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Valdemar Ferdinand Imanuel Engelhardt was born in Slesvig 23rd. April 1858. At that time Slesvig was Danish but today it is German.His Father was Christian Ole Carl Engelhardt (1828-1905) and his mother Juliane Wommelstorf (1828-1927).
As a young boy he went to sea and later , in February 1880, he graduated from Københavns Navigationsskole (Copenhagen Navigationsschool). He then served as captain for various Australian shipping companies. Here, he discovered the insufficient and inadequate lifesaving material. He developed interest in improving the material and invented the Collapsible lifeboat. he took patent in 1901 (Danish patent no. 4183). The boat consist of a pontoon and when folded retain its length and width, but has only half the high of an ordinary boat. When in water the boat will float and even folded and loaded with full capacity the deck will still be above the waterline.
It was presented to the public on the world trade exhibition in Paris in 1900 and won a reward. Østasiatisk Kompani ( Eastasiatic company) and De Forenede Damskibsselskaber (The United Steamship Companies) bought the lifeboat. In America a Company was formed and sold the lifeboat to the American Navy.
In 1907 he married Marion Libby who was born in New York (31. December 1872) a daughter of a Priest Daniel Libby and Myra Rilda Ward.
British "Board of Trade" would only approve the boat as "Section E boat" but slowly they saw the potential of the boat which was better than the existing collapsible boats Berthon boat and Chamber boat. After two years of hard work the Board of Trade and the Advisory Committee for Board of Trade Succeeded in getting the Parliament to change the maritime law so the Engelhardt Collapsible could be approved as Section A boat. This was a victory as Section A boats was not supposed to be collapsible.
Shortly after the Titanic went down in 1912. Titanic had four Engelhardt Collapsible boats, and this made the lifeboat known not only to the shipowners world-wide but also to the public. The lifeboat had proven itself. The Director of the White Star Line which owned the Titanic immediately ordered all lifeboats under construction. Engelhardt established a company in England so he could make more boats to his English customers.
Engelhardt kept improving the lifeboat and patented in December 1913 (Danish patent no. 18251) a system so it could empty itself of water. It was a simple system made of canvas, the same material as the side.
When Lusitania and Empress of Ireland went down there was not enough time to launch the Section A boats but Engelhardt Collapsible boats simply floaded of and saved several people. Untrained passengers would be able to upright the collapsible sides. In the Empress of Ireland catastrophe a minor was swimming with a little girl in his arms. He managed to get to a lifeboat and with another passenger they managed to unfold the sides and saved several passengers.
Valdemar Engelhardt was a Director of the The Engelhardt Decked Life Boat Company" until his dead in 1931. |
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