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

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  Speaker 1: Part one of Chapter eight of the Loss of the
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  Speaker 1: s s Titanic. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain,
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  Speaker 1: recorded by Alison Hester. Chapter eight The Lessons Taught by
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  Speaker 1: the Loss of the Titanic. One of the most pitiful
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  Speaker 1: things in the relations of human beings to each other,
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  Speaker 1: the action and reaction of events that is called concretely
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  Speaker 1: human life, is that every now and then some of
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  Speaker 1: them should be called upon to lay down their lives
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  Speaker 1: from no sense of imperative calculated duty, such as inspires
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  Speaker 1: the soldier or the sailor, but suddenly without any previous
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  Speaker 1: knowledge or warning of danger, without any opportunity of escape,
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  Speaker 1: and without any desire to risk such conditions of danger
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  Speaker 1: of their own free will. It is a blot on
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  Speaker 1: our civilization that these things are necessary, from time to
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  Speaker 1: time to arouse those responsible for the safety of human
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  Speaker 1: life from the lethargic selfishness which has governed them the Titanics.
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  Speaker 1: Two thousand odd passengers went aboard thinking they were on
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  Speaker 1: an absolutely safe ship, and all the time there were
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  Speaker 1: many people, designers, builders, experts, government officials who knew there
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  Speaker 1: were insufficient boats on board, and that the Titanic had
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  Speaker 1: no right to go fast in iceberg regions who knew
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  Speaker 1: these things and took no steps and enacted no laws
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  Speaker 1: to prevent their happening. Not that they omitted to do
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  Speaker 1: these things deliberately, but were lulled into a state of
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  Speaker 1: selfish inaction from which it needed such a tragedy as
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  Speaker 1: this to arouse them. It was a cruel necessity which
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  Speaker 1: demanded that a few should die to arouse many millions
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  Speaker 1: to a sense of their own insecurity. To the fact
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  Speaker 1: that for years the possibility of such a disaster has
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  Speaker 1: been imminent. Passengers have known none of these things. And
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  Speaker 1: while no good end would have been served by relating
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  Speaker 1: to the needless tales of danger on the high seas,
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  Speaker 1: one thing is certain that had they known them, many
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  Speaker 1: would not have traveled in such conditions, and thereby safeguards
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  Speaker 1: would have soon been forced on the builders, the companies,
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  Speaker 1: and the government. But there were people who knew and
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  Speaker 1: did not fail to call attention to the dangers. In
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  Speaker 1: the House of Commons. The matter has been frequently brought
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  Speaker 1: up privately, and an American naval officer, Captain E. K. Bodin,
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  Speaker 1: in an article that has since been widely reproduced, called
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  Speaker 1: attention to the defects of this very ship, the Titanic,
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  Speaker 1: taking her as an example of all other liners, and
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  Speaker 1: pointed out that she was not unsinkable and had not
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  Speaker 1: proper boat accommodation. The question, then, of responsibility for the
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  Speaker 1: loss of the Titanic must be considered not from any
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  Speaker 1: idea that blame should be laid here or there and
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  Speaker 1: a scapegoat provided that is a waste of time. But
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  Speaker 1: if a fixing of responsibility leads to quick and efficient remedy,
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  Speaker 1: then it should be done relentlessly. Our simple duty to
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  Speaker 1: those whom the Titanic carried down with her demands no less.
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  Speaker 1: Dealing first with the precautions for the safety of the
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  Speaker 1: ship as apart from safety appliances, There can be no question.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose that the direct responsibility for the loss of
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  Speaker 1: the Titanic and so many lives must be laid on
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  Speaker 1: her captain. He was responsible for setting the course day
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  Speaker 1: by day and hour by hour, for the speed she
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  Speaker 1: was traveling, and he alone would have the power to
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  Speaker 1: decide whether or not speed must be slackened. With icebergs ahead,
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  Speaker 1: no officer would have any right to interfere in the navigation,
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  Speaker 1: although they would no doubt be consulted, nor would any
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  Speaker 1: official connected with the management of the line. Mister Ismay,
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  Speaker 1: for example, he allowed to direct the captain in these matters,
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  Speaker 1: and there is no evidence that he ever tried to
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  Speaker 1: do so. The very fact that the captain of a
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  Speaker 1: ship has such absolute authority increases his responsibility enormously. Even
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  Speaker 1: supposing the White Star Line and mister Ismay had urged
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  Speaker 1: him before sailing to make a record again an assumption,
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  Speaker 1: they cannot be held directly responsible for the collision. He
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  Speaker 1: was in charge of the lives of everyone on board,
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  Speaker 1: and no one but he was supposed to estimate the
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  Speaker 1: risk of traveling at the speed he did when ice
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  Speaker 1: was reported ahead of him. His action cannot be justified
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  Speaker 1: on the ground of prudent seamanship. But the question of
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  Speaker 1: indirect responsibility raises at once many issues, and I think
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  Speaker 1: removes from Captain Smith a good deal of personal responsibility
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  Speaker 1: for the loss of his ship. Some of these issues
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  Speaker 1: it will be well to consider, in the first place,
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  Speaker 1: disabusing our minds again of the knowledge that the Titanic
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  Speaker 1: struck an iceberg and sank, let us estimate the probabilities
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  Speaker 1: of such a thing happening an iceberg is small and
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  Speaker 1: occupies little room by comparison with the broad ocean on
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  Speaker 1: which it floats, and the chances of another small object
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  Speaker 1: like a ship, colliding with it and being sunk are
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  Speaker 1: very small. The chances are, as a matter of fact,
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  Speaker 1: one in a million. This is not a figure of speech.
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  Speaker 1: That is the actual risk for total loss by collision
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  Speaker 1: with an iceberg, as accepted by insurance companies. The one
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  Speaker 1: in a million accident was what sunk the Titanic. Even so,
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  Speaker 1: had Captain Smith been alone in taking that risk, he
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  Speaker 1: would have had to bear all the blame for the
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  Speaker 1: resulting disaster. But it seems he is not alone. The
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  Speaker 1: same risk has been taken over and over again by
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  Speaker 1: fast mail passenger liners in fog and in iceberg regions.
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  Speaker 1: Their captains have taken the long, very long chance many times,
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  Speaker 1: and one every time he took it as he had
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  Speaker 1: done many times before, and lost. Of course, the chances
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  Speaker 1: that night of striking an iceberg were much greater than
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  Speaker 1: one in a million. They had been enormously increased by
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  Speaker 1: the extreme southerly position of icebergs and field ice, and
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  Speaker 1: by the unusual number of the former Thinking over the
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  Speaker 1: scene that met our eyes from the deck of the
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  Speaker 1: Carpathia after we boarded her. The great number of icebergs
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  Speaker 1: wherever the eye could reach, the chances of not hitting
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  Speaker 1: one in the darkness of the night seemed small. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: the more one thinks about the Carpathia coming at full
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  Speaker 1: speed through all those icebergs in the darkness, the more inexplicable.
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  Speaker 1: Does it seem true? The captain had an e face
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  Speaker 1: to a lookout watch, and every sense of every man
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  Speaker 1: on the bridge alert to detect the least sign of danger.
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  Speaker 1: And again, he was not going so fast as the
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  Speaker 1: Titanic and would have his ship under more control. But
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  Speaker 1: granted all that, he appears to have taken a great
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  Speaker 1: risk as he dodged and twisted around the awful two
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  Speaker 1: hundred foot monsters in the dark night. Does it mean
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  Speaker 1: that the risk is not so great as we who
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  Speaker 1: have seen the abnormal and not the normal side of
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  Speaker 1: taking risks with icebergs might suppose he had his own
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  Speaker 1: ship and passengers to consider, and he had no right
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  Speaker 1: to take too great a risk. But Captain Smith could
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  Speaker 1: not know icebergs were there in such numbers. What warnings
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  Speaker 1: he had of them is not yet thoroughly established. There
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  Speaker 1: were probably three, but it is in the highest degree
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  Speaker 1: unlikely that he knew that any vessel had seen them
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  Speaker 1: in such quantities as we saw them Monday morning, and
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  Speaker 1: in fact it is unthinkable. He thought no doubt that
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  Speaker 1: he was taking an ordinary risk, and it turned out
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  Speaker 1: to be an extraordinary one. To read some criticisms, it
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  Speaker 1: would seem as if he deliberately ran his ship in
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  Speaker 1: defiance of all custom through a region infested with icebergs
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  Speaker 1: and did a thing which no one has ever done before,
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  Speaker 1: that he outraged all precedent by not slowing down. But
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  Speaker 1: it is plain that he did not. Every captain who
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  Speaker 1: has run full speed through fog and iceberg regions is
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  Speaker 1: to blame for the disaster as much as he is.
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  Speaker 1: They got through, and he did not. Other liners can
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  Speaker 1: go faster than the Titanic could possibly do. Had they
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  Speaker 1: struck ice they would have been injured even more deeply
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  Speaker 1: than she was. For it must not be forgotten that
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  Speaker 1: the force of the impact varies as the square of
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  Speaker 1: the velocity i e. It is four times as much
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  Speaker 1: at sixes x teen knots as at eight knots, nine
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  Speaker 1: times as much at twenty four and so on, and
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  Speaker 1: with not much margin of time left for these fast boats,
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  Speaker 1: they must go full speed ahead nearly all the time.
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  Speaker 1: Remember how they advertised to leave New York Wednesday, dine
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  Speaker 1: in London the following Monday, and it is done regularly,
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  Speaker 1: much as an express train is run to time. Their officers, too,
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  Speaker 1: would have been less able to avoid a collision than
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  Speaker 1: Murdoch of the Titanic was, for at the greater speed
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  Speaker 1: they would be on the iceberg in a shorter time.
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  Speaker 1: Many passengers can tell of crossing with fog a good
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  Speaker 1: deal of the way, sometimes all the way, and they
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  Speaker 1: have been only a few hours late at the end
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  Speaker 1: of the journey, so that it is the custom that
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  Speaker 1: is at fault, not one particular captain. Custom is established
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  Speaker 1: largely by demand, and supply too is the answer to demand.
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  Speaker 1: What the public demanded, the White Star Line supplied, and
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  Speaker 1: so both the public and the line are concerned with
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  Speaker 1: the question of indirect responsibility. The public has demanded more
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  Speaker 1: and more every year greater speed as well as greater comfort,
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  Speaker 1: and by ceasing to patronize the low speed boats, has
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  Speaker 1: gradually forced the pace to what it is at present.
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  Speaker 1: Not that speed in itself is a dangerous thing. It
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  Speaker 1: is sometimes much safer to go quickly than slowly, but
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  Speaker 1: that given the facilities for speed and the stimulus exerted
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  Speaker 1: by the constant public demand for it, occasions arise when
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  Speaker 1: the judgment of those in command of a ship becomes
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  Speaker 1: swayed largely unconsciously, no doubt, in favor of taking risks
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  Speaker 1: which the smaller liners would never take. The demand on
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  Speaker 1: the skipper of a boat like the Californian, for example,
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  Speaker 1: which lay hove Toune nineteen miles away with her engines stopped,
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  Speaker 1: is infinitesimal compared with that on Captain Smith. An old
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  Speaker 1: traveler told me on the Carpathia that he has often
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  Speaker 1: grumbled to the officers for what he called absurd precautions
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  Speaker 1: in lying to and wasting his time, which he regarded
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  Speaker 1: as very valuable. But after hearing of the Titanic's loss,
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  Speaker 1: he recognized that he was to some extent responsible for
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  Speaker 1: the speed at which she had traveled, and would never
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  Speaker 1: be so again. He had been one of the traveling
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  Speaker 1: public who had constantly demanded to be taken to his
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  Speaker 1: journey's end in the shortest time possible, and had made
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  Speaker 1: a row about it if he was likely to be late.
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  Speaker 1: There are some business men to whom five or six
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  Speaker 1: days on board are exceedingly irksome and represent a waste
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  Speaker 1: of time. Even an hour saved at the journey's end
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  Speaker 1: is a consideration to them. And if the demand is
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  Speaker 1: not always a conscious one, it is there as an
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  Speaker 1: unconscious factor, always urging the highest speed of which the
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  Speaker 1: ship is capable. The man who demands fast travel unreasonably
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  Speaker 1: must undoubtedly take his shear in the responsibility. He asks
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  Speaker 1: to be taken over at a speed which will land
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  Speaker 1: him in something over four days. He forgets, perhaps that
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  Speaker 1: Columbus took ninety days in a forty ton boat, and
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  Speaker 1: that only fifty years ago paddle steamers took six weeks.
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  Speaker 1: And all the time the demand is greater and the
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  Speaker 1: strain is more. The public demand speed and luxury, the
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  Speaker 1: lines supply it, until presently the safety limit is reached,
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  Speaker 1: the undue risk is taken, and the Titanic goes down.
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  Speaker 1: All of us who have cried for greater speed must
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  Speaker 1: take our share in the responsibility. The expression of such
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  Speaker 1: a desire and the discontent with so called slow travel
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  Speaker 1: are the seed sown in the mind's of men to
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  Speaker 1: bear fruit presently and an insistence on greater speed. We
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  Speaker 1: may not have done so directly, but we may perhaps
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  Speaker 1: have talked about it and thought about it, and we
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  Speaker 1: know no action begins without thought. The White Star Line
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  Speaker 1: has received very rough handling from some of the press,
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  Speaker 1: but the greater part of this criticism seems to be
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  Speaker 1: unwarranted and to arise from the desire to find a scapegoat.
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  Speaker 1: After all, they had made better provision for the passengers
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  Speaker 1: the Titanic carried than any other line has done, For
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  Speaker 1: they had built what they believed to be a huge lifeboat,
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  Speaker 1: unsinkable in all ordinary conditions. Those who embarked in her
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  Speaker 1: were almost certainly in the safest ship along with the
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  Speaker 1: Olympic afloat. She was probably quite immune from the ordinary
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  Speaker 1: effects of wind waves and collisions at sea, and needed
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  Speaker 1: to fear nothing but running on a rock, or, what
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  Speaker 1: was worse, a floating iceberg, for the effects of collision were,
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  Speaker 1: so far as damage was concerned, the same as if
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  Speaker 1: it had been a rock, and the danger greater. For
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  Speaker 1: one is charted and the other is not, then too.
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  Speaker 1: While the theory of the unsinkable boat has been destroyed at
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  Speaker 1: the same time as the boat itself. We should not
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  Speaker 1: forget that it served a useful purpose on deck that night.
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  Speaker 1: It eliminated largely the possibility of panic and those rushes
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  Speaker 1: for the boats, which might have swamped some of them.
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  Speaker 1: I do not wish for a moment to suggest that
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  Speaker 1: such things would have happened, because the more information that
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  Speaker 1: comes to hand of the conduct of the people on board,
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  Speaker 1: the more wonderful seems the complete self control of all,
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  Speaker 1: even when the last boats had gone and nothing but
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the rising waters met their eyes. Only that the generally
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  Speaker 1: entertained theory rendered such things less probable. The theory in
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  Speaker 1: was really a safeguard, though built on false premise. There
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  Speaker 1: is no evidence that the White Star line instructed the
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  Speaker 1: captain to push the boat or to make any records.
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  Speaker 1: The probabilities are that no such attempt would be made
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  Speaker 1: on the first trip. The general instructions to their commanders
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: bear quite the other interpretation. It will be well to
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: quote them in full as issue to the press during
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the sittings of the United States Senate Committee. Instructions to commanders.
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  Speaker 1: Commanders must distinctly understand that the issue of regulations does
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  Speaker 1: not in any way relieve them from the responsibility for
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: the safe and efficient navigation of their respective vessels. And
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: they are also enjoined to remember that they must run
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  Speaker 1: no risks which might, by any possibility result in accident
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  Speaker 1: to their ships. It is to be hoped that they
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  Speaker 1: will ever bear inn that the safety of the lives
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: and property entrusted to their care is the ruling principle
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  Speaker 1: that should govern them in the navigation of their vessels,
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  Speaker 1: and that no supposed gain in expedition or saving of
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: time on the voyage is to be purchased at the
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: risk of accident. Commanders are reminded that the steamers are
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: to a great extent uninsured, and that their own livelihood,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: as well as the company's success, depends upon immunity from accident.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: No precaution which insures safe navigation is to be considered excessive.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Nothing could be plainer than these instructions, and had they
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  Speaker 1: been obeyed, the disaster would never have happened. They warned
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: commanders against the only thing left as a menace to
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  Speaker 1: their unsinkable boat, the lack of precaution which insures safe navigation.
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  Speaker 1: In addition, the White Star Line had complied to the
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  Speaker 1: full extent with the requirements of the British government. Their
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: ship had been subjected to an inspections so rigid that,
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  Speaker 1: as one officer remarked in evidence, it became a nuisance.
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  Speaker 1: The Board of Trade employs the best experts and knows
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the dangers that attend ocean travel and the precautions that
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: should be taken by every commander. If these precautions are
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: not taken, it will be necessary to legislate until they are.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: No motorist is allowed to careene at full speed along
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: a public highway in dangerous conditions, and it should be
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  Speaker 1: an offence for a captain to do the same on
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  Speaker 1: the high seas with a ship full of unsuspecting passengers.
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  Speaker 1: They have entrusted their lives to the government of their
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: country through its regulations, and they are entitled to the
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: same protection in mid Atlantic as they are in Oxford
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  Speaker 1: Street or Broadway. The open sea should no longer be
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  Speaker 1: regarded as a neutral zone where no country's police laws
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  Speaker 1: are operative. Of course, there are difficulties in the way
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  Speaker 1: of drafting international regulations. Many governments would have to be consulted,
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  Speaker 1: and many difficulties that seem insuperable overcome. But that is
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the purpose for which governments are employed. That is why
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: experts and ministers of governments are appointed and paid to
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: overcome difficulties for people who appoint them and who expect them,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: among other things, to protect their lives. The American government
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: must share the same responsibility. It is useless to attempt
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: to fix it on the British Board of Trade for
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: the reason that the boats were built in England and
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: inspected there by British officials. They carried American citizens largely,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: and entered American ports. It would have been the simplest
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: matter for the United States government to veto the entry
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: of any ship which did not conform to its laws
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: of regulating speed in conditions of fog and icebergs, had
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: they provided such laws. The fact is that the American
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: nation has practically no mercantile marine, and in time of
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: a disaster such as this, it forgets, perhaps that it
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: has exactly the same right and therefore the same responsibility
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: as the British government to inspect and to legislate, the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: right that is easily enforced by refusal to allow entry.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: The regulation of speed in dangerous regions could well be
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: undertaken by some fleet of international police patrol vessels with
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: power to stop, if necessary any boat found guilty of
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: reckless racing. The additional duty of warning ships of the
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: exact locality of icebergs could be performed by these boats.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: It would not, of course, be possible or advisable to
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: fix a speed limit, because the region of icebergs varies
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: in a position as the icebergs floats south, varies in
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: point of danger as they melt and disappear, And the
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  Speaker 1: whole question has to be left large to the judgment
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  Speaker 1: of the captain on the spot. But it would be
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  Speaker 1: possible to make it an offense against the law to
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: go beyond a certain speed in known conditions of danger.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: So much for the question of regulating speed on the
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: high seas. The secondary question of safety appliances is governed
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: by that same principle that in the last analysis, it
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: is not the captain, not the passenger, not the builders
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: and owners, but the governments through their experts, who are
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: to be held responsible for the provision of life saving devices. Morally,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: of course, the owners and builders are responsible, but at
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: present moral responsibility is too weak and incentive in human affairs.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: That is the miserable part of the whole wretched business
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to induce owners generally to make every possible provision for
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  Speaker 1: the lives of those in their charge, to place human
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: safety so far above every other consideration, that no plan
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: shall be left unconsidered, no device left untested by which
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: passengers can escape from a sinking ship. But it is
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: not correct to say, as it has been said frequently,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: that it is greed and dividend hunting that have characterized
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: the policy of the steamship companies in their failure to
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: provide safety appliances. These things, in themselves are not expensive.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: They have vied with each other in making their lines
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: attractive in point of speed, size, and comfort, and they
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: have been quite justified in doing so. Such things are
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the product of ordinary competition between commercial houses. Where they
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: have all failed morally is to extend to their passengers
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the consideration that places their lives as of more interest
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to them than any other conceivable thing. They are not
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: alone in this. Thousands of other people have done the
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: same thing, and would do it today in factory, in workshops,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: in minds. Did not the government intervene and insist on
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: safety precautions. The thing is a defect in human life
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: of today, thoughtlessness for the well being of our fellow men,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: and we are all guilty of it in some degree.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: It is folly for the public to rise up now
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: and condemn the steamship companies. Their failing is the common
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: failing of the immorality of indifference. The remedy is the law,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: and it is the only remedy at present that will
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: really accomplish anything. The British law on the subject dates
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: from eighteen ninety four and requires only twenty votes for
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: a ship the size of the Titanic. The owners and
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: builders have obeyed this law and fulfilled their legal responsibility.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Increase this responsibility, and they will fulfill it again, and
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the matter is ended so far as appliances are concerned.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: It should perhaps be mentioned that in a period of
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: time ten years, only nine passengers were lost on British ships.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: The law seemed to be sufficient. In fact. The position
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: of the American government, however, is worse than that of
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the British government. Its regulations require more than double the
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: boat accommodation which British regulations do, and yet it has
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: allowed hundreds of thousands of its subjects to enter its
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: ports on boats that defied its own laws. Had their
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: government not been guilty of the same indifference, passengers would
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: not have been allowed aboard any British ship lacking in
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: boat accommodation, the simple expedient again of refusing entry. The
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: reply of the British Government to the Senate Committee accusing
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the Board of Trade of insufficient requirements and lax inspection,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: might well be, ye have a law. See to it yourselves,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: and of part one of Chapter eight