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April, 1914 ing. [tas only: by the sum total that I can judge things." It was decided to appoint a com- mittee on safety: ashore, consisting of Alex. Langell, Capt.. Watt and Capt. J. W. Morgan, who retires for age this year. Whenever Capt. Morgan has time he will go aboard the boats and report to the office the manner in which the rules are observed. Safety signs will also be placed aboard ship to mark the dangerous places. In or- der to stimulate interest in safety and to bring pertenently home the question of individual responsibility, a com- mittee will be appointed aboard ship headed by the first mate and first engineer, comprising both forward and after crews, and each committee will have a satety pennant. 'Prizes will be distributed according to the records achieved. While all the details of the plan are not yet worked out,it is hoped that it will accelerate the movement of safety and serve to localize responsi- bility aboard ship. Making for Safety Mr. Coulby said that the office would - furnish anything to the ship that the master believed might tend to _ safe- guard the lives of the crew. it," said he, "and you will get it. You would be surprised at the number of cases of pure carelessness. We have made wonderful progress in the elim- nation of accidents to the ships them- selves during the past few years and we must give the same amount of care, watchfulness -and study to the elimination of our personal injury cases. Enlist your men in the move- ment for the abolition of personal in- juries. What we want is to. prevent the accident. You may have different rules on different boats because they may be considered differently, but let's see if we can't make a step for- ward in this line this year." It was announced that Thomas Leroy, of the Rockefeller, had won first prize for the best kept log. In this connection honorable mention was made of J. Jack, of the Dickson; J. B. Allair, of the Rogers; J. C. Dobson, of the Empire City; W. F. Meister, of the Linn, and Fred Tholey, of the Mariska. At the second day's session, the first thing taken up was the proposed establishment of a bridge hour in Duluth, which, owing to the current and peculiar conditions obtaining in Duluth, was held to be undesirable. Moreover, many of the captains felt that the traffic did not warrant clos- ing of the interstate bridge at any def- inite time. At the suggestion of President Coul- by, the masters were invited to dis- "Ask for' THE MARINE REVIEW cuss the use of storm oil. He said that he had always been in favor of it himself and pointed to the graphic illustration of its usefulness in the case of the Volturno. He thought that every ship in the fleet should have oil tanks with proper. connec- tions for its distribution. Practically every master that spoke testified that a very small quantity of oil would kill the combers and thereby destroy the force of the sea.. Captain W. J. Hunt said that he had always used oil in every ship he had been in. He has two oil tanks on the Dinkey, distrib- uting it to the séa by means 'of a garden hose, which does the work very - Satistactorily.. Captaiir< We? W. Smith advocated that every boat should carry two or three barrels of one. The morning session was largely taken up with the annual talk of Her- Safety is Not Sacrificed My opportunities for observation of the policy of many of the large vessel owners have been as good, perhaps, as those of most men, and I have no hesitation in saying that _my experience leads me to believe that nothing has been further from the minds of these owners during the past ten years than the sacrifice of safety to money-making. In fact, I believe they feel, as the re- sult of long experience, that any practice which, lessens the degree of safety with which their vessels are operated cannot, on the average, be @ money-making practice. mon A. Kelley, counsel for the com- pany. Including the meetings of the old Minnesota Steamship. Co., Mr. Kelley has now been in attendance at these meetings for the past 15 years and obviously there is a great deal of repetition in what he has annually to say. As Mr. Kelley has year after year preached caution in fog, it was inevitable that he should have paid some attention to the recent com- ments on the subject by a very learned judge, saying: A Distinct Surprise "To one who has been attending the annual meetings of the masters and mates of the larger fleets on the great lakes for the past two years, and especially to one who is familiar with the policies of the management of such fleets, as those operated by the Pittsburgh Steamship Co., the Cleve- land-Cliffs Iron Co., Mitchell & Co., M. A. Hanna & Co., and Pickands, 145° Mather & Co., this utterance of the court came as a distinct surprise. As above stated, I, personally, have been invited every year during the past decade or more to address the masters of several of the above named organi- zations, and have never, on a single occasion, I believe, omitted a most vigorous presentation of the necessity, not only legal but economical and humane, for moderate speed in fog and for promptly checking to bare steerage way and even stopping all headway upon hearing the signal of another vessel, apparently not more than four points from dead ahead, until the approaching vessel is defin- itely located and danger of collision is past: And Leah: testify that mie own repeated and urgent presentation of these warnings and admonitions have never failed to receive the earnest and outspoken endorsement and support of the management.- In- deed I have not infrequently heard the latter take a tone which amounted to no less than a threat of the sum- mary dismissal of any master who at- tempted to make time at the expense of safety. Opportunities for Observation "Even more eloquent than words of caution and instruction is the con- sistent attitude of the vessel manage- . ments with which I am familiar to-- ward the whole subject of obedience, not simply to the rules of navigation, but to the special instructions relat- ing to extra precautions with which most of these managements have sup- plemented the statutory rules. "My opportunities for observation of the policy of many of the large vessel owners have been as good, per- haps, as those of most men, and I have no hesitation in saying that my experience leads me* to believe that nothing has been further from the minds of those owners during the past 10 years than the sacrifice of safety to money-making. In. fact, I be- lieve they feel, as the result of long experience, that any practice which lessens the degree of safety with which their vessels aré operated, can- not on the average, be a money-mak- ing practice. "It is true there have been excep- tions to this rule. It would be strange if, among the numerous operators of ships on the great lakes, there were not a few who were inclined to take chances, but I believe that these men have, for many years, been the great exception to the rule and, moreover, that these exceptions are every year becoming fewer and fewer. This has been particularly the case since the formation of the Great Lakes Pro-.