the.com/plimsoll
a humble canvas shoe named after the man who kept ships from drowning sailors
means A plimsoll is a light rubber-soled canvas sports shoe, the kind worn for gym or casual wear.
from Named for the Plimsoll line — the load mark painted on a ship's hull to show how deep it can safely sit in the water, championed by the 19th-century MP Samuel Plimsoll to stop overloaded 'coffin ships' from sinking their crews. The shoe earned the name because the horizontal rubber band running around its canvas upper resembles that hull mark, and water seeping above it would soak the wearer's foot — just as water rising above a ship's line spelled trouble. So a man's crusade for sailors' lives left its name on a child's gym shoe.
- namesake
- Samuel Plimsoll, the MP who fought deadly overloaded ships
- load line
- the hull mark sharing its name prevents capsizing
- why the name
- rubber sole's waterline resembled a ship's mark
- school staple
- British gym shoes for over a century
- sailor's friend
- Plimsoll dubbed the people's hero for saving lives
plimsoll line — load line on ships marking maximum safe draft, established by samuel plimsoll in 1876 to prevent overloading
plimsoll shoes — canvas rubber-soled sneakers named after the line on ship hulls due to their resemblance to the marking