Plimsoll, Samuel

Plimsoll, Samuel (plĭm`səl), 1824–98, English reformer. Plimsoll was particularly interested in the welfare of sailors. As a member of Parliament (1868–80) he secured legislation limiting the loading of ships. It required that a line be painted on the sides of all British merchant vessels to show the limit of submergence allowed by law. This line has come to be known as Plimsoll's mark. He wrote Our Seamen (1872).

Bibliography

See D. Masters, The Plimsoll Mark (1955).

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Plimsoll, Samuel

(born Feb. 10, 1824, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Eng.—died June 3, 1898, Folkestone, Kent) British reformer. A London coal merchant, he served in Parliament (1868–80). With his book Our Seamen (1873), he helped overcome resistance to the Merchant Shipping Act, which instituted such reforms as the loading limit for cargo ships. A load line (the Plimsoll mark or line) was marked on the hull of every cargo ship, indicating the maximum depth to which the ship could be safely loaded.