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Ane Pieter Schat’s life boat davits and life boats improved shipwreck survival worldwide

by Dirk Septer 2021

patent

United States Patent document for davit device (Photo from the Dirk Septer collection.)

Do you ever wonder about the Schat Patent and Schat–Harding names on life boat davits and life boats? One of the sons of this Dutch live saving equipment inventor is a long-time British Columbia resident I met some 40 years ago. Here is his dad’s history.

lifeboat davit

Schat davit mechanism on the Queen of Prince Rupert (Photo from the Dirk Septer collection.)

lifeboat davit

Schat davit mechanism on the Queen of Prince Rupert (Photo from the Dirk Septer collection.)

On November 3, 2020 it was exactly 100 years since Dutchman Ane Pieter Schat received patent number 31101 in the Netherlands for one of his first davit designs. More than 300 other patents would follow in later years, which together would save thousands of lives. A.P. Schat

A.P. Schat (Photo from the Dirk Septer collection.)

Born on May 24, 1895 into a baker’s family in Utrecht, Netherlands, at age 14 Schat chose to break family tradition and become a sailor. In 1914, working as third officer on the Poseidon, a small Shell Oil tanker he observed some of the carnage at sea during the outbreak of war. “On our route three British cruisers were sunk by the German submarine U–22. There were thousands of bodies floating and we couldn’t do anything anymore for these victims,” he recalled.

This experience coupled with the sinking of the Titanic and the huge loss of human lives at sea during the First World War would haunt Schat for the rest of his life and would become the impetus for his ingenious new systems and davits which allowed the safe lowering of life boats under the most challenging circumstances. On June 17, 1915 Schat left Holland for the former Dutch East Indies. After sailing for a while out of Java and later Singapore, he tramped across to Africa and traveled though Swaziland. Next, he joined the Dutch navy, but soon the very independent and stubborn Schat had difficulties adjusting to the strict discipline. After a disagreement with his Captain, Schat jumped overboard and tried unsuccessfully to swim to a nearby ship. Surviving an incredible 36 hours in the cold water with only a chocolate bar hidden under his cap, he was finally picked up by another Dutch navy vessel.

Lowering Lifeboat

Successfully lowering a lifeboat on a 45 degree list. (Photo from the Dirk Septer collection.)

In 1917 after serving as a Second Officer with the Koninklijke Nederlandse Stoomboot Maatschappij and the Nederlandsch–Indische Tankstoomboot Maatschappij N.V., he decided to stay on shore and dedicate his life to improving lifesaving equipment.

Sailing on a schooner via Point Barrow, Alaska, he arrived in San Francisco in February 1918 where for 10 dollars a week he first got a job on the Union Ironworks shipyard drilling holes in shell plates. Later he took administrative work with the local Holland–American Chamber of Commerce and with the assistance of a naval draughtsman and many evenings later, he returned to the Netherlands with a large folio of plans for davits. His return voyage again took the long way via Cape Horn and after a stop at the Falkland Islands for repairs, finally from Boston, Mass. via New York he returned to his native country.

In 1920 Schat returned to America where he demonstrated a full scale model of his first system on the Holland America Line’s Hoboken pier at the foot of 3rd and 4th Streets in New York City. The test surpassed all expectations and Steamboat Inspection Service Supervising Inspector General Uhler approved the system. Under a weight of 4,000 kg in the sloop even with half extended davits the brake continued to work properly.

After returning to the Netherlands again in 1923, Schat re–enlisted in the Dutch navy as Officer Observer 3rd Class with their naval flying corps. After surviving a crash of a floatplane with five cracks in his skull, he left the navy on October 1, 1925 with an honourable discharge and resumed his work on life saving equipment. The American training vessel Iris was the first of many vessels to be equipped with his automatic device for safely lowering lifeboats. The standard became so common that shipyard specifications started calling for Schat–type davits, which soon became available from various sources. Schat’s first Gravity Davit patent model is now part of the collection of the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam.

certificate

Recognition from Scientific American (Photo from the Dirk Septer collection.)

His 1926 patent device allowed lifeboats to glide over obstructions on a ship’s hull and became known as the Schat Skate. This was followed by a self–braking winch system that allowed the lifeboat to be lowered evenly. The advantage of Schat’s system was that under the most difficult circumstances the davit did not swing around. With the new system the lifeboats did not bump against obstacles or injure crew members.

For his contributions to saving lives at sea, Schat received many honours. Then on March 22, 1926 he was awarded the De Ruyter medal, a decoration created by Royal Decree no. 1 on 23 March 1907 by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands to honour the 300th birthday of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, to be awarded to those members of the Dutch Merchant fleet who distinguish themselves by praiseworthy acts of duty for the Dutch shipping industry. The Second World War, however, would become fatal for Schat’s reputation and business. Having delivered lifeboats and davits during the war, he was accused of economic collaboration with the enemy. Immediately after the end of the Second World War, the Dutch government established special courts of justice to try suspected collaborators, black marketers and other Nazi sympathizers.

During the war, members of the Dutch civil service, police, and state railways all continued working, as did the majority of the Dutch industrial complex. This included the big firms like Philips electronics, Hoogovens steel works, and Werkspoor.

The biggest collaboration, however, occurred in the shipyards, which for 90 percent became dependent on German orders, estimated at a value of 150 million guilders. About 85 shipyards, 24 machine and engine plants, and foundries continued working. Dutch shipyards completed a total of 90 minesweepers and some 30 cargo vessels for the German war effort.

However, for post’war economical and political reasons, none of them were convicted. Charges against the CEO of Aviolanda, whose aircraft factory built Dornier flying boats for the Luftwaffe were dropped. Compared to those aircraft which could be considered as direct war material, Schat’s davits and lifeboats were actually life saving equipment. Instead, having to produce some convictions, the tribunals went after the smaller fry, like Schat’s company.

Just like the majority of the Dutch shipyards, Schat continued production, earning him some 4.4 million guilders. Not only the current orders were completed, but new ones were accepted, among others from the German Kriegsmarine.

During the war, at the request of the Koninklijke Nederlansche Stoomboot–Maatschappij N.V., N.V. Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij and the Koninklijke Maatschappij de Schelde Dutch shipping companies, Schat employed their redundant personnel. Thus he saved 86 of these workers from being sent to Germany as forced labour. By continuing the production of davits, Schat also prevented his own technical personnel from being shipped off to the heavy war industry for the production of weapons, ammunition, aircraft en naval vessels.

Also in other ways Schat had worked indirectly against the enemy. By increasing his production of davits, he prevented the use of the required material to become available for the production of direct war material. Between August and December, 1944 Schat also sheltered three deserted Italian soldiers and the son of the local school principal at his private residence Huize “Den Dune” in Valkenisse–Biggekerke.

Despite many favourable statements, including from the Inspector General for Shipping, high–ranking politicians, and CEOs of the three big shipping companies whose personnel he helped save during the war, he was convicted, spent time in jail, lost his right to vote and his coveted De Ruyter medal.

Having been a multi–millionaire in the late 1940s, Schat would eventually die in poverty. Though for his perceived collaboration he lost his company and most of his wealth, Schat kept working on improving lifesaving equipment.

He did not only concern himself about means of safely abandoning a vessel, but about survival at sea afterwards as well. He even approached the Deutz machine factory about the development of an outboard engine powered by shark oil.

Schat also always helped others who devoted themselves in the rescue of shipwrecked people. For example, he supported Dr. Bombard, the French biologist, physician and politician financially in his sailing in a small boat across the Atlantic Ocean without provision. Bombard theorized that a human being could very well survive the trip across the ocean without provisions and decided to test his theory himself in order to save thousands of lives of people lost at sea.

Having traveled the Seven Seas, in later years he also drove overland all through Europe, Russia and China in a 16–cylinder Cadillac (one of two in the Netherlands at that time) and a 12–cylinder Lincoln. His ideal in his last years still to make a large voyage in a lifeboat to visit all major international ports never materialized.

Though he lost his company and most of his wealth, Schat kept working on improvements to lifesaving and shipwreck survival in the post war years. The Schat Company itself changed hands and locations several times, and via London eventually ended up in Norway where the name would continue to be associated with lifeboats and davits as Schat–Harding. Today it is the world’s leading manufacturer of lifeboats of the free fall type for the freighters and cruise ships around the world.

Lifeboat

More than 100 years after his first patent was approved, the Schat name still survives as Schat–Harding on this Queen Mary 2 cruise ship tender. (Photo from the Dirk Septer collection.)


To quote from this article please cite:

Septer, Dirk (2021) Ane Pieter Schat’s life boat davits and life boats improved shipwreck survival worldwide. Nauticapedia.ca 2021. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Schat_Patent.php

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