Life Jackets

Life jackets were not readily available on an Arkansas tourist boat that sank Saturday with the loss of 13 lives, and passengers were given no safety information before launch, a survivor said on Monday. Asked if the operator had given passengers any briefing, Robert Powers, 34, whose wife, Danna, 32, was among the dead, said: "None. None whatsoever."

Virtual ship drills: Titanic, anyone? I enjoyed Beverly Beyette's article on the new Oasis ship ["The Sheer Fun of It All," Jan. 24] right up to the point where she praised the deletion of the "dreaded safety drill" and also praised the ship for placing life jackets at the boat stations rather than having them "take up valuable room in the cabin." Apparently, abandon-ship drills are now to be done in a virtual format. Beyette should Google "Titanic" or, perhaps more recently, "Andrea Doria" to see the definition of "unsinkable."

A bill requiring children to wear life jackets on small boats is on its way to the governor's desk. The Assembly voted 45-32 Monday in favor of the bill by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame). The bill would make it illegal to operate a boat less than 26 feet long unless any children under the age of 6 are wearing personal flotation devices. A child in an enclosed cabin or restrained by a sailboat harness would not be required to wear a life jacket.

Coroner's officials have identified a man who was wearing a life jacket when he drowned about 100 yards from a lifeguard tower at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point. Harold Richard Hart, 48, was discovered floating on his back Friday afternoon by a paddle boarder who called authorities. Hart, who lived on a boat in the area, apparently drowned about 8:30 a.m., according to Larry Esslinger, spokesman for the Orange County coroner's office.

Legislation to require most young children to wear life jackets to help save lives that could be lost in small boating accidents has been sent to Gov. Pete Wilson's desk by the Assembly. The lower house voted 45 to 32 to grant final approval to the bill (AB 1856) sponsored by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame). It would make it illegal to operate a boat under 26 feet in length unless children under the age of 6 are wearing life jackets.

A tour-boat accident on New York's Lake George that killed 20 people earlier this month raised questions about the safety of smaller passenger vessels, such as tour boats, ferries and fishing charters. How shipshape are such vessels? The short answer is that, in the U.S. at least, you're quite safe -- statistically speaking. But there are worrisome gaps in regulations. Passengers can take steps to protect their own safety.

It was the chaplain's badge that jolted Willie Stricklin, and his blurted cry answered the chaplain's 28 years of prayer. Stricklin, then 47, had been taken to Providence Hospital in El Paso, Texas, in 1971 with a near-fatal heart attack. Paul Poling, a retired minister, stood silent in the hospital room as Stricklin's eyes popped open and saw the name tag: "Chaplain Poling." The badge carried the former Navy gunner and oil field worker back to 1943 and the torpedoed troop ship Dorchester.

Few of the neighbors had gotten to know the new family on Markridge Road, and now it is too late. In the most sensational murder in Sarasota history, 35-year-old Sheila Bellush was found shot to death earlier this month, her quadruplets discovered next to the body, wearing life preservers and crawling in her blood. "I never really had a chance to even meet them," said Joe D'Ambrosio, who lived across the street. "I feel kind of bad about that."

It was an afternoon dip they could have done without. Alone in the middle of a tossing sea . . . rain pelting down on their heads . . . lightning striking all around . . . And mysterious denizens of the deep rising to investigate these flailing strangers. "I got bumped by something in the middle of the night," Jens Lundy said. "But you try not to let those things bother you." You just try to swim faster. Lundy, 26, of Scottsdale, Ariz.

A U.S. Navy plane has sighted debris believed to be from a South Korean airliner floating in the Andaman Sea off Burma, Korean Air officials announced. Lee Kun Soo, a Korean Air executive, told reporters eight floating pieces believed to be life jackets and escape slides from the vanished Boeing 707 were sighted by a U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft. Lee said U.S. authorities notified KAL of the sighting and said rescuers began an operation to retrieve the items from the sea.

It was just after midnight on the 12th day of a cruise to Antarctica when Eli Charne felt a giant lurch followed by a bang and the sound of gurgling. He knew there was trouble when he reached out and felt icy water running down the sides of his cabin. Lying on their bunks in the darkness, he and his two cabin mates struggled to figure out what had happened. When they switched on the lights in Room 314, all three gasped. "There was 1 1/2 feet of water on the floor," said Charne of Irvine.

A tour-boat accident on New York's Lake George that killed 20 people earlier this month raised questions about the safety of smaller passenger vessels, such as tour boats, ferries and fishing charters. How shipshape are such vessels? The short answer is that, in the U.S. at least, you're quite safe -- statistically speaking. But there are worrisome gaps in regulations. Passengers can take steps to protect their own safety.

Hundreds of preventable drownings have prompted federal regulators to consider whether to require boaters to wear life vests, igniting a safety-versus-personal freedom debate akin to the clash over mandatory motorcycle helmets. The National Transportation Safety Board recently held a forum in Virginia during which boating safety officials discussed new laws to make the use of life vests mandatory. Meanwhile, boating industry representatives blasted the government for meddling.

It was the chaplain's badge that jolted Willie Stricklin, and his blurted cry answered the chaplain's 28 years of prayer. Stricklin, then 47, had been taken to Providence Hospital in El Paso, Texas, in 1971 with a near-fatal heart attack. Paul Poling, a retired minister, stood silent in the hospital room as Stricklin's eyes popped open and saw the name tag: "Chaplain Poling." The badge carried the former Navy gunner and oil field worker back to 1943 and the torpedoed troop ship Dorchester.

Workers aboard this vast, rumbling network of pipes and compressors call her an animal--a volatile creature with good days and bad. Her moods swing, her pressures shift and her lifeblood flows from black pools two miles below the sea floor. This is Platform Gail, one of the largest and most sophisticated oil rigs off the coast of California--a small city sitting in nearly 800 feet of ocean nine miles off Port Hueneme.

A man was convicted on a reduced charge of manslaughter for wresting a 7-year-old girl's life jacket away from her and leaving her to drown. Troy Carlisle, 28, told authorities that Dallas Reinhardt's vest could not support the two of them so he decided to take it off her and wrap it around his arm while trying to pull her to safety. Carlisle faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence at his Oct. 20 sentencing.

A Greek-owned freighter sank off the southern coast of Greece in stormy weather, and all nine crew members are missing, a spokesman for the Merchant Marine Ministry said Wednesday. "The vessel Unity, flying the Panamanian flag but Greek-owned, sent out an SOS signal Tuesday evening but sank in stormy weather before help could arrive," the spokesman said.

The boating shop at Santa Fe Dam will resume renting its 20 rowboats and 10 paddle boats this weekend after the county Board of Supervisors decided to reduce the insurance requirement for boat rentals from $1 million to $500,000. Boat rentals were discontinued in mid-June because the county-owned shop at the dam was unable to find a company that would provide the $1-million insurance policy. The boat shop has remained in operation this summer selling bait and renting life jackets.

A Louisiana fisherman was charged with second-degree murder Monday for allegedly killing his captain in a dramatic fight for the only life jacket aboard their sinking shrimp boat. Alvin Latham, 46, has been jailed on $200,000 bail for the death of Raymond Leiker on the night of July 16 in stormy seas off the Louisiana coast, said John Marie, spokesman for the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Department. Latham, who survived without the life jacket, faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Vessels from shipping companies, the coast guard and local fishermen resumed a search today for dozens missing after a ferry carrying more than 650 people sank off the central Philippines. At least 607 people have been rescued from the Asia South Korea, which sank Thursday near Bantayan Island, about 300 miles southeast of Manila. At least nine people died in the accident. The bodies of a boy and girl, still wearing life jackets, washed ashore on a nearby island, police said.