28.
CHAPTER XXVIII
TIME FOR REFLECTION AND REFORMS
SPEED AND LUXURY OVEREMPHASIZED—SPACE NEEDED FOR
LIFE-BOATS DEVOTED TO SWIMMING POOLS AND SQUASH-COURTS—MANIA
FOR SPEED RECORDS COMPELS USE OF DANGEROUS
ROUTES AND PREVENTS PROPER CAUTION IN FOGGY
WEATHER—LIFE MORE VALUABLE THAN LUXURY—SAFETY
MORE IMPORTANT THAN SPEED—AN AROUSED PUBLIC OPINION
NECESSARY—INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED—ADEQUATE
LIFE-SAVING EQUIPMENT SHOULD BE
COMPULSORY—SPEED REGULATIONS IN BAD WEATHER—COOPERATION
IN ARRANGING SCHEDULES TO KEEP VESSELS
WITHIN REACH OF EACH OTHER—LEGAL REGULATIONS
IT is a long time since any modern vessel of importance
has gone down under Nature's attack, and in general
the floating city of steel laughs at the wind and waves.
She is not, however, proof against disaster. The danger
lies in her own power—in the tens of thousands of horse power
with which she may be driven into another ship or into an
iceberg standing cold and unyielding as a wall of granite.
In view of this fact it is of the utmost importance that
present-day vessels should be thoroughly provided with the
most efficient life-saving devices. These would seem more
important than fireplaces, squash-courts and many other
luxuries with which the Titanic was provided. The comparatively
few survivors of the ill-fated Titanic were saved
by the life-boats. The hundreds of others who went down
with the vessel perished because there were no life-boats to
carry them until rescue came.
SURVIVORS URGE REFORM
The survivors urge the need of reform. In a resolution
drawn up after the disaster they said:
"We feel it our duty to call the attention of the public to
what we consider the inadequate supply of life-saving appliances
provided for the modern passenger steamships and
recommend that immediate steps be taken to compel passenger
steamers to carry sufficient boats to accommodate the
maximum number of people carried on board. The following
facts were observed and should be considered in this connection:
The insufficiency of life-boats, rafts, etc.; lack of
trained seamen to man same (stokers, stewards, etc., are not
efficient boat handlers); not enough officers to carry out
emergency orders on the bridge and superintend the launching
and control of life-boats; the absence of search lights.
"The Board of Trade allows for entirely too many people
in each boat to permit the same to be properly handled. On
the Titanic the boat deck was about seventy-five feet from
the water and consequently the passengers were required to
embark before lowering the boats, thus endangering the
operation and preventing the taking on of the maximum
number the boats would hold. Boats at all times should be
properly equipped with provisions, water, lamps, compasses,
lights, etc. Life-saving boat drills should be more frequent
and thoroughly carried out and officers should be armed at
both drills. There should be greater reduction of speed in fog
and ice, as damage if collision actually occurs is liable to be
less.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED
"In conclusion we suggest that an international conference
be called to recommend the passage of identical laws providing
for the safety of all at sea, and we urge the United States
Government to take the initiative as soon as possible."
That ocean liners take chances with their passengers,
though known to the well informed, is newly revealed and
comes with a shock of surprise and dismay to most people.
If boats are unsinkable as well as fireproof there is no need
of any life-boats at all. But no such steamship has ever been
constructed.
That it is realized that life-boats may be necessary on
the best and newest steamships is proved by the fact that they
carry them even beyond the law's requirements. But if
life-boats for one-third of those on the ship are necessary,
life-boats for all on board are equally necessary. The law of
the United States requires this, but the law and trade regulations
of England do not, and these controlled the Titanic
and caused the death of over sixteen hundred people.
True, a steamship is rarely crowded to her capacity, and
ordinarily accommodations in life-boats for a full list would
not be needed. But that is no argument against maximum
safety facilities, for when disaster comes it comes unexpectedly,
and it might come when every berth was occupied. So there
must be life-boats for use in every possible emergency. Places
must be found for them and methods for handling them
promptly.
Suppose a vessel to be thus equipped, would safety be
insured? In calm weather such as the Titanic had, yes, for
all that would be needed would be to keep the small boats
afloat until help came. The Titanic could have saved everyone
aboard. In heavy weather, no. As at present arranged,
if a vessel has a list, or, in non-nautical language, has tipped
over on one side, only the boats upon the lower side can be
dropped, for they must be swung clear of the vessel to be
lowered from the davits.
So there is a problem which it is the duty of marine
designers to solve. They have heretofore turned their attention
to the invention of some new contrivance for comfort and
luxury. Now let them grasp the far more important question
of taking every soul from a sinking ship. They can do it,
and while they are about it, it would be well to supplement
life-boats with other methods.
We like to think and to say that nothing is impossible in
these days of ceaseless and energetic progress. Certainly
it is possible for the brains of marine designers to find a better
way for rescue work. Lewis Nixon, ship-builder and designer
for years, is sure that we can revolutionize safety appliances.
He has had a plan for a long time for the construction of a
considerable section of deck that could be detached and
floated off like an immense raft. He figures that such a deck-raft
could be made to carry the bulk of the passengers.
That may seem a bit chimerical to laymen, but Nixon is
no layman. His ideas are worthy of every consideration.
Certain it is that something radical must be done, and that
the maritime nations must get together, not only in the way
of providing more life-saving facilities, but in agreeing upon
navigation routes and methods.
Captain William S. Sims, of the United States Navy, who is
in a position to know what he is talking about, has made some
very pointed comments on the subject. He says:
"The truth of the matter is that in case any large passenger
steamship sinks, by reason of collision or other fatal
damage to her flotability, more than half of her passengers
are doomed to death, even in fair weather, and in case there
is a bit of a sea running none of the loaded boats can long
remain afloat, even if they succeed in getting safely away
from the side, and one more will be added to the long list
of `the ships that never return.'
"Most people accept this condition as one of the inevitable
perils of the sea, but I believe it can be shown that the terrible
loss of life occasioned by such disasters as overtook the Bourgogne
and the Titanic and many other ships can be avoided
or at least greatly minimized. Moreover, it can be shown
that the steamship owners are fully aware of the danger to
their passengers; that the laws on the subject of life-saving
appliances are wholly inadequate; that the steamship companies
comply with the law, though they oppose any changes
therein, and that they decline to adopt improved appliances;
because there is no public demand for them, the demand
being for high schedule speed and luxurious conditions of
travel.
"In addition to installing efficient life-saving appliances,
if the great steamship lines should come to an agreement to
fix a maximum speed for their vessels of various classes and
fix their dates and hours of steaming so that they would cross
the ocean in pairs within supporting distances of each other,
on routes clear of ice, all danger of ocean travel would practically
be eliminated.
"The shortest course between New York and the English
Channel lies across Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Consequently
the shortest water route is over seas where navigation
is dangerous by reason of fog and ice. It is a notorious
fact that the transatlantic steamships are not navigated with
due regard to safety; that they steam at practically full
speed in the densest fogs. But the companies cannot properly
be blamed for this practice, because if the `blue liners' slow
down in a fog or take a safe route, clear of ice, the public will
take passage on the `green liners,' which take the shortest
route, and keep up their schedule time; regardless of the risks
indicated."
PROMPT REFORMS
The terrible sacrifice of the Titanic, however, is to have its
fruit in safety for the future. The official announcement is
made by the International Mercantile Marine that all its
ships will be equipped with sufficient life-boats and rafts
for every passenger and every member of the crew, without
regard to the regulations in this country and England or Belgium.
One of the German liners already had this complement
of life-boats, though the German marine as a whole is sufficiently
deficient at this point to induce the Reichstag to order
an investigation.
Prompt, immediate and gratifying reform marks this action
of the International Mercantile Marine. It is doubtless
true that this precaution ought to have been taken without
waiting for a loss of life such as makes all previous marine
disasters seem trivial. But the public itself has been inert.
For thirty years, since Plimsoll's day, every intelligent passenger
knew that every British vessel was deficient in life-boats,
but neither public opinion nor the public press took
this matter up. There were no questions in Parliament and
no measures introduced in Congress. Even the legislation
by which the United States permitted English vessels reaching
American ports to avoid the legal requirements of American
statute law (which requires a seat in the life-boats for every
passenger and every member of the crew) attracted no public
attention, and occasional references to the subject by those
better informed did nothing to awake action.
But this is past. Those who died bravely without complaint
and with sacrificing regard for others did not lose their
lives in vain. The safety of all travelers for all times to come
under every civilized flag is to be greater through their sacrifice.
Under modern conditions life can be made as safe at
sea as on the land. It is heartrending to stop and think that
thirty-two more life-boats, costing only about $16,000, which
could have been stowed away without being noticed on the
broad decks of the Titanic, would have saved every man,
woman and child on the steamer. There has never been so
great a disaster in the history of civilization due to the
neglect of so small an expenditure.
It would be idle to think that this was due simply to parsimony.
It was really due to the false and vicious notion
that life at sea must be made showy, sumptuous and magnificent.
The absence of life-boats was not due to their cost,
but to the demand for a great promenade deck, with ample
space to look out on the sea with which a continuous row of
life-boats would have interfered, and to the general tendency
to lavish money on the luxuries of a voyage instead of first
insuring its safety.
