Today is Plimsoll Day, honoring the birthday of Samuel Plimsoll who probably has saved more sailor’s lives than anyone else.
In the late 19th century, unscrupulous ship owners frequently used ‘coffin ships’ ((ships that were highly insured in case of sinking, with minimum consideration given to seafarer safety). The ships were frequently overloaded and often sank in heavy weather with the loss of all aboard while the ship owners profited from the insurance proceeds.
Against stiff opposition from ship owners in Parliament, Plimsoll introduced and forced into passage the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876 which gave stringent powers of inspection to the Board of Trade, and the mark that indicates the safe limit to which a ship may be loaded became generally known as Plimsoll’s mark or line.
The improvements in safety resulted in less ship sinkings and seafarer deaths, with Plimsoll’s reforms credited as “saving the lives of countless seaman.” Plimsoll’s reforms would go onto have a significant international effect in the 20th century, eventually resulting in the 1930 International Convention on Load Lines.
Presidential hairpieces in the wild:
On this day in 1971, American singer-songwriter Carole King released her second studio album Tapestry. It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with over 25 million copies sold worldwide. The lead single from the album ‘It’s Too Late’/’I Feel the Earth Move’ spent five weeks at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The cover photograph was taken at King’s Laurel Canyon home. It shows her sitting in a window frame, holding a tapestry she hand-stitched herself, with her cat Telemachus at her feet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfmn9M6hXVI
