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246 Welin Davits The ill-fated Titanic was fitted with Welin davits of the double-acting type and could have carried three times as many lifeboats as were ac- tually on hand. As a matter of fact there were three boats under one set of davits, all three of which were successfully launched one after the other, as well as two boats under another set. The officers of the Titanic testified that owing to the list of the ship it would have been impossible to launch the boats on THE MARINE REVIEW man thinks, as a large lifeboat fully loaded may weight from six to 12 tons. Much stress has been laid in unin- formed quarters on the importance of having much clearance outboard for the davits, sufficient to prevent the boat from touching the ship's side. Obviously this would mean a clear- ance equal to the distance from the water line to the top of the davits, which on large liners would mean from 80 to 90 ft. Clearance is not as important as control when the boats are close to the ship's_ side. July, 1912 selves. However, the proper thing to do would be to build the deck strong enough in the first place to take davits which would be of actual use when life boats are needed. Life- boats are useless unless they can be safely arid rapidly launched and the Welin davit appears to have solved this problem. Moreover, as it is possible for a single set of Welin davits to handle two and even three boats, there should be no difficulty in carrying lifeboat accommodations to meet all reasonable requirements. The La Salle Machine & Tool Co., lt LEE BOOS Lunpin Deckep LiFesoat, WiTtH 60 PERSONS, UNDER THE WELIN Davits the high side without the modern davits. It is admitted by practical men that the Welin davit embraces fea- tures that are most important and desirable in launching apparatus, that is, to be able to swing a boat out- board with the passengers in their places under any conditions whether the ship is listed or upright -or roll- ing; to be able to keep the boat close to the ship's side when lower- ing to prevent its being crushed in; to be able to arrange the falls so that the boat will land in the water hori- zontally no matter what the angle of the deck line may be; to be able to detach the boat instantly and push her away from the ship's side. at once. Launching a lifeboat is a far more serious problem than the lay- By having control of the boat as it is lowered, the ship's side helps to steady and support it on its down- ward way, and it is prevented from swinging out far enough that an Onrucstine = wave could smash it against the side of the ship. One objection made against the Welin davits by ship builders partic- ularly is their weight as against the lightness of the decks of vessels of the lake and*coast type. As a mat- ter of fact the weights of the Welin davits are 10 per cent less than those of round bar 'davits for boats of. the same Capacity, and in most cases it will be found that the slight rein- forcement necessary to take the Wel- in davits would not equal this differ- ence in weight of the davits them- La Salle, Ill., are the agents forthe Welin davits on the great. lakes. The Cunard ~ liner. ~Carmania, which was the first Cunard steamer to be fitted with turbine engines and the success of which induced the Cunard. Co: to' adopt] this. form of propulsion for the Mauretania and Lusitania, was greatly damaged by fire at Liverpool. The fire raged for several hours before it was extin- guished and practically destroyed the superstructure of the vessel. The Carmania is seven years old and un- til the advent of the express steam- ers, Mauretania and Lusitania, was the finest vessel in the Cunard ser- vice.