§ Mr. J. WARDasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is prepared to submit regulations for securing the proper inspection and testing of lifeboats on passenger ships, especially such as carry emigrants; whether in these regulations he will insist that all passenger ships shall possess sufficient seaworthy lifeboats to carry at least a reasonable percentage of the passengers and crew; whether, in deciding the question of seaworthiness, inspectors shall have regard to the time it takes to launch the boat; and whether he will insist that all boats undergoing the test shall be allowed to remain in the water not less than five minutes?
Mr. BUXTONUnder the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, and the instructions issued by the Board of Trade, the boats of every passenger steamer are inspected by the Board surveyors at each survey of the vessel for passenger certificate, and at other times as opportunities occur. The boats of emigrant ships are also inspected at the survey which takes place before a vessel is allowed to clear as an emigrant ship from a British port. It is the custom of the surveyors to require, whenever practicable, a number of the boats to be lowered into the water, and in the case of emigrant ships they are frequently manned and rowed about for five minutes. The owners and masters of all British ships are also responsible, under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, for seeing that the life-saving appliances are kept so as to be at all times fit and ready for use; and the masters are required to keep a record, in the official log, of every occasion on which boat drill is practised and the life-saving appliances are examined. The Board of Trade have reason to believe that this is regularly performed on passenger and emigrant steamers. It is also required by the statutory rules that means shall be provided for launching ships' boats as quickly as possible, and attention is always paid to this point by the Board's surveyors. The Board of Trade are carefully considering at present the question of the number of boats required to be carried by large passenger and emigrant steamers, and also the question of the seaworthiness of ships' boats.