Evening Star Newspaper, July 31, 1937, Page 3

COMMITTEE 0. KS SEA SAFETY BILL Measure Requiring Com- plete Passenger Lists Also Is Approved, The Senate Commerce Committee, aroused by the burning of the Chesa- peake Bay steamer City of Baltimore, approved today the Copeland “‘safety- at-sea” bill and another measurc to require filing of complete passenger Hsts. Meanwhile, the House had before it & new bill providing for Government- secured mortgages for recondition- Ing inland and coastwize vessels. The Copeland bill was drafted by & special committee set up to in- vestigate recent sea disasters, includ- g the buring of the Morro Castle oft the coast of New Jersey. Primarily, it would tighten up ship eonatruction regulations to require that vessels be so built that they would not sink as the result of minor collisions and be constricted as nearly fireproof THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, DG, SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1937. 88 modern methods can make them It also would provide for improved ! erew quarter construction, regulate | the method of storing grain cargoes | which sometimes cause trouble by shifting, increase the responsibility cf ! ship owners to conduct fire drills and tighten up on ship inspection. The passenger list bill, introduced yesterday by Senator Copeland, Demo- erat, of New York as a result of the burning of the City of Baltimore the night before, wouid require owners of wvessels carrying passengers for hire cn Inland or coastal waters over-night to | deposit ashore complete lists of pas- | sengers carried. | ‘The penalty for violations would b"i & fine of from $100 to $500. Tdentification Often Difficult. “Identification often is difficult in disasters involving lake and coastal | steamers,” said the New York Senator. “Though railways are not required to keep passenger lists, identification is much easier in the event of a land disaster. “How are we to know how many people are drowned or burned to death in such a disaster? How are we to know who they are? A passenger may be drowned, may be burned be- yond recognition or may go down with the ship. For the sake of our peace of mind. we ought to know who is aboard these ships.” Other points in the Copeland pro- | gram are: Equipment with radio apparatus of | all sizable passenger ships plying | rivers. bays or lakes | A doctor or a trained nurse on duty | and a small hospital aboard all such | ships. Installation in ships of fireproof bulkheads to prevent the spreading of cargo or furniture blazes Purser Had Passenger Lists. Only its position in a narrow part of the bay and the proximity of other veasels prevented the City of Balti- more disaster from claiming a greater toll. The vessel was not equipped with a radio. The only passenger list was n the hands of iis purser Such passenger ships also should have facilities to care for the sick, 8aid Senator Copeland, himself a phy- sician. The bill to enable owners of inland and coastwise steamers to get Gov- emment-secured mortgages for re- conditioning their vessels was intro- duced in the House by Representative | Cochran of Missouri. The Maritime Commission, sald Cochran, has de- eided not to aid in the reconditioning of such vessels. Set-Up Similar to F. H. A. “My bill,” he said, “creates a set-up similar to the one in the Federal Housing Administration, but insures the mortgages up to 75 per cent rather than 80 per cent. We have spent bil- lions of dollars making our rivers, lakes and bays it for navigation, but, owing to the fact that money has not been available, they have not been used a8 we had expected “This bill will cost the Government no money, because the mortgages will be taken over by the insurance com- panies and others, the same as the housing mortgages are being bought as | 800n as issued.” | Cochran said the measure was pre- | pared a month ago, but that he in-| troduced it yesterday on account of | the City of Baltimore disaster, PRESIDENT I;IOMINATES COMMERCE UNIT AIDES ¥. H. Rawls and L. C. Zapt Named for Poets as Assistant Bureau Directors. | Paul Jones of the American-Hawaiian | | Steamship Co.’s City of < Policeman Goes Down in Strike Clash A group of strikers stormed police lines outs York when a caravan of non-strikers began ieaving the plant. rested seven men, restored order and picketing was resumed. ground as he helps subdue a flag-bearing striker. de the Robins Dr Repair Co. in New After a brisk melee, police ar- Here one officer lands on the —Copyright, A. P. Wirephoto. BLAZING LINER HIT FIRST RESCUE SHIP Arkansan’s Captain Reveals | How City of Baltimore Ran Wild During Fire. By the Associated Press. NORFOLK, Va, July 31.—Capt. line steamer Arkansan, risked the safety of his own ship in rendering assistance to the ill fated Chesapeake | Baltimore, which was destroyed by fire in Chesa- peake Bay near Baltimore, with the loss of four lives. | The Arkansan, first to reach the burning ship, rescued five survivors in its own lifeboat, but not until she had been rammed almost amidship on her | port side by the City of Baltimore. | The Arkansan arrived here yesterday | with several plates on her port side | damaged. She will not be permitted | to continue on her voyage to the West | Coast until damaged plates are repaired which probably will be done today. Captain Reports Collision. Capt. Jones made a report of the collision at the office of Eugene Oarl- son, supervising inspector of steam- boats for this district, today soon after his ship had docked. i “We were only about 1500 feet be- hind the City of Baltimore when we saw her burst into flames,” said Capt. | Jones. | “We went to her with all speed, and | in six minutes we had our boat over- board and were picking up survivors, | The rescue work was handicapped to some extent by the City of Baltimore | herself. 8he was still under WAy While she was a mass of flames. We ! tried to keep our ship from striking her and at the same time do what we could to rescue her passengers. | “She came at us once, and we just| managed to get out of her way. Then | she came at us again, and struck us | amidship on our starboard side. Then she ran on a bank and bounced off | again and started first one way and | then the other. She probably was not under control or her fire-room crew had been forced to flee for their lives | without having the opportunity of shutting down her power. | Saw Passengers on Deck. “When we first got near the ship we ! could see the passengers huddled on her forward deck. We got so close to the ship we could see the faces of the passengers plainly. They looked wan | and frightened, but there was no con- fusion aboard. The passergers s peared to be quietly waiting for what- ever fate was in store for them. “Our lifeboat picked up five pas- sengers, four men and a woman, and | we transferred them to the Baltimore pilot tug, W. 8. Sanner. By the time we had picked up the five survivors small boats were around the ship in President Roosevelt today nomi- nated two division chiefs of the Bu- reau of Forelgn and Domestic Com- | merce to be assistant directors of the bureau. | They are Fletcher H. Rawls, chief | of the division of food stuffs. who eame here from North Carolina and who resides at 32 Prince George ave- nue, Kensington, Md, and Lacey C Zap!, chief of the division of foreign service, formerly of Tennessee and | now of 3417 Quebec street, | The President also nominated | Whitfield Y. Meuzy of Tulsa to be | United States attorney for the north- ern district of Oklahoma, and J Banks Hudson of Pennsylvania to be Btate administrator for Pennsylvania | in the Works Progress Administration 3 ]nqiliry ; (Continued From First Page ) sttorney; Comdr. H. N. Perham of the Ooast Guard, and Eugene C. Carlson, | supervising inspector for the Bureau| of Marine Navigation and Inspection It is an “A" board, the type appointed for the most serious disasters. A. L. Stephens, president of the steamship company, said he saw some drums in the wreckage which “might have contained” alcohol, but that he would not be sure until he checked the freight lists. Among the other cargo, he said, were 20 new automobiles and & carload of sugar Stephens said that the ship's life- boat equipment had been checked by Federal inspectors twice in the last two weeks. One juspection, he said, was a regular weekly examination and the numbers. They, too, were handicapped in picking up survivors by the fast- moving burning ship. “The rescue boats were obliged to look out for their own safety and frequently they were obliged to run | away from the burning craft when | she started in their direction. The | small boats also were menaced by the propeller of the City of Baltimore | and as a result they had to steer clear of her stern and stand off farther than would have been the case had | the boat not been in motion.” There was no sailing from Norfolk last night by the Chesapeake Line. | | | The steamer City of Norfolk left Baltimore last night for Norfolk and will sail today on the return trip to the Maryland port. The steaner | Yorktown will replace the burned ship | on the Norfolk-Baltimore run { —_— = =2 — HOT WEATHER STOPS « i HARRINGTON DOORS Air Conditioned Rooms Sleep in Cool Comfort— Your Nerves Need It! Special other was made by a roving man who somes at irregular intervals that both inspectors passed the equip- ment and that the roving man had the crew go through a lifeboat drill The line’s president also said that five of the ship's six lifeboats were put into the water and aided in saving passengers. The crew, he said, was driven back from the sixth by flames. Shipping officials centered their at- tention on causes of the blaze which flared through the wooden superstruce ture of the overnight liner. » § He said | WEEKLY [ RATES | | HOTEL I HARRINGTON 11th ond E Streets N'W Auqustus Gumpert Menoge “FOR HEALTH'S SAKE, SEND IT ALL TO TOLMAN" TOLMAN'S. fepamz‘e WASH SUIT Department A FASTER, BETTER CLEANING SERVICE THAN EVER! 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