully state the truth, it is only fair to say. ! But, nowadays, newspapers tell of ship-wreck followed in a few hours, or perhaps days, by rescue of those who were kept afloat; and the fiction of today reflects this change. 423 It is not- the. purpose here to. tell of life boats, and life rafts, and the wireless, and why ships go too fast in the fog, and why all the rocks seem to be uncharted, and why car- goes "catch afire'; but to tell of ja material which is bound to come into use and help to keep passengers afloat --and alive. It is not a new material, nor an invention; it has been known for many years; but not very many people knew about it, and those few knew very little about it--especially about its value as a life-saver at sea; it once was administered a very black eye, through no fault of its own, and it has not -since been seen in public very much. This material is kapok, a vegetable fiber. It is' found in the seed pods of the kapok tree, which is known to the botanists as Ceiba Pentranda, or Eriadendron anfractuosum, of the silk- cotton family, Bombaceae, growing in tropical countries--the East and West Indies, Central America, India, and the Philippines. The pods are 5 or 6 inches long, filled with this silky fiber, in which are embedded the seeds-- hard, round pellets, the size of a pea. In the East Indies, in Java par- ticularly, and in the Philippine Islands, the best kapok is grown; it has the finest silky fiber, is whiter and nicer looking, and is the only life-saving kapok we have. It is impregnated with a vegetable oil, so that it does not itself absorb water readily; and a mass of the kapok fibers will keep water out because of the surface ten- sion of the water itself; the fibers are so small, and so close together, that the water, closing in on the air inside the mass of kapok, presents to the K DRYING IN THE SUN AND BEING BEATEN WITH LIGHT BAW PALO BAMBOO STICKS