Jost Bernhardt |
In
the days following the 21st of September, 1957, radio broadcasts
brought special reports to its listeners. The reason was
that all of Germany feared for the lives of the crew of
the Pamir, which had sunk off the Azores in a hurricane.
One man from Hamburg was following the reports particularly
closely. His name was Jost Bernhardt.
Jost
Bernhardt, the junior boss of the company Ingenieur Karl
Bernhardt Apparatebau began researching the field of lifesaving
technology for his company after the war. Initially, in
1951, he dealt with lifejackets out of naval stock. One
of his biggest customers was the Danish captain, F. Christensen,
who had instructions to outfit his country's navy with new
lifesaving equipment. No more lifejackets from old stock
were used, so demand for new products increased. Therefore,
the company had to boost production rapidly.
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From
the beginning, Jost Bernhardt attached great value to thorough
research. He was one of the first people to do so in the area
of sea safety. The Pamir tragedy inspired him to research more
effectively and strengthened his intentions to produce a quality
lifejacket. Bernhardt got hold of all lifesaving equipment as
was possible for this purpose. The swimming pools of Altona, in
Hamburg, provided the location where much systematic testing could
be performed. The results were documented with photographs, and
lists of advantages versus disadvantages.
In 1958 and 1959 Bernhardt compiled his findings on the physics
of flotation meticulously, and kept a record of them for articles
in specialist magazines. The articles "Zur Problematik der
Schwimmweste" and "The
Man In The Aqueous Element", provided milestones
in the area of water safety. Also, Bernhardt introduced his concept
of "unconscious proof." This described that lifejackets
must be constructed in such a way as to be able to turn a person's
body into a safe position when they are incapacitated, i.e. exhausted
or even unconscious. Bernhardt's new idea stressed the importance
of safety equipment that would help the user even if they could
not help themselves with their own supportive movement.
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In
the course of this work, he discovered a buoyancy chamber that
could be filled with compressed air. This development belonged
to a lifejacket from the German navy during the Second World War.
From this resulted the first inflatable life jacket.
In May of 1961, Jost Bernhardt founded the company Bernhardt Apparatebau
GmbH u. Co. At first, as a small enterprise, Ulrich Harms joined
as a partner, but left again in 1972. The company was situated
in a building on Vorsetzen, in the shadow of Hamburg's "Michel,"
and specialized in the development and production of lifejackets.
These were sold under the brand name of SECUMAR, a name derived
from the Latin words 'securitas in mare', i.e. 'safety at sea'.
From
then, Bernhardt worked continuously to improve his company's products.
This was not possible solely by research of his own. Therefore
he sought contact with other experts in order to include their
findings. Captain Gerhard Junack, a man who served in the German
navy, had been one of the crewmembers of the battleship Bismarck
when it sank. As founder and chief of a training group for ship
safety in the town of Neustadt, he gave a considerable contribution
to the reconstruction and standardization of lifesaving equipment.
This later gained him the nickname "father of ship safety“.
The
German navy had much confidence in Jost Bernhardt's products.
In 1964, naval troops were equipped with the SECUMAR MRS 3 lifejacket.
Along with many others like it, Jost Bernhardt designed this lifejacket.
With many ideas patented, SECUMAR products were awarded numerous
prizes. Some models, which he helped to design, sold over one
million lifejackets.
Jost
Bernhardt always wanted to spread his growing knowledge on safety
at sea into the public. In an effort to do so, he had films produced,
presented information at trade fairs, and held slide shows for
sailing clubs. In addition, Bernhardt spread information to public
authorities in congress.
In
1993, at the age of seventy, Jost Bernhardt died. His realm of
thought and his maxims are still valid ideas used without limitation.
The company, which is now headed by his son, Jan-Ulrich Bernhardt,
places great value on its own new research and development. Various
SECUMAR innovations, which have since arisen, raised the safety
standard considerably, and have acquired general acceptance in
the world of sailing.
Thanks
to Jost Bernhardt's close attention to the unfortunate fate of
the Pamir, many professional, as well as leisure sailors are still
alive today.
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