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09 - Loss of the S. S. Titanic by Lawrence Beesley · Loss of the S. S. Titanic

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Speaker 1: Part two of chapter eight of The Loss of the
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Speaker 1: S S. Titanic by Lawrence Beasley. This LibriVox recording is
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Speaker 1: in the public domain, recorded by Alison Hester, Chapter eight,
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Speaker 1: Part two, The Lessons Taught by the Loss of the Titanic.
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Speaker 1: It will be well now to consider briefly the various
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Speaker 1: appliances that have been suggested to ensure the safety of
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Speaker 1: passengers and crew, And in doing so it may be
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Speaker 1: remembered that the average man and woman has the same
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Speaker 1: right as the expert to consider and discuss these things.
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Speaker 1: They are not so technical as to prevent any one
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Speaker 1: of ordinary intelligence from understanding their construction. Using the term
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Speaker 1: in its widest sense, we come first, too, bulkheads and
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Speaker 1: water tight compartments. It is impossible to attempt a discussion
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Speaker 1: here of the exact constructional details of these parts of
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Speaker 1: a ship, But in order to illustrate briefly what is
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Speaker 1: the purpose of having bulkheads, we may take the Titanic
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Speaker 1: as an example. She was divided into sixteen compartments by
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Speaker 1: fifteen transverse steel walls called bulkheads. If a hole is
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Speaker 1: made in the side of the ship in any one compartment,
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Speaker 1: steel watertight doors seal off the only openings in that
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Speaker 1: compartment and separate it as a damaged unit from the
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Speaker 1: rest of the ship, and a vessel is brought to
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Speaker 1: land in safety. Ships have even put into the nearest
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Speaker 1: port for inspection after collision, and finding only one compartment
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Speaker 1: full of water and no other damage, have left again
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Speaker 1: for their home port without troubling to disembark passengers and
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Speaker 1: effect repairs. The design of the Titanic's bulkheads calls for
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Speaker 1: some attention The Scientific American and an excellent article on
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Speaker 1: the comparative safety of the Titanics and other types of
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Speaker 1: water tight compartments draws attention to the following weaknesses in
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Speaker 1: the former from the point of view of possible collision
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Speaker 1: with an iceberg. She had no longitudinal bulkheads, which would
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Speaker 1: subdivide her into smaller compartments and prevent the water feeling
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Speaker 1: the whole of a large compartment. Probably too the length
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Speaker 1: of a large compartment was in any case too great
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Speaker 1: fifty three feet. The Mauritania, on the other hand, in
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Speaker 1: addition to transverse bulkheads, is fitted with longitudinal torpedo bulkheads,
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Speaker 1: and the space between them and the side of the
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Speaker 1: ship is utilized as a coal bunker. Then too, in
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Speaker 1: the Mauritania, all bulkheads are carried up to the top deck,
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Speaker 1: whereas in the case of the Titanic they reached in
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Speaker 1: some parts only to the saloon deck, and in others
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Speaker 1: to a lower deck. Still, the weakness of this being
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Speaker 1: that when the water reached to the top of a bulkhead,
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Speaker 1: as the ship sank by the head, it flowed over
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Speaker 1: and filled the next compartment. The British Admiralty, which subsidizes
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Speaker 1: the Mauritania and the Lusitania as fast cruisers in time
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Speaker 1: of war, insisted on this type of construction, and it
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Speaker 1: is considered vastly better than that used in the Titanic.
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Speaker 1: The writer of the article thinks it is possible that
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Speaker 1: these ships might not have sunk as the result of
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Speaker 1: a similar collision. But the ideal ship from the point
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Speaker 1: of bulkhead construction he considers to have been the Great Eastern,
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Speaker 1: constructed many years ago by the famous engineer Brunel. So
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Speaker 1: thorough was her system of compartments divided and subdivided by
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Speaker 1: many transverse and longitudinal bulkheads, that when she tore a
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Speaker 1: hole eighty feet long in her side by striking a rock,
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Speaker 1: she reached port in safety. Unfortunately, the weight and cost
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Speaker 1: of this method was so great that his plan was
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Speaker 1: subsequently abandoned. But it would not be just to say
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Speaker 1: that the construction of the Titiana was a serious mistake
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Speaker 1: on the part of the White Star Line or her builders,
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Speaker 1: on the ground that her bulkheads were not so well
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Speaker 1: constructed as those of the Lusitania and Mauritania, which were
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Speaker 1: built to fulfill British Admiralty regulations for time of war,
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Speaker 1: an extraordinary risk which no builder of a passenger steamer
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Speaker 1: as such would be expected to take into consideration when
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Speaker 1: designing the vessel. It should be constantly borne in mind
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Speaker 1: that the Titanic met extraordinary conditions on the night of
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Speaker 1: the collision. She was probably the safest ship afloat in
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Speaker 1: all ordinary conditions. Collision with an iceberg is not an
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Speaker 1: ordinary risk, but this disaster will probably result in altering
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Speaker 1: the whole construction of bulkheads and compartments to the Great
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Speaker 1: Eastern type in order to include the one in a
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Speaker 1: million risks of iceberg collision and loss. Here comes in
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Speaker 1: the question of increased cost of construction, and in addition,
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Speaker 1: the great loss of cargo carrying space with decreased earning capacity,
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Speaker 1: both of which will mean an increase in the passenger rates.
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Speaker 1: This the traveling public will have to face, and undoubtedly
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Speaker 1: will be willing to face, for the satisfaction of knowing
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Speaker 1: that what was so confidently affirmed by passengers on the
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Speaker 1: Titanic's deck that night of the collision will then be
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Speaker 1: really true that we are on an unsinkable boat, so
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Speaker 1: far as human forethought can devise. After all, this must
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Speaker 1: be the solution to the problem how best to ensure
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Speaker 1: safety at sea. Other safety appliances are useful and necessary,
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Speaker 1: but not usable in certain conditions of weather. The ship
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Speaker 1: itself must always be the safety appliance that is really trustworthy,
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Speaker 1: and nothing must be left undone To ensure this. Wireless
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Speaker 1: apparatus and operators the range of the app ratus might
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Speaker 1: well be extended, but the principal defect is the lack
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Speaker 1: of an operator for night duty on some ships. The
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Speaker 1: awful fact that the Californian lay a few miles away,
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Speaker 1: able to save every soul on board, and could not
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Speaker 1: catch the message because the operator was asleep seems too
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Speaker 1: cruel to dwell upon. Even on the Carpathia. The operator
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Speaker 1: was on the point of retiring when the message arrived,
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Speaker 1: and we should have been much longer afloat and some
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Speaker 1: boats possibly swamped, had he not caught the message when
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Speaker 1: he did. It has been suggested that officers should have
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Speaker 1: a working knowledge of wireless telegraphy, and this is no
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Speaker 1: doubt a wise provision. It would enable them to supervise
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Speaker 1: the work of the operators more closely, and from all
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Speaker 1: the evidence this seems a necessity. The exchange of vitally
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Speaker 1: important messages between a sinking ship and those rushing to
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Speaker 1: her rescue should be under the control of an experienced
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Speaker 1: officer to take but one example. Bride testified that after
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Speaker 1: giving the Burma the c QD message and the position
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Speaker 1: and getting a reply, they got into touch with the Carpathia,
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Speaker 1: and while talking with her, were interrupted by the Burma
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Speaker 1: asking what was the matter. No doubt it was the
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Speaker 1: duty of the Burmah to come at once without asking
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Speaker 1: any questions, but the reply from the Titanic telling the
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Speaker 1: Burma's operator not to be a fool by interrupting, seems
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Speaker 1: to have been a needless waste of precious moments. To reply,
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Speaker 1: we are sinking would have taken no longer, especially when,
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Speaker 1: in their own estimation of the strength of the signals,
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Speaker 1: they thought the Burma was the nearest ship. It is
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Speaker 1: well to notice that some large liners have already a
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Speaker 1: staff of three operators submarine signaling apparatus. There are occasions
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Speaker 1: when wireless apparatus is useless as a means of saving
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Speaker 1: life at sea promptly. One of its weaknesses is that
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Speaker 1: when the ship's engines are stopped, messages can no longer
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Speaker 1: be sent out. That is, with the system at present adopted.
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Speaker 1: It will be remembered that the Titanic's messages got gradually
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Speaker 1: fainter and then ceased altogether as she came to rest
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Speaker 1: with her engines shut down again in fogs, and most
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Speaker 1: accidents occur in fogs. While wireless in forms of the accident,
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Speaker 1: it does not enable one ship to locate another closely
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Speaker 1: enough to take off her passengers at once. There is
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Speaker 1: as yet no method known by which wireless telegraphy will
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Speaker 1: fix the direction of a message, and after a ship
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Speaker 1: has been in fog for any considerable length of time,
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Speaker 1: it is more difficult to give the exact position to
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Speaker 1: another vessel bringing help. Nothing could illustrate these two points
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Speaker 1: better than the story of how the Baltic found the
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Speaker 1: Republic in the year nineteen o nine in a dense
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Speaker 1: fog off Nantucket lightship, when the latter was drifting helplessly
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Speaker 1: after collision with the Florida. The Baltic received a wireless
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Speaker 1: message stating the Republic's condition and the information that she
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Speaker 1: was in touch with Nantucket through a submarine bell, which
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Speaker 1: she could hear ringing. The Baltic turned and went towards
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Speaker 1: the position in the fog, picked up the submarine bell
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Speaker 1: signal from Nantucket, and then began searching near this position
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Speaker 1: for the Republic. It took her twelve hours to find
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Speaker 1: the damaged ship, zigzagging across a circle within which she
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Speaker 1: thought the Republic might lie in a rough sea. It
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Speaker 1: is doubtful whether the Republic would have remained afloat long
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Speaker 1: enough for the Baltic to find her and take off
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Speaker 1: all her passengers. Now, on these two occasions, when wireless
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Speaker 1: telegraphy was found to unreliable, the usefulness of the submarine
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Speaker 1: bell at once becomes apparent. The Baltic could have gone
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Speaker 1: unerringly to the Republic in the dense fog had the
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Speaker 1: latter been fitted with a submarine emergency bell. It will
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Speaker 1: perhaps be well to spend a little time describing the
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Speaker 1: submarine's signaling apparatus to see how this result could have
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Speaker 1: been obtained. Twelve anxious hours in a dense fog on
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Speaker 1: a ship which was injured so badly that she subsequently
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Speaker 1: foundered is an experience which every appliance known to human
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Speaker 1: invention should be enlisted to prevent. Submarine signaling has never
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Speaker 1: received that public notice which wireless telegraphy has, for the
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Speaker 1: reason that it does not appeal so readily to the
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Speaker 1: popular mind. That it is an absolute necessity to every
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Speaker 1: ship carrying passengers or carrying anything for that matter, is
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Speaker 1: beyond question. It is an additional safeguard that no ship
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Speaker 1: can afford to be without. There are many occasions when
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Speaker 1: the atmosphere fails lamentably as a medium for carrying messages,
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Speaker 1: When fog falls down, as it does sometimes in a moment,
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Speaker 1: on hundreds of ships coasting down the traffic ways round
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Speaker 1: our shores, ways which are defined so easily in clear
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Speaker 1: weather and with such difficulty in fogs. The hundreds of
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Speaker 1: lighthouses and light ships which serve as morning beacons and
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Speaker 1: on which many millions of money have been spent, are
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Speaker 1: for all practical purposes as useless to the navigator as
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Speaker 1: if they had never been built. He is just as
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Speaker 1: helpless as if he were back in the years before
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Speaker 1: fifteen fourteen, when Trinity House was granted a charter by
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Speaker 1: Henry the Eighth for the relief of the shipping of
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Speaker 1: this realm of England, and began a system of lights
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Speaker 1: on the shores, of which the present chain of lighthouses
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Speaker 1: and lightships is the outcome. Nor is the fog horn
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Speaker 1: much better. The presence of different layers of fog and air,
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Speaker 1: and their varying densities, which cause both reflection and refraction
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Speaker 1: of sound, prevent the air from being a reliable medium
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Speaker 1: for carrying it. Now, submarine signaling has none of these defects,
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Speaker 1: for the medium is water, subject to no such variable
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Speaker 1: conditions as the air, Its density is practically non variable,
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Speaker 1: and sound travels through it at the rate of four thousand,
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Speaker 1: four hundred feet per second without deviation or reflection. The
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Speaker 1: apparatus consists of a bell designed to ring either pneumatically
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Speaker 1: from a lightship electronically from the shore, the bell itself
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Speaker 1: being a tripod at the bottom of the sea, automatically
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Speaker 1: from a floating bell buoy, or by hand from a
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Speaker 1: ship or boat. The sound travels from the bell in
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Speaker 1: every direction, like waves in a pond, and falls it
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Speaker 1: may be on the side of a ship. The receiving
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Speaker 1: apparatus is fixed inside the skin of the ship and
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Speaker 1: consists of a small iron tank sixteen inches square and
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Speaker 1: eighteen inches deep. The front of the tank facing the
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Speaker 1: ship's iron skin, is missing, and the tank, being filled
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Speaker 1: with water, is bolted to the framework and sealed firmly
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Speaker 1: to the ship's side by rubber facing. In this way,
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Speaker 1: a portion of the ship's iron hull is washed by
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Speaker 1: the sea on one side and water in the tank
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Speaker 1: on the other. Vibrations from a bell ringing at a
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Speaker 1: distance fall on the iron side, travel through and strike
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Speaker 1: on two microphones hanging in the tank. These microphones transmit
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Speaker 1: the sound along wires to the chart room, where telephones
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Speaker 1: convey the message to the officer on duty. There are
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Speaker 1: two of these tanks or receivers fitted against the ship's side,
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Speaker 1: one on the port and one on the starboard side,
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Speaker 1: near the bows and as far down below the water
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Speaker 1: level as is possible. The direction of sounds coming to
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Speaker 1: the microphones hanging in these tanks can be estimated by
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Speaker 1: switching alternately to the port and starboard tanks. If the
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Speaker 1: sound is of greater intensity on the port side, then
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Speaker 1: the bell's signaling is off the port bows, and similarly
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Speaker 1: on the starboard side, the ship is turned towards the
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Speaker 1: sound until the same volume of sound is heard from
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Speaker 1: both receivers when the bell is known to be dead ahead.
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Speaker 1: So accurate is this in practice that a trained operator
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Speaker 1: can steer his ship in the densest fog directly to
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Speaker 1: a light ship or any other point where a submarine
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Speaker 1: bell is sending its warning beneath the sea, not subject
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Speaker 1: to any of the limitations and variations imposed on the
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Speaker 1: atmosphere and the either as media for the transmission of
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Speaker 1: light blasts of a fog horn and wireless vibrations. At present,
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Speaker 1: the chief use of submarine signaling is from the shore
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Speaker 1: or a light ship to ships at sea, and not
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Speaker 1: from ship to ship or from ship to the shore.
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Speaker 1: In other words, ships carry only receiving apparatus, and lighthouses
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Speaker 1: and light ships use only signaling apparatus. Some of the
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Speaker 1: lighthouses and light ships on our coasts already have these
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Speaker 1: submarine bells in addition to their lights, and in bad
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Speaker 1: weather the bells send out their messages to warn ships
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Speaker 1: of their proximity to a danger point. This invention enables
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Speaker 1: ships to pick up the sound of bell after bell
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Speaker 1: on a coast and run along it in the densest fog,
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Speaker 1: almost as well as in daylight. Passenger steamers coming into
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Speaker 1: port do not have to wander about in the fog
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Speaker 1: groping their way back blindly into harbor. By having a
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Speaker 1: coat of rings and judging by the intensity of the sound,
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Speaker 1: it is possible to tell almost exactly where a ship
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Speaker 1: is in relation to the coast or to some lightship.
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Speaker 1: The British Admiralty report in nineteen o six said, if
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Speaker 1: the light ships round the coast were fitted with submarine bells,
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Speaker 1: it would be possible for ships fitted with receiving apparatus
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Speaker 1: to navigate in fog with almost as great certainty as
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Speaker 1: in clear weather. And the following remark of a captain
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Speaker 1: engaged in coast service is instructive. He had been asked
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Speaker 1: to cut down expenses by omitting the submarine signaling apparatus,
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Speaker 1: but replied, I would rather take out the wireless that
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Speaker 1: only enables me to tell other people where I am,
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Speaker 1: the submarine signal enables me to find out where I
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Speaker 1: am myself. The range of the apparatus is not so
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Speaker 1: wide as that of wireless telegraphy, varying from ten to
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Speaker 1: fifteen miles for a large ship, although instances of twenty
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Speaker 1: to thirty are on record, and from three to eight
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Speaker 1: miles for a small ship. At present, the receiving apparatus
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Speaker 1: is fixed on only some six hundred fifty steamers of
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Speaker 1: the merchant Marine, these being most frequently the first class
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Speaker 1: passenger liners. There is no question that it should be installed,
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Speaker 1: along with wireless apparatus, on every ship of over one
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Speaker 1: thousand tons gross tonnage. Equally important is the provision of
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Speaker 1: signaling apparatus on board ships. It is obviously just as
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Speaker 1: necessary to transmit a signal as to receive one, but
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Speaker 1: at present the sending of signals from ships has not
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Speaker 1: been perfected. The invention of signal transmitting apparatus to be
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Speaker 1: used while the ship is underway is as yet in
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Speaker 1: the experimental stage. But while she is at rest, a
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Speaker 1: bell similar to those used by lighthouses can be sunk
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Speaker 1: over her side and rung by hand with exactly the
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Speaker 1: same effect, but liners are not provided with them. They
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Speaker 1: cost only sixty pounds as mentioned before, with another sixty
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Speaker 1: pounds spent on the Republic's equipment. The Baltic could have
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Speaker 1: picked up her bell and steered direct to her, just
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Speaker 1: as they both heard the bell of Nantucket lightship. Again,
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Speaker 1: if the Titanic had been provided with the bell and
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Speaker 1: a Californian with receiving apparatus, neither of them was, the
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Speaker 1: officer on the bridge could have heard the signals from
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Speaker 1: the telephones near A smaller size for use in lifeboats
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Speaker 1: is provided and would be heard by receiving apparatus for
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Speaker 1: approximately five miles. If we had hung one of these
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Speaker 1: bells over the side of the life boats afloat that night,
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Speaker 1: we should have been free from the anxiety of being
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Speaker 1: run down as we lay across the Carpathias Path without
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Speaker 1: a light. Or if we had gone adrift in a
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Speaker 1: dense fog and wandered miles apart from each other on
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Speaker 1: the sea, as we inevitably should have done, the Carpathia
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Speaker 1: could still have picked up each boat individually by means
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Speaker 1: of the bell signal. In those ships fitted with receiving apparatus,
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Speaker 1: at least one officer is obliged to understand the working
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Speaker 1: of the apparatus, a very wise precaution, and as suggested above,
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Speaker 1: one that should be taken with respect to wireless apparatus. Also.
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Speaker 1: It was a very great pleasure to me to see
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Speaker 1: all this apparatus in manufacture and in use at one
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Speaker 1: of the principal submarine signaling works in America, and to
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Speaker 1: hear some of the remarkable stories of its value in
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Speaker 1: actual practice. I was struck by the aptness of the
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Speaker 1: motto adopted by them de profundas Clamavi in relation to
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Speaker 1: the Titanic's end and the calls of our passengers from
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Speaker 1: the sea when she she sank out of the deep?
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Speaker 1: Have I called unto thee is indeed a suitable motto
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Speaker 1: for those who are doing all they can to prevent
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Speaker 1: such calls arising from their fellow men and women out
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Speaker 1: of the deep. Fixing of steamship routes the lanes along
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Speaker 1: which the liners travel are fixed by agreement among the
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Speaker 1: steamship companies in consultation with the hydrographic departments of the
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Speaker 1: different countries. These routes are arranged so that the eastbound
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Speaker 1: steamers are always a number of miles away from those
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Speaker 1: going west, and thus the danger of collision between east
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Speaker 1: and westbound vessels is entirely eliminated. The lanes can be
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Speaker 1: moved farther south if icebergs threaten, and north again when
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Speaker 1: the danger is removed. Of course, the farther south they
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Speaker 1: are placed, the longer the journey to be made and
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Speaker 1: the longer the time spent on board, with consequent grumbling
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Speaker 1: by some pass passengers. For example, the lanes since the
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Speaker 1: disaster to the Titanic have been moved one hundred miles
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Speaker 1: farther south, which means one hundred and eighty miles longer
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Speaker 1: journey taking eight hours. The only real precaution against colliding
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Speaker 1: with icebergs is to go south of the place where
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Speaker 1: they are likely to be. There is no other way lifeboats.
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Speaker 1: The provision was, of course, woefully inadequate. The only humane
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Speaker 1: plan is to have a numbered seat in a boat,
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Speaker 1: assigned to each passenger and a member of the crew.
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Speaker 1: It would seem well to have this number pointed out
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Speaker 1: at the time of booking a berth, and to have
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Speaker 1: a plan in each cabin showing where the boat is
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Speaker 1: and how to get to it the most direct way,
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Speaker 1: A most important consideration with a ship like the Titanic
21:52
Speaker 1: with over two miles of deck space, boat drills up
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Speaker 1: the passengers and crew of each boat should be held
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Speaker 1: under compulsion as soon as possible after leaving port. I
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Speaker 1: asked an officer as to the possibility of having such
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Speaker 1: a drill immediately after the gangways are withdrawn and before
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Speaker 1: the tugs are allowed to haul the ship out of dock,
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Speaker 1: but he says the difficulties are almost insuperable at such
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Speaker 1: a time. If so, the drill should be conducted in
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Speaker 1: sections as soon as possible after sailing, and should be
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Speaker 1: conducted in a thorough manner. Children in school are called
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Speaker 1: upon suddenly to go through fire drill, and there is
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Speaker 1: no reason why passengers on board ship should not be
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Speaker 1: similarly trained. So much depends on order and readiness in
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Speaker 1: time of danger. Undoubtedly, the whole subject of manning, provisioning,
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Speaker 1: loading and lowering of life boats should be in the
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Speaker 1: hands of an expert officer, who should have no other duties.
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Speaker 1: The modern liner has become far too big to permit
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Speaker 1: the captain to exercise control over the whole ship and
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Speaker 1: all vitally important subdivisions should be controlled by a separate authority.
23:07
Speaker 1: It seems a piece of bitter irony to remember that
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Speaker 1: on the Titanic a special chef was engaged at a
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Speaker 1: large salary, larger perhaps than that of any officer, and
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Speaker 1: no boat master or some such officer was considered necessary
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Speaker 1: the general system. Again not criminal neglect, as some hasty
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Speaker 1: criticisms would say, but lack of consideration for our fellow man,
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Speaker 1: the placing of luxurious attractions above that kindly forethought that
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Speaker 1: allows no precaution to be neglected for even the humblest passenger.
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Speaker 1: But it must not be overlooked that the provision of
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Speaker 1: sufficient lifeboats on deck is not evidence they will all
23:50
Speaker 1: be launched easily or all the passengers taken off safely.
23:55
Speaker 1: It must be remembered that ideal conditions prevailed that night
23:58
Speaker 1: for launching boats from the decks of the Titanic. There
24:02
Speaker 1: was no list that prevented the boats getting away. They
24:05
Speaker 1: could be launched on both sides, and when they were lowered,
24:09
Speaker 1: the sea was so calm that they pulled away without
24:12
Speaker 1: any of the smashing against the side that is possible
24:15
Speaker 1: in rough seas. Sometimes it would mean that only those
24:19
Speaker 1: boats on the side sheltered from a heavy sea could
24:22
Speaker 1: ever get away, and this would at once have the
24:26
Speaker 1: boat accommodation, and when launched there would be the danger
24:30
Speaker 1: of swamping in such a heavy sea. All things considered,
24:34
Speaker 1: life boats might be the poorest sort of safeguard in
24:37
Speaker 1: certain conditions. Life rafts are said to be much inferior
24:42
Speaker 1: to life boats in a rough sea, and collapsible boats
24:46
Speaker 1: made of canvas and thin wood soon decay under exposure
24:50
Speaker 1: to weather and are danger traps. At a critical moment.
24:53
Speaker 1: Some of the life boats should be provided with motors
24:56
Speaker 1: to keep the boats together and to tow if necessary.
25:00
Speaker 1: The launching is another important matter. The Titanic's davits worked
25:05
Speaker 1: excellently and no doubt were largely responsible for all the
25:09
Speaker 1: boats getting away safely. They were far superior to those
25:12
Speaker 1: on most liners pontoons. After the sinking of the Bourgogna,
25:19
Speaker 1: when two Americans lost their lives, a prize of four
25:23
Speaker 1: thousand pounds was offered by their heirs for the best
25:27
Speaker 1: life saving device applicable to ships at sea. A board
25:31
Speaker 1: sat to consider the various appliances sent in by competitors
25:35
Speaker 1: and finally awarded the prize to an Englishman whose design
25:39
Speaker 1: provided for a flat structure the width of the ship,
25:42
Speaker 1: which could be floated off when required and would accommodate
25:46
Speaker 1: several hundred passengers. It has never been adopted by any
25:50
Speaker 1: steamship line. Other similar designs are known, by which the
25:54
Speaker 1: whole of the after deck can be pushed over from
25:57
Speaker 1: the stern by a ratchet arrangement, with air tanks below
26:01
Speaker 1: to buoy it up. It seems to be a practical suggestion.
26:05
Speaker 1: One point where Titanic management failed lamentably was to provide
26:10
Speaker 1: a properly trained crew to each lifeboat. The rowing was
26:14
Speaker 1: in most cases execrable. There is no more reason why
26:19
Speaker 1: a steward should be able to row than a passenger,
26:22
Speaker 1: less so than some of the passengers who were lost,
26:25
Speaker 1: men of leisure, accustomed to all kinds of sport, including rowing,
26:30
Speaker 1: and in addition, probably more fit physically than a steward
26:34
Speaker 1: to row for hours on the open sea. And if
26:37
Speaker 1: a steward cannot row, he has no right to be
26:40
Speaker 1: at an oar. So that under the unwritten rule that
26:44
Speaker 1: passengers take precedence of the crew when there is not
26:47
Speaker 1: sufficient accommodation for all, a situation that should never be
26:51
Speaker 1: allowed to arise again, for a member of the crew
26:54
Speaker 1: should have an equal opportunity with a passenger to save
26:57
Speaker 1: his life. The majority of stewards in cooks should have
27:01
Speaker 1: stayed behind and passengers have come instead. They could not
27:04
Speaker 1: have been of less use, and they might have been
27:07
Speaker 1: of more. It will be remembered that the proportion of
27:11
Speaker 1: crew saved to passengers was two hundred ten to four
27:15
Speaker 1: hundred ninety five, a high proportion. Another point arises out
27:21
Speaker 1: of these figures. Deduct twenty one members of the crew
27:24
Speaker 1: who were stewardesses, and one hundred eighty nine men of
27:28
Speaker 1: the crew are left as against the four hundred ninety
27:31
Speaker 1: five passengers. Of these, some got on the overturned collapsible
27:36
Speaker 1: boat after the Titanic sink, and a few were picked
27:39
Speaker 1: up by the lifeboats, but these were not many at all. Now,
27:44
Speaker 1: with the seventeen boats brought to the Carpathia, and an
27:47
Speaker 1: average of six of the crew to man each boat,
27:51
Speaker 1: probably a higher average than was realized, we get a
27:54
Speaker 1: total of one hundred two who should have been saved
27:58
Speaker 1: as against one hundred eighty nine nine who actually were.
28:02
Speaker 1: There were, as is known, stokers and stewards in the
28:06
Speaker 1: boats who were not members of the lifeboat's crews. It
28:10
Speaker 1: may seem heartless to analyze figures in this way, and
28:13
Speaker 1: suggests that some of the crew who got to the
28:16
Speaker 1: Carpathia never should have done so. But after all, passengers
28:20
Speaker 1: took their passage under certain rules, written and unwritten, and
28:25
Speaker 1: one is that in times of danger, the servants of
28:28
Speaker 1: the company in whose boats they sail shall first of
28:31
Speaker 1: all see to the safety of the passengers before thinking
28:34
Speaker 1: of their own. There were only one hundred twenty six
28:38
Speaker 1: men passengers saved as against one hundred eighty nine of
28:42
Speaker 1: the crew, and six hundred sixty one men lost as
28:46
Speaker 1: against six hundred eighty six of the crew, so that
28:50
Speaker 1: actually the crew had a greater percentage saved than the
28:54
Speaker 1: men passengers twenty two percent against sixteen. But steamship companies
29:00
Speaker 1: are faced with real difficulties in this matter. The crews
29:04
Speaker 1: are never the same for two voyages together. They sign
29:07
Speaker 1: on for the one trip, then perhaps take a berth
29:11
Speaker 1: on shore as waiters, stokers and hotel furnace rooms, et cetera,
29:16
Speaker 1: to resume life on board any other ship that is handy.
29:19
Speaker 1: When the desire comes to go to sea again. They
29:22
Speaker 1: can in no sense be regarded as a part of
29:25
Speaker 1: a homogeneous crew, subject to regular discipline, and educated to
29:29
Speaker 1: appreciate the morale of a particular liner, as a man
29:33
Speaker 1: of war's crew is search lights. These seem an absolute necessity,
29:40
Speaker 1: and the wonder is that they have not been fitted
29:42
Speaker 1: before to all ocean liners. Not only are they of
29:46
Speaker 1: use in lighting up the sea a long distance ahead,
29:49
Speaker 1: but as flashlight signals they permit of communication with other ships.
29:55
Speaker 1: As I write through the window can be seen the
29:57
Speaker 1: flashes from river steamers flying up the Hudson in New York,
30:02
Speaker 1: each with its search light, examining the river, lighting up
30:06
Speaker 1: the bank for hundreds of yards ahead, and bringing every
30:09
Speaker 1: object within its reach into prominence. They are regularly used
30:14
Speaker 1: too in the Suez Canal. I suppose there is no
30:18
Speaker 1: question that the collision would have been avoided had a
30:21
Speaker 1: search light been fitted to the Titanic's masthead. The climatic
30:25
Speaker 1: conditions for its use must have been ideal that night.
30:29
Speaker 1: There are other things besides icebergs. Derelicts are reported from
30:33
Speaker 1: time to time, and fishermen lie in the lanes without lights.
30:38
Speaker 1: They would not always be of practical use. However, they
30:41
Speaker 1: would be of no service in heavy rain, in fog,
30:45
Speaker 1: in snow, or in flying spray, and the effect is
30:49
Speaker 1: sometimes to dazzle the eyes of the lookout. While writing
30:53
Speaker 1: of the lookout, much has been made of the omission
30:56
Speaker 1: to provide the lookout on the Titanic with glasses. The
31:00
Speaker 1: general opinion of officers seems to be that it is
31:03
Speaker 1: better not to provide them, but to rely on good eye,
31:07
Speaker 1: sight and wide awake men. After all, in a question
31:11
Speaker 1: of actual practice, the opinion of officers should be accepted
31:15
Speaker 1: as final, even if it seems to the landsmen the
31:18
Speaker 1: better thing to provide glasses. Cruising lightships, one or two
31:25
Speaker 1: internationally owned and controlled lightships, fitted with every known device
31:30
Speaker 1: for signaling and communication, would rob those regions of most
31:34
Speaker 1: of their terrors. They could watch and chart the icebergs,
31:39
Speaker 1: report their exact position, the amount and direction of daily
31:43
Speaker 1: drift in the changing currents that are found there. To them,
31:47
Speaker 1: two might be entrusted the duty of police patrol and
31:53
Speaker 1: of Part two of Chapter eight