Orpheus Beaumont

Orpheus Maud Beaumont was a British-born New Zealand woman who invented the Salvus life jacket.

Biography

Beaumont was born on 14 September 1863 and baptised on 21 October 1863 according to her baptismal record. She was born in Jersey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom to Mary and William Newman. Beaumont was ten when her father died. Her mother migrated to Dunedin, New Zealand, with her three youngest children.
Beaumont's somewhat unusual first name is bound up with HMS Orpheus on which her teenage brother, Henry Newman, was a seaman. The Orpheus was carrying British soldiers on their way to New Zealand to fight in the Waikato Land Wars when the ship ran aground on the sandbar at the entrance to Auckland’s Manukau Harbour on 7 February 1863. Of the 259 men on board, 189 drowned and Henry Newman was incorrectly presumed to be one of those who died. As was then current practice, there were no life preservers on board the Orpheus. Henry's mother Mary was pregnant at the time of the shipwreck and after learning that her son had survived, she named her daughter Orpheus after the ship.
Beaumont was listed as 2nd Stewardess on the SS Waihora in March or April 1889. Norman Beaumont was Chief Officer on the Waihora in 1889. The couple were married on 17 June 1890. By that time Norman Beaumont had been promoted to be captain of the Union Steamship Company. They had two children, Llewelyn, born in 1892 in Suva, Fiji and Constance.
Beaumont and her daughter travelled to England in 1916 where they joined the Women's Legion. Beaumont was appointed as a supervisor at the Woolwich Arsenal canteen. Between January 1918 and June 1919, she and her husband obtained patents for a new type of life jacket. In 1919 she opened a factory for production of the Salvus life jackets in Liverpool and London.
Beaumont died on 7 November 1951 and is buried at Karitane Cemetery, Karitane, Otago, New Zealand.

The Salvus life jacket

Beaumont was allegedly motivated to develop a new type of life jacket following the shipwreck that almost claimed the life of her brother Henry Newman in 1863, the presumed death by drowning of her brother William Newman in 1912, and the sinking of the Titanic. William Newman had actually died a few days after an "apoplectic fit" while out boating Otago in 1887. No inquest was held. A newspaper reported Henry Newman's death from a "lung disease" as occurring in 1898.
On 15 April 1912, the RMS Titanic sank with the loss of approximately 1,500 lives. The Convention for the Saving of Life at Sea was adopted in 1914, in response to the Titanic disaster. Article 51 states "A life-jacket of an approved type, or other appliance of equal buoyancy and capable of being fitted on the body, shall be carried for every person on board, and, in addition, a sufficient number of life-jackets, or other equivalent appliances, suitable for children." Following the tragedy, the British Board of Trade held a competition calling for the invention of a better life jacket than the cork model currently in use at the time.
The Beaumonts designed a cotton vest filled with kapok, a buoyant fibre harvested from the kapok tree; they were inspired to use kapok after observing the floatation qualities of its seedpods when they had travelled through the Pacific. Kapok's hair-like follicles contain natural oils that repel water, trapping air and providing high buoyancy. These lifejackets offered a supporting force 3½ times stronger than cork. The body attachments featured buoyant cushions filled with seedless Java kapok and cork, with tubular hems for strings. If the upper strings were left loose, a space between the front cushion and the wearer could accommodate a baby or small child. A key feature was its ease of use in emergencies.
The British Board of Trade introduced a new regulation to the effect that, before it could be approved, a life-jacket had to satisfy certain required conditions even if it were put on the wearer back to front, or upside down. By April 1919 only five types of life-jackets complied with the conditions, one of which was the New Zealand Salvus. Beaumont opened two factories, in London and in Liverpool. 30,000 life jackets were commissioned and used by the British fleet, the Union Steam Ship Company, and several ferry companies.
The Salvus was eventually superseded by foam-filled life jackets at the beginning of World War II.

Patents issued

were issued in several countries to the Beaumonts for the Salvus life jacket.

Country	Filing no.	Publication no.	Inventor	Filing date	Publication date
New Zealand	39370		Beaumont, Norman	6 October 1917	29 January 1918
Australia	562217		Beaumont, Norman	30 October 1917	23 April 1918
Great Britain	853517	113214	Beaumont, Orpheus	14 June 1917	14 February 1918
United States	21495318	1270686	Beaumont, Orpheus	1 February 1918	25 June 1918
France	492844		Beaumont, Orpheus	10 August 1918	19 July 1919
Canada	189927		Beaumont, Orphius	1 February 1918	29 April 1919
Denmark	24646		Orpheus Beaumont, Norman Beaumont	14 June 1917	16 June 1919

Legacy

In 2013, a documentary film The Drowning Country was released by Caroline Fitzgerald, Beaumont's great-granddaughter.
In August 2024, Beaumont was one of eight women celebrated by Jersey Post in their "Jersey Women of Achievement" stamp collection. The collection is available until August 2026.