The Seattle Star

TULE PRESERVER

UNSERVICEABLE

THOSE

CARRIED

ON

THE

VALLEN-

CIA

QUITE

LIKELY

TO

HAVE

BECOME

DEFECTIVE

AND THEREFORE

OF

NO

USE

WHEN

PLACED

IN THE

WATER

Tule life preservers will stand

the government test just as well as

cork life preservers."

said a man

thoroughly familiar with the subject

to The Star this morning, but only

when they are new. After use of

steamships for a short time they are

very likely to become defective and

to be absolutely useless as life

savers."

Tule life preservers are carried al-

most entirely on the steamships in

service on the Pacific coast. The

boats of the Pacific Coast Steam-

ship company are equipped with this

class of preserver They cost $11

per dozen as compared with $13 per

dozen for the cork life preserver.

The tule preserver will not stand

rough handling.

Neither will it

stand changes from extreme heat to

extreme cold. The tule is a sort of

bulrush, in using it for the pur-

poses of the life preserver a num-

ber are cut the desired length and

then are bound together with copper

wire at the ends

They are bound

in this way so tightly that they be-

come a collection of long air-tight

tubes. So long as they remain in

this condition they are serviceable.

It has been demonstrated, how-

ever, many times that after even a

brief period of service aboard ves-

sels, where in many cases they are

stored

close

to steam pipes, the

bound ends

dry and

crack so that

the moment

they are placed in the

water they

begin to fill and very

soon are in water-logged condition

and sink.

And in addition to this, a new life

preserver, when

roughly

handled,

will break in the

same

manner

and

with the same results

in

times

of

steamship wrecks, as in the

case of

the Valencia. Life preservers

are not

handled in the most

gentle

manner

possible and are quite

likely to be

injured

On the other hand

the

cork life

preserver

will

stand

any

kind of

rough handling.

It

cannot

be in-

jured by being thrown about

and is

not susceptible to

the

heat or cold,

Tule on Valencia.

So far

as

can

be

learned

the steamship

Valencia

was

equipped

throughout

with

tule

preservers,

They had been on the vessel

a suffi-

cient length of time

to cause

them to

become defective and

there

is

every

reason to believe the

statement

made

by survivors

that

life

preservers

picked up from

the

beach sank

im-

mediately upon

being

thrown

into

the water

The most

serious

statement yet

made

regarding

the

character of

some of

the life

preservers

on

the

Valencia is that made

by

Y

F. Bun-

ker, who claims

that

he

picked

up

on the beach

preservers

made of

pulverized cork.

If

this

statement

proves to be true it will show a di-

rect violation of the

law

by

the Pa-

cific Coast Steamship

company any

dereliction

of

duty

on

the

part of the

government

marine

inspectors,

The

pulverized

cork

life

preserver

has

been condemned

by

the

department

of commerce

and

labor at Washing-

ton and in no

longer

manufactured.

If this class was

still

being

used on

the Valencia it

was

directly con-

trary to regulations.