THE PLIMSOLL MARK
"Coffinships," sailors called the overloaded, undermanned unseaworthy vessels that greedy owners sent to sea before Samuel Plimsoll, "the Sailors' Friend," appeared on the scene. Merchants generally profited handsomely even if such ships went down, for they were invariably overinsured, and the only ones who stood to lose were the hapless crews aboard them. That is, until Samuel Plimsoll (1824), a brewery manager turned London coal dealer, made the British seaman's cause his own. Shortly after being elected to Parliament from Derby in 1868, Plimsoll had tried to pass a bill improving the situation; his failure prompted him to write a book, Our Seamen, which he published four years later. Our Seamen was largely a collection of dramatic stories about tbe hard lot of British sailors which its crusading author had obtained second hand while haunting the waterfront to educate himself in maritime affairs. Although he was sued for libel by certain ship owners and forced to apologize in Parliament for revealing privileged information, Plimsoll's book accomplished its purpose. Its condemnation of ship owners and underwriters incensed the British people, enlisting their support. A royal commission was appointed in Parliament to investigate the murderous maritime situation, and a reform bill was introduced. However, when Benjamin Disraeli announced that the bill would be dropped in 1875, Plimsoll rose to his feet, shook his fist in tbe speak'er's face, and shouted that his fellow house members were "villains." Again he was forced to apologize, yet due almost solely to his efforts reform was in the air. The following year saw passage of the Merchant Shipping Act, providing for strict inspection of all vessels; this was followed by a number of similar maritime acts, one of them bearing Plimsoll's name. The Plimsoll mark or line, adopted in 1876, was named in honor of the reformer's suggestion that every vessel have a load line, a mark that indicates the limit to which a ship may be loaded. Located amidships on both sides of the ship, it is a circle with a horizontal line drawn through it showing the water level at the maximum permitted loading. This innovation reformed shipping all over the globe, making Plimsoll's name world-famous, although today American merchant ships use what are known as A.B.S. marks (for the American Bureau of Shipping), four lines amidships that show maximum loading conditions in fresh water and salt water during summer and winter. As for "the Sailors Friend," Plimsoll was re-elected to Parliament in 1880 but resigned to become president of the Sailor's and Fireman's Union. He continued to agitate for further reform and later visited America in an effort to change the bitter tone of American history books toward England; his mission was successful in many respects. His name is also remembered by plimsolls, rubber-soled cloth shoes or sneakers with the rubber extending about halfway up the shoe, the line between cloth and rubber somewhat resembling a Plimsoll mark.
