Plimsoll
SAMUEL, "the sailor's friend," and English legislator; born in Bristol, England, Feb. 10, 1824. In 1854 he started business on his own account, in the coal trade in London. Shortly afterward he began to interest himself in the sailors of the mercantile marine , and the dangers to which they were exposed in unseaworthy ships, bad stowage, overloading, etc. Failing to induce Parliament to take legislative steps to put an end to these evils, Mr. Plimsoll himself entered Parliament, for Derby, in 1868; but it was not till he had published "Our Seamen" (1873) that he succeeded in getting passed the Merchant Shipping Act in 1876. By this act the Board of Trade was empowered to detain, either for survey or permanently, any vessel deemed unsafe, either on account of defective hull, machinery, or equipments, etc.; a penalty not exceeding $1,500 was incurred by any owner who should ship a cargo of grain in bulk exceeding two-thirds of the entire cargo, grain in bulk being especially liable to shift on the voyage; the amount of timber that might be carried as deck cargo was defined, and enforced by penalties; finally every owner was ordered to mark (often called the "Plimsoll Mark") on the sides of his ships, amidships, a circular disk, 12 inches in diameter, with a horizontal line 18 inches long drawn center of the disk to mark the maximum load line-i. e. the line down to which the vessel might be loaded, in salt water.
In 1890 this act was amended, the fixing of the load line being taken out of the owner's discretion and made a duty of the Board of Trade. Mr. Plimsoll retired from parliamentary life in 1880. In 1890 he published a work on "Cattleships," exposing the cruelties and great dangers connected with the shipping of live live cattle across the ocean to British ports. He died June 3, 1898.