CAPTAIN E. K. RODEN, LEWIS NIXON, GENERAL GREELY AND ROBERT H. KIRK
POINT OUT LESSONS TAUGHT BY TITANIC DISASTER AND NEEDED CHANGES IN
CONSTRUCTION
THE tremendous loss of life necessarily aroused a discussion as to the
cause of the disaster, and the prevailing opinion seemed to be that the
present tendency in shipbuilding was to sacrifice safety to luxury.
Captain Roden, a well-known Swedish navigator, had written an article
maintaining this theory in the Navy, a monthly service magazine, in
November, 1910. With seeming prophetic insight he had mentioned the
Titanic by name and portrayed some of the dangers to which shipbuilding
for luxury is leading.
He pointed out that the new steamships, the Olympic and Titanic, would
be the finest vessels afloat, no expense being spared to attain every
conceivable comfort for which men or women of means could possibly
ask--staterooms with private shower-baths, a swimming pool large enough
for diving, a ballroom covering an entire upper deck, a gymnasium,
elaborate cafes, a sun deck representing a flower garden, and other
luxuries.
After forcibly pointing out the provisions that should be made for the
protection of life, Captain Roden wrote in conclusion:
"If the men controlling passenger ships, from the ocean liner down to
the excursion barge, were equally disposed to equip their vessels with
the best safety appliances as they are to devise and adopt implements
of comfort and luxury, the advantage to themselves as well as to their
patrons would be plainly apparent."
VIEW OF LEWIS NIXON
Lewis Nixon, the eminent naval architect and designer of the battleship
Oregon, contributed a very interesting comment. He said in part:
"Here was a vessel presumed, and I think rightly so, to be the
perfection of the naval architect's art, yet sunk in a few hours by an
accident common to North Atlantic navigation.
THE UNSINKABLE SHIP
"An unsinkable ship is possible, but it would be of little use except
for flotation. It may be said that vessels cannot be built to withstand
such an accident.
"We might very greatly subdivide the forward compartments, where much
space is lost at best, making the forward end, while amply strong for
navigation purposes, of such construction that it would collapse
and take up some of the energy of impact; then tie this to very much
stronger sections farther aft. Many such plans will be proposed by those
who do not realize the momentum of a great vessel which will snap great
cables like ribbons, when the motion of the vessel is not perceptible to
the eye.
"The proper plan is to avoid the accident, and if an accident is
unavoidable to minimize the loss of life and property."
VIEW OF ROBERT H. KIRK
The Titanic disaster was discussed by Robert H. Kirk, who installed the
compartment doors in the ships of the United States Navy. Mr. Kirk's
opinion follows:
"The Titanic's disaster will cause endless speculation as to how similar
disasters may be avoided in the future.
BULKHEAD DOORS PROBABLY OPEN
"The Titanic had bulkheads, plenty of them, for the rules of the British
Board of Trade and of Lloyds are very specific and require enough
compartments to insure floating of the ship though several may be
flooded. She also had doors in the bulkheads, and probably plenty of
them, for she was enormous and needed easy access from one compartment
to another. It will probably never be known how _FEW_ of these doors
were closed when she struck the iceberg, but the probability is that
many were open, for in the confusion attending such a crash the crews
have a multitude of duties to perform, and closing a door with water
rushing through it is more of a task than human muscle and bravery can
accomplish.
"A Lloyds surveyor in testing one of these hand-operated doors started
two men on the main deck to close it. They worked four hours before they
had carried out his order. If all the doors on the ship had worked as
badly as this one, what would have happened in event of accident?"
MANIA FOR SPEED
General Adolphus W. Greely, U. S. A., noted American traveler and Arctic
explorer, vehemently denounced the sinking of the Titanic and the loss
of over 1600 souls as a terrible sacrifice to the American mania for
speed. He gave his opinion that the Titanic came to grief through an
attempt on the part of the steamship management to establish a new
record by the vessel on her maiden voyage.
The Titanic, General Greely declared, had absolutely no business above
Cape Race and north of Sable Island on the trip on which she went to her
doom. Choosing the northern route brought about the dire disaster, in
his mind, and it was the saving of three hours for the sake of a new
record that ended in the collision with the tragic victory for the
ghostlike monster out of the far north.
It was the opinion of General Greely, capable of judging after his many
trips in quest of the pole, that neither Captain Smith nor any of his
officers saw the giant iceberg which encompassed their ruin until they
were right upon it. Then, the ship was plunging ahead at such frightful
velocity that the Titanic was too close to avert striking the barrier
lined up across its path.