Life Line Gun That Might Have Saved the Volturno's Passengers Quickly

In Dansville, N.Y., resides an inventor, V. Granger Hall, Jr., who believes that every soul on the ill-fated Volturno could have been saved quickly if any one of the ships that hastened to the rescue had been equipped with a breech loading life line gun of the type installed on the revenue cutters Snohomish and Acushnet.

There has been criticism of Capt. Barr of the Carmania for not risking his lifeboats in the heavy sea which was running when he arrived on the scene. At the same time the fact remains that it is difficult if not impossible to launch a boat safely in really rough water from any kind of a vessel and especially from a high sided ocean liner. This difficulty is eliminated if there is a means of passing a life line between a wreck and a rescuing vessel. Then the breeches buoy can be used to take off passengers and crew.

The need of an invention to effect this purpose was shown by the Valencia disaster, in which over a hundred lives were lost within a stone's throw of the shore of Puget Sound. It was impossible to get a line to the land from the wreck. A rescuing vessel got within a few hundred feet of the Valencia, but could do nothing. The wreck did not go to pieces for thirty-six hours after the vessel struck. There would therefore have been plenty of time to take off those on the Valencia in the breeches buoy.

After a careful investigation of this disaster the revenue cutter officials were convinced that the construction of a breech loading gun which could be mounted on the rail of any vessel, which could be fired without recoil in any seaway, and which would throw a line accurately to or from a vessel would prevent such losses of life in the future.

An appropriation was made and the revenue cutters Acushnet and Snohomish were equipped with a gun of this kind.

The Acushnet is stationed at Woods Hole, Mass., and the Snohomish at Port Angeles, Wash. They have used the gun and with its aid taken in tow many wrecks and saved many lives.

The apparatus consists of a bronze gun so mounted that it can be slipped on the rail at any desired point forward or aft of any vessel. It is loaded and fired as easily as a sporting shotgun and may be operated by comparatively inexperienced men. Ordinary brass cartridges carry the charge, which is slipped into the breech. To the twenty pound shot is attached the line. The gun shifts to any direction or angle of elevation required and may instantly be secured and fired. The whole operation takes about two minutes.

In the tests for the Acushnet and Snohomish ten consecutive shots were fired in the face of a gale with accuracy at distances up to 2,500 feet. The line is held in specially devised cylinders and is in different sizes for different uses.

With communication thus established between wreck and rescuer the breeches buoy or life car is quickly whipped back and forth until every life is saved from the wreck and no one on the rescuing boat need leave her decks to do it.

When wrecks occur close enough to shore the breeches buoy apparatus is employed with remarkable results. In a single year in United States waters alone [...] persons were saved from wrecks by this apparatus. The same principle is made available by the life line gun where the wreck is too far off shore to be reached from land. [...] With this apparatus lives may be saved at sea without use of lifeboats.

In operation a line is shot over the wreck and the men aboard the wreck haul the light manila whip line and block aboard and make it fast at one of the mast tops. As soon as this is done the crew of the rescuing vessel will work the whip line and pass the wire cable and breeches buoy to the wreck. The cable passes through a block at the mast head of the life saving vessel, thus keeping it well above the sea. Besides saving life this apparatus is available for saving specie, mails, baggage and other kinds of light and valuable cargo.