Invention of the Waterproof Torch
This is a photo of the Pamir, on which Bridget sailed in August 1934.
Bridget travelled extensively throughout her life. One particularly exciting trip was in August 1934 on board the windjammer Pamir, a very fast, four masted cargo sailing ship, which carried wheat between Australia and Finland. She boarded at Cork in Ireland and sailed to Mariehelm in Finland. A letter home tells of her adventures:
“We had a perfectly heavenly voyage and v. quick. We ran into a gale in the Channel and flew along like the Flying Dutchman with shortened sail – one sail ripped up. We also ran down a French trawler one night in the dark … we found afterwards our boats were unseaworthy and would have taken an hour to lower!”
It was possibly this experience that led to her tireless battle to ensure the safety of men serving with the Merchant and Royal Navies. She wrote to newspapers stressing conditions for seamen must be improved and raised questions in parliament.
Her major achievement was the invention of a waterproof torch to be fitted to lifejackets and rafts, which gave men overboard a better chance of rescue. She used her political and social connections to badger Parliament to make its fitting and provision compulsory for Merchant Navy, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force personnel, which saved many lives.
This extract from a letter to her gives an indication as to how important this invention was in saving lives that would otherwise have been lost at sea
“While serving in the Channel in 1943 a Norwegian destroyer was blown up. We picked up the survivors – over 100 – and believe me, we would never have seen them except for the little red lights.”