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CHAPTER 1
Prepare Yourself
The Harry F. Sinclair, Jr. was still afloat and burning a week after she had been torpedoed. Her fo'c'sle was free from flame, yet men were burned to death because they jumped overboard, and they jumped overboard because they were not prepared.
William Caves, the bosun, safe in a waterborne lifeboat, saw an A.B., who had leapt over the side, struggling in a sea of flaming gasoline. It was impossible to reach the man. Caves saw his shipmate suck fire into his lungs. The A.B. was still fighting while he was being cremated. Then his head nodded briefly as though he were dozing, and Caves watched the charred body float deeper into the flames.
A needless death. The A.B. died because he had no faith in his own seamanship. He did not know the simplest fundamental of buoyancy. (See Chapter 3.) He did not know the treachery of a cork jacket, which is scarcely more of a safety device than a strait jacket.
ADEQUATE DRILLS. — Do not cheat yourself of life the way this tragic seaman did. Prepare yourself, which cannot be done simply by engaging in peacetime boat drills. You are not a lifeboatman unless you have had experience in lowering away. Swinging out is not sufficient. As a boat drill, the mere operation of swinging out has left men inadequately trained, resulting in the loss of many lives during emergencies.
The Comal Rico crewmen were prepared. They held a boat drill every other day. When the ship was torpedoed, all survived except two who were killed by a direct hit.
Do not ship out unless you have taken part in a complete abandon-ship drill. Insist on this drill. Joe Melendez from the torpedoed Saber reported: "In the nineteen days since we left New York there had been no lifeboat drills." Do not let this situation occur aboard your ships. Complete drills can take place in harbors and when coastwise ships lay up at night and even at sea.
Frank W. Ferguson reported: "I was on the torpedoed E.M. Clark as A.B. There were 26 men in my lifeboat and of this number only three were completely familiar with handling a boat. Because of this fact we had a tough time getting clear of the ship."
More drills, more survivors.
LIFE SUIT. — Provide yourself with a life suit. It will protect you against wind, rain, spray, and cold. You can sleep and work in a life suit. In the water it will enable you to get out of the danger area more quickly. It is fire-resisting for at least three minutes. Unless the suit is torn, it will prevent blood from a body wound getting into the water and attracting sharks. The dark color itself will lessen the danger of a shark attack. If the wearer is also clothed in heavy woolen underwear and takes care to keep his circulation active, a life suit will cut down the danger of frostbite and all but eliminate the possibility of death from exposure.
When the Independence Hall foundered off Sable Island, the vessel split in two, and a heavy sea prevented the launching of lifeboats. Ten men were lost. Reported Vincent A. Slivjak: "If these men had life suits, their lives would have been saved."
Captain Erling Vorberg, master of the torpedoed Norwegian motor tanker Barfonn, reported: "The boatswain, wearing the life suit, was washed into the sea by the first explosion. Due to the weight of the boots, he was kept floating in a standing position by the kapok jacket, even though he was unconscious."
Of the other crewmen who jumped overboard wearing life suits, Vorberg reported: "They were floating around in the water like rubber balls and could easily swim and advance with a rather good speed. When they were picked up in the lifeboats, they were all dry and warm."
In the same convoy, all the men aboard the Ila were lost. They did not have life suits. Only two men were saved from the 30 aboard the Greek ship Evros. They did not have life suits.
R.G. Wallace, a watertender from the torpedoed Collamer, reported: "One man was standing on the poop deck when the well deck was already under water. If this man had a life suit, he would be living today.
"A man was adrift on an old crate, and as close as we could maneuver, the boat was ten feet. We asked him to jump, but he was afraid to do it, and after we drifted away, we heard his cries for a while, but then they were silenced."
INSPECTION. — Inspect the equipment and provisions yourself. Do not take anything for granted. Three days at sea an A.B. aboard the Jupiter discovered that the water tanks in four liferafts were dry.
John Larson, A.B. from the torpedoed Allan Jackson, reported: "The turnbuckles were frozen and it took anywhere between five and ten minutes to release the gripes."
Julius L. Schwartz from the torpedoed tanker China Arrow reported: "Two of the lifeboats had no rudder. The #3 lifeboat was without water."
Do not forget to inspect the screws which hold the mast step in place. In old boats these are sure to be badly rusted. The Prusa's #1 boat nearly capsized when the step pulled loose at night while the boat was under full sail.
One of the breakers in the Prusa's #1 lifeboat contained a top layer of fresh biscuits, but the balance of the contents was old and moldy.
FIRST AID. — Ashore, you should take a course in first aid; at sea you should practice what you have learned. You should provide yourself with a first-aid manual.
CLOTHING. — Whether you are bound for the Tropics or the Arctic regions, supply yourself with heavy woolen underwear.
CORK PRESERVER. — Do not trust your life to a cork preserver. Men have drowned in them. This type of preserver rides high on the wearer's back, and sometimes it actually forces the head under water. Men who have jumped overboard wearing cork preservers have had ribs, arms, and shoulders broken. The front of the preserver strikes the chin, knocking the wearer unconscious.
Albert Pfisterer, a wiper from the torpedoed Gulf America, reported: "We saw bodies in the water, face downwards and feet up. This was the fault of the life preservers. The men could have been saved if it were not for the life preservers crawling up."
The bosun of the Casper, which sank in the Baltic Sea years ago, advised that a piece of nine thread line be used to lash the cork preserver around the body to keep it snug and low.
SHIP'S MEETINGS. — John J. Smith, veteran pumpman from the torpedoed Pure Oil tanker E. W. Hutton, strongly advocates ship's meetings. Though Smith's ship was torpedoed twice, and men were killed by direct hits, there was an absence of panic among the crew. The discussions aboard the E. W. Hutton had much to do in aiding the men, when the emergency came, to keep their heads.
The meetings included the entire crew, divided into two off-watch groups. Besides these meetings, a committee composed of one representative from each department conferred with Captain Carl Flaathan on safety measures.
It was agreed that if no officer were present to take command, the first capable man to reach his lifeboat station, regardless of his rating, was to act as the leader until relieved by a licensed officer. It was also understood that once launched, the lifeboat was to remain nearby until it was certain all survivors had been picked up from the rafts and the water.
The discussions should take place under pleasant circumstances. If dwelling on the subject of abandoning ship causes the men to grow fidgety, discontinue the discussions for a day or two.
TEXTBOOK. — It is suggested that you use this manual, which has been written out of the sweat and blood of actual experience, as the textbook for your meetings. For instance, read Chapter 3 on Buoyancy, and then ask the captain or chief engineer to explain the buoyancy conditions of your own vessel. After this discussion it is likely that you will be able, in an emergency, to put down any impulse to jump into a flaming oil slick or icy water or a shark-infested sea.
DEMONSTRATION. — Thirty-one survivors escaped in a 28-foot lifeboat from the torpedoed City of New York. Because of the boat's crowded condition, John Adams, the carpenter, could not get to the mast, and those around it were unable to rig the sail. One adequately trained lifeboatman among 31 persons? The sail had to be passed back to Adams for him to bend on. Then Adams had to shout instructions on how to step the mast.
It is vitally important that the crew — particularly the new seamen, the Black Gang, and those in the steward's department — learn by practice and demonstration the seamanship required in handling a lifeboat. The proper distribution of weight in the lifeboat should be demonstrated to emphasize the importance of maintaining a low center of gravity. Everyone not trained in navigation should read Chapter 9 on Navigation, and practice shaping courses on a Pilot Chart — before the need to do so arises.
ORDINARIES. — It has been the experience of veteran seamen at ship's meetings that the youngsters are inclined to grin. Consequently the old-timers are equally inclined to drop the discussions. Yet a foolish grin does not make a person's life any less precious.
Actually these ship's boys are grinning to cover their embarrassment, to hide their sense of inadequacy. Perhaps some of them are even incapable of comprehending danger before it reaches them. Whatever the reason, the real seamen are not to allow an irresponsible attitude to affect their zeal in passing on the benefits of their experience.
MORALE. — B. A. Baker, the Prusa's third mate, advises: "The most important thing for any lifeboatman to do is to school his own mind. Make up your mind not to get excited and stick to it. Don't say you won't be afraid, for you will. When the torpedo explodes you will get a sinking sensation in the pit of your stomach, and your knees may become a bit weak. The best cure for this is action."
SLACKNESS. — When you review the statistics regarding marine disasters, it is difficult to understand how there ever could be any slackness in lifeboat drills. Yet many a seaman can tell of attending hundreds of drills without once having a chance to lower away and handle a waterborne boat.
Arthur LaBarge, an oiler aboard the Oneida, reported on a North Atlantic trip in March: "No lifeboat drills during the entire voyage, going or coming."
Even in peacetime an average of 1,100 oceangoing ships are lost each year. But in wartime Great Britain alone lost three ships a day during 1917, and 2,479 British merchant vessels went down during the first World War. During April 1917, the number of Allied and neutral ships which were sunk totaled 430. The first two weeks of World War II saw 27 British merchant ships go under. In 1917 sixteen British merchant ships were sunk in a single day. Arnauld, a German U-boat commander, using one 4-inch gun — no torpedoes — sank, during three weeks of August 1917, 50 seagoing vessels.
CHAPTER 2
Abandon Ship
Do not rush. Sudden sinkings have been rare. But casualties brought about by panicked men dashing needlessly into peril have been frequent.
Fourteen men were saved out of the torpedoed Naco's crew of 42. Walter Swank reported: "The men who kept cool and used their heads were those who managed to be saved."
If Ernest Cartwright, one of the three survivors of a freighter shelled more than fifty times, had rushed to get into the port lifeboat, he would have lived less than two minutes. Before they could reach the water, the men in that boat were killed by shellfire.
With no alternative, Cartwright dived overboard. In the waterborne starboard lifeboat he found six more shipmates, four of them dead. These men had rushed to their deaths. They had been unable to pause long enough to choose the lesser risk, which was to remain aboard. The freighter itself did not sink for two hours — long after the U-boat had ceased firing.
The chief mate of a torpedoed Panamanian freighter, Hawkins Fudske, entered a lifeboat too soon and was killed by an exploding shell. Yet the men were able to reboard their ship the next day and take her into Mobile, Alabama.
Captain Frank C. Girardeau and all but nine of his men were able to reboard their abandoned ship, after a night spent in the lifeboats, and have her towed into port.
SUCTION. — A slowly sinking vessel may submerge without creating a suction. Vincent Halliburton, from the torpedoed Ceiba, reported: "While standing on the boat deck, I felt the ship disappear from under my feet. I started to swim and I picked up a raft."
Few men caught within the suction area of a swiftly sinking ship, except those wearing life suits, have survived.
Hans Sundby, carpenter from the torpedoed Norwegian freighter Erviken, reported: "I had the guy to the davit across my shoulders and this prevented me from swimming and caused me to follow the vessel downwards. When I got so far down that I found a terrific pressure against my head, especially the ears, I got free from the wire. I shot up with tremendous power. The suit saved my life by bringing me so quickly to the surface on account of the air trapped inside it."
MAN OVERBOARD. — Do not jump into the water. Unless, like Ernest Cartwright, you have no alternative, or you have to do so to reach a liferaft. If you are wearing a lifejacket containing cork, you are in danger of breaking a rib or your collar bone.
A seaman jumped overboard from the freighter on which Fudske lost his life and was killed by a shark, though the vessel reached port with forty-two men.
FIDLEY GRATING. — A man aboard the torpedoed Collamer, on watch below, lost his life because of a permanent grating on the fidley skylight.
ENGINE ROOM LADDERS. — Rudolph C. Wellman, second assistant, suggested: "Rope ladders should be hung in the engine room and fireroom so that men will know their location and be able to escape if the regular ladders are blown away."
EMERGENCY ESCAPES. — Thoroughly acquaint yourself with the emergency escapes. Four men on the Prusa were lost because they forgot about the emergency escape through the steering engine room. A steam line was severed in the regular passage, making it impossible to leave that way. Yet these men, who were seen in the quarters alive, and apparently uninjured after the explosion, had only to go through the steering engine room up through a manhole onto the poop deck, as two other men did.
BRATTICE CLOTH. — For years brattice cloth — non-inflammable — has been used by miners to shut off a tunnel in the case of fire or a drift when about to shoot a heading. It is now being purchased for many ships, and is of service in partitioning off open alleyways to prevent the passage of flame.
Discuss the feasibility of making a large wind-sail of brattice cloth to surround the Jacob's ladder leading up from the engine room to the skylight.
LIFE SUIT. — Hans Sundby of the Erviken reported: "The engineers at work had made the mistake of having their suits in their cabins instead of the passage to the engine room."
SEAWORTHINESS. — Be sure your lifeboat is seaworthy. This may seem like needless advice. Yet in the past bottoms have come out of many lifeboats. One lifeboat of a United Nations freighter, torpedoed 200 miles from Bermuda, leaked so badly that for eleven days the men were unable to stop bailing.
EQUIPMENT. — Do not take it for granted that all the equipment required by law is in your lifeboat. Norman Leo Sampson, the third assistant of a torpedoed freighter, reported that nine of his shipmates were trapped in a lifeboat with no oars. The boat drifted into a sea of blazing oil.
WHISTLE. — Every man should have a whistle made fast around his neck, so that if he is in the water, he can blow the whistle to draw attention.
A severely burned British seaman from a torpedoed gasoline tanker was on the keel of an overturned lifeboat for five days. He was washed off five times, chiefly at night. Since he had a whistle, his shipmates were able to locate him; otherwise he would have been lost.
LIFE LIGHT. — Life lights are manufactured for both jackets and life rings. With good visibility these lights will provide a possibility of attracting rescuers within a radius of at least four miles. Within the visibility range of shore, they offer a three-way chance of drawing attention — from land, sea, and air.
ABANDON-SHIP PACKAGE. — If you are on watch, you should have your life suit, extra clothes, and abandon-ship package with you, so you will not have to lose time returning to your quarters.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "How to Abandon Ship"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Twain Braden.
Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing.
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