SPEED AND LUXURY OVEREMPHASIZED--SPACE NEEDED FOR LIFE-BOATS DEVOTED TO
SWIMMING POOLS AND SQUASH-COURTS--MANIA FOR SPEED RECORDS COMPELS USE OF
DANGEROUS ROUTES AND PREVENTS PROPER CAUTION IN FOGGY WEATHER--LIFE
MORE VALUABLE THAN LUXURY--SAFETY MORE IMPORTANT THAN SPEED--AN AROUSED
PUBLIC OPINION NECESSARY--INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED--ADEQUATE
LIFE-SAVING EQUIPMENT SHOULD BE COMPULSORY--SPEED REGULATIONS IN BAD
WEATHER--COOPERATION IN ARRANGING SCHEDULES TO KEEP VESSELS WITHIN REACH
OF EACH OTHER--LEGAL REGULATIONS
IT is a long time since any modern vessel of importance has gone down
under Nature's attack, and in general the floating city of steel laughs
at the wind and waves. She is not, however, proof against disaster. The
danger lies in her own power--in the tens of thousands of horse power
with which she may be driven into another ship or into an iceberg
standing cold and unyielding as a wall of granite. In view of this
fact it is of the utmost importance that present-day vessels should be
thoroughly provided with the most efficient life-saving devices. These
would seem more important than fireplaces, squash-courts and many other
luxuries with which the Titanic was provided. The comparatively few
survivors of the ill-fated Titanic were saved by the life-boats. The
hundreds of others who went down with the vessel perished because there
were no life-boats to carry them until rescue came.
SURVIVORS URGE REFORM
The survivors urge the need of reform. In a resolution drawn up after
the disaster they said:
"We feel it our duty to call the attention of the public to what we
consider the inadequate supply of life-saving appliances provided for
the modern passenger steamships and recommend that immediate steps
be taken to compel passenger steamers to carry sufficient boats to
accommodate the maximum number of people carried on board. The following
facts were observed and should be considered in this connection: The
insufficiency of life-boats, rafts, etc.; lack of trained seamen to man
same (stokers, stewards, etc., are not efficient boat handlers);
not enough officers to carry out emergency orders on the bridge and
superintend the launching and control of life-boats; the absence of
search lights.
"The Board of Trade allows for entirely too many people in each boat to
permit the same to be properly handled. On the Titanic the boat deck was
about seventy-five feet from the water and consequently the passengers
were required to embark before lowering the boats, thus endangering the
operation and preventing the taking on of the maximum number the
boats would hold. Boats at all times should be properly equipped with
provisions, water, lamps, compasses, lights, etc. Life-saving boat
drills should be more frequent and thoroughly carried out and officers
should be armed at both drills. There should be greater reduction of
speed in fog and ice, as damage if collision actually occurs is liable
to be less.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED
"In conclusion we suggest that an international conference be called to
recommend the passage of identical laws providing for the safety of all
at sea, and we urge the United States Government to take the initiative
as soon as possible."
That ocean liners take chances with their passengers, though known to
the well informed, is newly revealed and comes with a shock of surprise
and dismay to most people. If boats are unsinkable as well as fireproof
there is no need of any life-boats at all. But no such steamship has
ever been constructed.
That it is realized that life-boats may be necessary on the best and
newest steamships is proved by the fact that they carry them even beyond
the law's requirements. But if life-boats for one-third of those on the
ship are necessary, life-boats for all on board are equally necessary.
The law of the United States requires this, but the law and trade
regulations of England do not, and these controlled the Titanic and
caused the death of over sixteen hundred people.
True, a steamship is rarely crowded to her capacity, and ordinarily
accommodations in life-boats for a full list would not be needed. But
that is no argument against maximum safety facilities, for when disaster
comes it comes unexpectedly, and it might come when every berth
was occupied. So there must be life-boats for use in every possible
emergency. Places must be found for them and methods for handling them
promptly.
Suppose a vessel to be thus equipped, would safety be insured? In calm
weather such as the Titanic had, yes, for all that would be needed would
be to keep the small boats afloat until help came. The Titanic could
have saved everyone aboard. In heavy weather, no. As at present
arranged, if a vessel has a list, or, in non-nautical language, has
tipped over on one side, only the boats upon the lower side can be
dropped, for they must be swung clear of the vessel to be lowered from
the davits.
So there is a problem which it is the duty of marine designers to solve.
They have heretofore turned their attention to the invention of some
new contrivance for comfort and luxury. Now let them grasp the far more
important question of taking every soul from a sinking ship. They can
do it, and while they are about it, it would be well to supplement
life-boats with other methods.
We like to think and to say that nothing is impossible in these days
of ceaseless and energetic progress. Certainly it is possible for the
brains of marine designers to find a better way for rescue work.
Lewis Nixon, ship-builder and designer for years, is sure that we can
revolutionize safety appliances. He has had a plan for a long time
for the construction of a considerable section of deck that could be
detached and floated off like an immense raft. He figures that such a
deck-raft could be made to carry the bulk of the passengers.
That may seem a bit chimerical to laymen, but Nixon is no layman. His
ideas are worthy of every consideration. Certain it is that something
radical must be done, and that the maritime nations must get together,
not only in the way of providing more life-saving facilities, but in
agreeing upon navigation routes and methods.
Captain William S. Sims, of the United States Navy, who is in a position
to know what he is talking about, has made some very pointed comments on
the subject. He says:
"The truth of the matter is that in case any large passenger steamship
sinks, by reason of collision or other fatal damage to her flotability,
more than half of her passengers are doomed to death, even in fair
weather, and in case there is a bit of a sea running none of the loaded
boats can long remain afloat, even if they succeed in getting safely
away from the side, and one more will be added to the long list of 'the
ships that never return.'
"Most people accept this condition as one of the inevitable perils of
the sea, but I believe it can be shown that the terrible loss of life
occasioned by such disasters as overtook the Bourgogne and the Titanic
and many other ships can be avoided or at least greatly minimized.
Moreover, it can be shown that the steamship owners are fully aware
of the danger to their passengers; that the laws on the subject of
life-saving appliances are wholly inadequate; that the steamship
companies comply with the law, though they oppose any changes therein,
and that they decline to adopt improved appliances; because there is
no public demand for them, the demand being for high schedule speed and
luxurious conditions of travel.
"In addition to installing efficient life-saving appliances, if the
great steamship lines should come to an agreement to fix a maximum speed
for their vessels of various classes and fix their dates and hours of
steaming so that they would cross the ocean in pairs within supporting
distances of each other, on routes clear of ice, all danger of ocean
travel would practically be eliminated.
"The shortest course between New York and the English Channel lies
across Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Consequently the shortest water
route is over seas where navigation is dangerous by reason of fog and
ice. It is a notorious fact that the transatlantic steamships are not
navigated with due regard to safety; that they steam at practically full
speed in the densest fogs. But the companies cannot properly be blamed
for this practice, because if the 'blue liners' slow down in a fog or
take a safe route, clear of ice, the public will take passage on
the 'green liners,' which take the shortest route, and keep up their
schedule time; regardless of the risks indicated."
PROMPT REFORMS
The terrible sacrifice of the Titanic, however, is to have its fruit in
safety for the future. The official announcement is
{illust. caption = A diagrammatic map showing how...}
made by the International Mercantile Marine that all its ships will be
equipped with sufficient life-boats and rafts for every passenger and
every member of the crew, without regard to the regulations in this
country and England or Belgium. One of the German liners already had
this complement of life-boats, though the German marine as a whole is
sufficiently deficient at this point to induce the Reichstag to order an
investigation.
Prompt, immediate and gratifying reform marks this action of the
International Mercantile Marine. It is doubtless true that this
precaution ought to have been taken without waiting for a loss of life
such as makes all previous marine disasters seem trivial. But the public
itself has been inert. For thirty years, since Plimsoll's day, every
intelligent passenger knew that every British vessel was deficient in
life-boats, but neither public opinion nor the public press took
this matter up. There were no questions in Parliament and no measures
introduced in Congress. Even the legislation by which the United States
permitted English vessels reaching American ports to avoid the legal
requirements of American statute law (which requires a seat in the
life-boats for every passenger and every member of the crew) attracted
no public attention, and occasional references to the subject by those
better informed did nothing to awake action.
But this is past. Those who died bravely without complaint and with
sacrificing regard for others did not lose their lives in vain. The
safety of all travelers for all times to come under every civilized flag
is to be greater through their sac-rifice. Under modern conditions life
can be made as safe at sea as on the land. It is heartrending to stop
and think that thirty-two more life-boats, costing only about $16,000,
which could have been stowed away without being noticed on the broad
decks of the Titanic, would have saved every man, woman and child on
the steamer. There has never been so great a disaster in the history of
civilization due to the neglect of so small an expenditure.
It would be idle to think that this was due simply to parsimony. It was
really due to the false and vicious notion that life at sea must be made
showy, sumptuous and magnificent. The absence of life-boats was not due
to their cost, but to the demand for a great promenade deck, with ample
space to look out on the sea with which a continuous row of life-boats
would have interfered, and to the general tendency to lavish money on
the luxuries of a voyage instead of first insuring its safety.