General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: Life rafts
Posted by:
Ken Dunn
()
Date: June 26, 2003 02:22PM
<HTML>Hi Theo,
I don't know what material was used for flotation but as to the other part of your question about how the lifeboats were equipped I might be able to point you in the right direction.
First of all there were no real standards between countries for the equipment carried in a lifeboat. If there was some type of international agreement it must have been quite general. Each country had their own idea of what should be provided and who should pay for it and especially at the beginning of the war it was very inadequate. There were many different types of life boats and rafts used during the war, some of which were developed during the war and weren't available at the beginning.
Just getting a lifeboat launched was a real problem. If the lifeboats weren't swung out and ready to lower they might get jammed and not be able to be launched when the time came. They changed the design of the launching mechanism to correct some of these problems on some ships. The same for the rafts. It was sometimes impossible to un-secure them and get them in the water quickly. They ended up trying to come up with a way that would automatically let the rafts go when the boat sank. They were provisioned too and even if you didn't need to use the raft the provisions could be retrieved from it if you could just get to them.
Some lifeboats just had oars. Some had oars and a sail and some had motors of one type or another. I suspect that the lifeboats from smaller vessels were less well equipped than the lifeboats from the larger ones but I think it really depended on the owner of the vessel or perhaps the captain. In one case of a fishing boat I have researched the crew was very proud that their captain had provisioned the lifeboat so well, however in that case I think the captain also owned the boat.
Of course oars and some food and water would be normal but after that it varies a lot and like everything else during that war it changed as the war progressed and we learned more about what was really needed. Also new technology was developed as the war progressed. An excellent book on this subject that covers the British lifeboats and the changes they went through during the war is: Bennett, G.H & R. Survivors – British Merchant Seamen in the Second World War. London: The Hambledon Press, 1999. ISBN: 1-85285-182-1. Copyright: G.H. and R. Bennett, 1999.
It points out some critical deficiencies like the lack of small boat handling training and the lack of navigation training for all officers on a ship. My dad was an engineering officer on a ship during the war but didn't have a clue about navigation or small boat handling. If you ended up in a lifeboat or on a raft without the right ship's officers you were in especially bad trouble. Nobody could navigate and nobody knew how to handle the boat in bad weather. It could be worse if you had a sail as a mistake with it could easily turn the boat over. Also navigation instruments weren't likely to be stored in a lifeboat even if there was someone in the boat that knew how to use them. Additionally, few onboard knew the ships exact position at the time of the sinking making navigation to safety just that much harder unless you had the equipment to determine that yourself and knew how to use it.
There were problems with the way provisions were stored in the lifeboats too. If the boat turned over you could loose everything in some of them. They added compartments for things to be stored in as the war went on.
In general the lifeboats would have tried to stay together (if more than one of them got away) but rough seas and bad weather conspired to separate them.
The things you would find in a lifeboat at the end of the war were quite different from the things in them at the beginning of the war. For example some ended up with emergency radio transmitters.
Also there were serious problems with the food stored in lifeboats. Some of it just made you thirsty and drinking water was very scarce in a lifeboat unless it rained all of the time and then if you were lucky there would be a container to collect it in. Additionally the medical kits didn't have the right stuff in them and they didn't have enough of the things that they did have.
I believe these problems were universal and not confined to any one country's merchant service too although some would have done better than others.
The fact that so many lifeboats were not properly provisioned made the occasions when U-boats gave things to men in lifeboats even more important. Even a very well provisioned lifeboat was in deep trouble if it was overcrowded and that was frequently the case.
The personal safety equipment merchant seamen had also varied considerably. For example just getting a small light attached to all life-jackets took some doing. Imagine being in the water alone at night when most U-boat attacks took place and being able to hear people around you but not know how to find them or them you. Also it was harder for a lifeboat to find you in the dark (or even keep from running over you) if you didn't have some kind of light on your life-jacket. The light needed to be activated automatically in the case of someone who wasn't conscious. A simple policeman's whistle also made a big difference when it came to signaling at night too.
Some ships issued some kind of rubber suit to protect you from the water. Water absorbs heat 25 times faster than air so prolonged exposure to even relative warm water can cause hypothermia and kill you pretty quickly. And then there were the shark repellents that didn't work and the instructions to splash around in the water to drive the sharks away which actually attracted them. Some of the life-jackets would float an unconscious man face down too.
A way to shade the men from the tropical sun or a way to heat the lifeboat in very cold climates was overlooked frequently too.
As you can see from this small sample of the problems there were enough of them for a whole book on the subject.
I wonder if all of these problems have been corrected in all merchant services today too.
Regards,
Ken Dunn</HTML>
I don't know what material was used for flotation but as to the other part of your question about how the lifeboats were equipped I might be able to point you in the right direction.
First of all there were no real standards between countries for the equipment carried in a lifeboat. If there was some type of international agreement it must have been quite general. Each country had their own idea of what should be provided and who should pay for it and especially at the beginning of the war it was very inadequate. There were many different types of life boats and rafts used during the war, some of which were developed during the war and weren't available at the beginning.
Just getting a lifeboat launched was a real problem. If the lifeboats weren't swung out and ready to lower they might get jammed and not be able to be launched when the time came. They changed the design of the launching mechanism to correct some of these problems on some ships. The same for the rafts. It was sometimes impossible to un-secure them and get them in the water quickly. They ended up trying to come up with a way that would automatically let the rafts go when the boat sank. They were provisioned too and even if you didn't need to use the raft the provisions could be retrieved from it if you could just get to them.
Some lifeboats just had oars. Some had oars and a sail and some had motors of one type or another. I suspect that the lifeboats from smaller vessels were less well equipped than the lifeboats from the larger ones but I think it really depended on the owner of the vessel or perhaps the captain. In one case of a fishing boat I have researched the crew was very proud that their captain had provisioned the lifeboat so well, however in that case I think the captain also owned the boat.
Of course oars and some food and water would be normal but after that it varies a lot and like everything else during that war it changed as the war progressed and we learned more about what was really needed. Also new technology was developed as the war progressed. An excellent book on this subject that covers the British lifeboats and the changes they went through during the war is: Bennett, G.H & R. Survivors – British Merchant Seamen in the Second World War. London: The Hambledon Press, 1999. ISBN: 1-85285-182-1. Copyright: G.H. and R. Bennett, 1999.
It points out some critical deficiencies like the lack of small boat handling training and the lack of navigation training for all officers on a ship. My dad was an engineering officer on a ship during the war but didn't have a clue about navigation or small boat handling. If you ended up in a lifeboat or on a raft without the right ship's officers you were in especially bad trouble. Nobody could navigate and nobody knew how to handle the boat in bad weather. It could be worse if you had a sail as a mistake with it could easily turn the boat over. Also navigation instruments weren't likely to be stored in a lifeboat even if there was someone in the boat that knew how to use them. Additionally, few onboard knew the ships exact position at the time of the sinking making navigation to safety just that much harder unless you had the equipment to determine that yourself and knew how to use it.
There were problems with the way provisions were stored in the lifeboats too. If the boat turned over you could loose everything in some of them. They added compartments for things to be stored in as the war went on.
In general the lifeboats would have tried to stay together (if more than one of them got away) but rough seas and bad weather conspired to separate them.
The things you would find in a lifeboat at the end of the war were quite different from the things in them at the beginning of the war. For example some ended up with emergency radio transmitters.
Also there were serious problems with the food stored in lifeboats. Some of it just made you thirsty and drinking water was very scarce in a lifeboat unless it rained all of the time and then if you were lucky there would be a container to collect it in. Additionally the medical kits didn't have the right stuff in them and they didn't have enough of the things that they did have.
I believe these problems were universal and not confined to any one country's merchant service too although some would have done better than others.
The fact that so many lifeboats were not properly provisioned made the occasions when U-boats gave things to men in lifeboats even more important. Even a very well provisioned lifeboat was in deep trouble if it was overcrowded and that was frequently the case.
The personal safety equipment merchant seamen had also varied considerably. For example just getting a small light attached to all life-jackets took some doing. Imagine being in the water alone at night when most U-boat attacks took place and being able to hear people around you but not know how to find them or them you. Also it was harder for a lifeboat to find you in the dark (or even keep from running over you) if you didn't have some kind of light on your life-jacket. The light needed to be activated automatically in the case of someone who wasn't conscious. A simple policeman's whistle also made a big difference when it came to signaling at night too.
Some ships issued some kind of rubber suit to protect you from the water. Water absorbs heat 25 times faster than air so prolonged exposure to even relative warm water can cause hypothermia and kill you pretty quickly. And then there were the shark repellents that didn't work and the instructions to splash around in the water to drive the sharks away which actually attracted them. Some of the life-jackets would float an unconscious man face down too.
A way to shade the men from the tropical sun or a way to heat the lifeboat in very cold climates was overlooked frequently too.
As you can see from this small sample of the problems there were enough of them for a whole book on the subject.
I wonder if all of these problems have been corrected in all merchant services today too.
Regards,
Ken Dunn</HTML>
