EVOLUTION OF WATER TRAVEL—INCREASES IN SIZE OF VESSELS—IS THERE ANY LIMIT?—ACHIEVEMENTS IN SPEED—TITANIC NOT THE LAST WORD.
THE origin of travel on water dates back to a very early period in human history, men beginning with the log, the inflated skin, the dug-out canoe, and upwards through various methods of flotation; while the paddle, the oar, and finally the sail served as means of propulsion. This was for inland water travel, and many centuries passed before the navigation of the sea was dreamed of by adventurous mariners.
The paintings and sculptures of early Egypt show us boats built of sawn planks, regularly constructed and moved both by oars and sails. At a later period we read of the Phoenicians, the most daring and enterprising of ancient navigators, who braved the dangers of the open sea, and are said by Herodotus to have circumnavigated Africa as early as 604 B. C. Starting from the Red Sea, they followed the east coast, rounded the Cape, and sailed north along the west coast to the Mediterranean, reaching Egypt again in the third year of this enterprise.
The Carthaginians and Romans come next in the history of shipbuilding, confining themselves chiefly to the Mediterranean, and using oars as the principal means of propulsion. Their galleys ranged from one to five banks of oars. The Roman vessels in the first Punic war were over 100 feet long and had 300 rowers, while they carried 120 soldiers. They did not use sails until about the beginning of the fourteenth century B. C.
Portugal was the first nation to engage in voyages of discovery, using vessels of small size in these adventurous journeys. Spain, which soon became her rival in this field, built larger ships and long held the lead. Yet the ships with which Columbus made the discovery of America were of a size and character in which few sailors of the present day would care to venture far from land.
England was later in coming into the field of adventurous navigation, being surpassed not only by the Portuguese and Spanish, but by the Dutch, in ventures to far lands.
Europe long held the precedence in shipbuilding and enterprise in navigation, but the shores of America had not long been settled before the venturous colonists had ships upon the seas. The first of these was built at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine. This was a staunch little two-masted vessel, which was named the Virginia, supposed to have been about sixty feet long and seventeen feet in beam. Next in time came the Restless, built in 1614 or 1615 at New York, by Adrian Blok, a Dutch captain whose ships had been burned while lying at Manhattan Island. This vessel, thirty-eight feet long and of eleven feet beam, was employed for several years in exploring the Atlantic coast.
With the advent of the nineteenth century a new ideal in naval architecture arose, that of the ship moved by steam-power instead of wind-power, and fitted to combat with the seas alike in storm and calm, with little heed as to whether the wind was fair or foul. The steamship appeared, and grew in size and power until such giants of the wave as the Titanic and Olympic were set afloat. To the development of this modern class of ships our attention must now be turned.
As the reckless cowboy of the West is fast becoming a thing of the past, so is the daring seaman of fame and story. In his place is coming a class of men miscalled sailors, who never reefed a sail or coiled a cable, who do not know how to launch a life-boat or pull an oar, and in whose career we meet the ridiculous episode of the life-boats of the Titanic, where women were obliged to take the oars from their hands and row the boats. Thus has the old-time hero of the waves been transformed into one fitted to serve as a clown of the vaudeville stage.
The advent of steam navigation came early in the nineteenth century, though interesting steps in this direction were taken earlier. No sooner was the steam-engine developed than men began to speculate on it as a moving power on sea and land. Early among these were several Americans, Oliver Evans, one of the first to project steam railway travel, and James Rumsey and John Fitch, steamboat inventors of early date. There were several experimenters in Europe also, but the first to produce a practical steamboat was Robert Fulton, a native of Pennsylvania, whose successful boat; the Clermont, made its maiden trip up the Hudson in 1807. A crude affair was the Clermont, with a top speed of about seven miles an hour; but it was the dwarf from which the giant steamers of to-day have grown.
Boats of this type quickly made their way over the American rivers and before 1820 regular lines of steamboats were running between England and Ireland. In 1817 James Watt, the inventor of the practical steam-engine, crossed in a steamer from England to Belgium. But these short voyages were far surpassed by an American enterprise, that of the first ocean steamship, the Savannah, which crossed the Atlantic from Savannah to Liverpool in 1819.
Twelve years passed before this enterprise was repeated, the next steam voyage being in 1831, when the Royal William crossed from Quebec to England. She used coal for fuel, having utilized her entire hold to store enough for the voyage. The Savannah had burned pitch-pine under her engines, for in America wood was long used as fuel for steam-making purposes. As regards this matter, the problem of fuel was of leading importance, and it was seriously questioned if a ship could be built to cross the Atlantic depending solely upon steam power. Steam-engines in those days were not very economical, needing four or five times as much fuel for the same power as the engines of recent date.
It was not until 1838 that the problem was solved. On April 23d of that year a most significant event took place. Two steamships dropped anchor in the harbor of New York, the Sirius and the Great Western. Both of these had made the entire voyage under steam, the Sirius, in eighteen and a half and the Great Western in fourteen and a half days, measuring from Queenstown. The Sirius had taken on board 450 tons of coal, but all this was burned by the time Sandy Hook was reached, and she had to burn her spare spars and forty-three barrels of rosin to make her way up the bay. The Great Western, on the contrary, had coal to spare.
Two innovations in shipbuilding were soon introduced. These were the building of iron instead of wooden ships and the replacing of the paddle wheel by the screw propeller. The screw-propeller was first successfully introduced by the famous Swede, John Ericsson, in 1835. His propeller was tried in a small vessel, forty-five feet long and eight wide, which was driven at the rate of ten miles an hour, and towed a large packet ship at fair speed. Ericsson, not being appreciated in England, came to America to experiment. Other inventors were also at work in the same line.
Their experiments attracted the attention of Isambard Brunel, one of the greatest engineers of the period, who was then engaged in building a large paddle-wheel steamer, the Great Britain. Appreciating the new idea, he had the engines of the new ship changed and a screw propeller introduced. This ship, a great one for the time, 322 feet long and of 3443 tons, made her first voyage from Liverpool to New York in 1845, her average speed being 12 1/4 knots an hour, the length of the voyage 14 days and 21 hours.
By the date named the crossing of the Atlantic by steamships had become a common event. In 1840 the British and Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was organized, its chief promoter being Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, whose name has long been attached to this famous line.
The first fleet of the Cunard Line comprised four vessels, the Britannia, Acadia, Caledonia and Columbia. The Unicorn, sent out by this company as a pioneer, entered Boston harbor on June 2, 1840, being the first steamship from Europe to reach that port. Regular trips began with the Britannia, which left Liverpool on July 4, 1840. For a number of years later this line enjoyed a practical monopoly of the steam carrying trade between England and the United States. Then other companies came into the field, chief among them being the Collins Line, started in 1849, and of short duration, and the Inman Line, instituted in 1850.
We should say something here of the comforts and conveniences provided for the passengers on these early lines. They differed strikingly from those on the leviathans of recent travel and were little, if any, superior to those on the packet ships, the active rivals at that date of the steamers. Then there were none of the comfortable smoking rooms, well-filled libraries, drawing rooms, electric lights, and other modern improvements. The saloons and staterooms were in the extreme after part of the vessel, but the stateroom of that day was little more than a closet, with two berths, one above the other, and very little standing room between these and the wall. By paying nearly double fare a passenger might secure a room for himself, but the room given him did not compare well even with that of small and unpretentious modern steamers.
Other ocean steamship companies gradually arose, some of which are still in existence. But no especial change in ship-building was introduced until 1870, when the Oceanic Company, now known as the White Star Line, built the Britannic and Germanic. These were the largest of its early ships. They were 468 feet long and 35 feet wide, constituting a new type of extreme length as compared with their width. In the first White Star ship, the Oceanic, the improvements above mentioned were introduced, the saloons and staterooms being brought as near as possible to the center of the ship. All the principal lines built since that date have followed this example, thus adding much to the comfort of the first-class passengers.
Speed and economy in power also became features of importance, the tubular boiler and the compound engine being introduced. These have developed into the cylindrical, multitubular boiler and the triple expansion engine, in which a greater percentage of the power of the steam is utilized and four or five times the work obtained from coal over that of the old system. The side-wheel was continued in use in the older ships until this period, but after 1870 it disappeared.
It has been said that the life of iron ships, barring disasters at sea, is unlimited, that they cannot wear out. This statement has not been tested, but the fact remains that the older passenger ships have gone out of service and that steel has now taken the place of iron, as lighter and more durable.
Something should also be said here of the steam turbine engine, recently introduced in some of the greatest liners, and of proven value in several particulars, an important one of these being the doing away with the vibration, an inseparable accompaniment of the old style engines. The Olympic and Titanic engines were a combination of the turbine and reciprocating types. In regard to the driving power, one of the recent introductions is that of the multiple propeller. The twin screw was first applied in the City of New York, of the Inman line, and enabled her to make in 1890 an average speed of a little over six days from New York to Queenstown. The best record up to October, 1891, was that of the Teutonic, of five days, sixteen hours, and thirty minutes. Triple-screw propellers have since then been introduced in some of the greater ships, and the record speed has been cut down to the four days and ten hours of the Lusitania in 1908 and the four days, six hours and forty-one minutes of the Mauretania in 1910.
The Titanic was not built especially for speed, but in every other way she was the master product of the shipbuilders' art. Progress through the centuries has been steady, and perhaps the twentieth century will prepare a vessel that will be unsinkable as well as magnificent. Until the fatal accident the Titanic and Olympic were considered the last words on ship-building; but much may still remain to be spoken.
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY—WATER-TIGHT BULKHEADS—SUBMARINE SIGNALS—LIFE-BOATS AND RAFTS—NIXON'S PONTOON—LIFE-PRESERVERS AND BUOYS—ROCKETS
THE fact that there are any survivors of the Titanic left to tell the story of the terrible catastrophe is only another of the hundreds of instances on record of the value of wireless telegraphy in saving life on shipboard. Without Marconi's invention it is altogether probable that the world would never have known of the nature of the Titanic's fate, for it is only barely within the realm of possibility that any of the Titanic's passengers' poorly clad, without proper provisions of food and water, and exposed in the open boats to the frigid weather, would have survived long enough to have been picked up by a transatlantic liner in ignorance of the accident to the Titanic.
Speaking (since the Titanic disaster) of the part which wireless telegraphy has played in the salvation of distressed ships, Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of this wonderful science, has said:
"Fifteen years ago the curvature of the earth was looked upon as the one great obstacle to wireless telegraphy. By various experiments in the Isle of Wight and at St. John's I finally succeeded in sending the letter S 2000 miles.
"We have since found that the fog and the dull skies in the vicinity of England are exceptionally favorable for wireless telegraphy."
Then the inventor told of wireless messages being transmitted 2500 miles across the Abyssinian desert, and of preparation for similar achievements.
"The one necessary requirement for continued success is that governments keep from being enveloped in political red tape," said he.
"The fact that a message can be flashed across the wide expanse of ocean in ten minutes has exceeded my fondest expectations. Some idea of the progress made may be had by citing the fact that in eleven years the range of wireless telegraphy has increased from 200 to 3000 miles.
"Not once has wireless telegraphy failed in calling and securing help on the high seas. A recognition of this is shown in the attitude of the United States Government in compelling all passenger-carrying vessels entering our ports to be equipped with wireless apparatus."
Of the Titanic tragedy, Marconi said:
"I know you will all understand when I say that I entertain a deep feeling of gratitude because of the fact that wireless telegraphy has again contributed to the saving of life."
WATER-TIGHT BULKHEADS
One of the most essential factors in making ships safe is the construction of proper bulkheads to divide a ship into water-tight compartments in case of injury to her hull. Of the modern means of forming such compartments, and of the complete and automatic devices for operating the watertight doors which connect them, a full explanation has already been given in the description of the Titanic's physical features, to which the reader is referred. A wise precaution usually taken in the case of twin and triple screw ships is to arrange the bulkheads so that each engine is in a separate compartment, as is also each boiler or bank of boilers and each coal bunker.
SUBMARINE SIGNALS
Then there are submarine signals to tell of near-by vessels or shores. This signal arrangement includes a small tank on either side of the vessel, just below the water line. Within each is a microphone with wires leading to the bridge. If the vessel is near any other or approaching shore, the sounds; conveyed through the water from the distant object are heard through the receiver of the microphone. These arrangements are called the ship's ears, and whether the sounds come from one side of the vessel or the other, the officers can tell the location of the shore or ship near by. If both ears record, the object is ahead.
LIFEBOATS AND RAFTS
The construction of life-boats adapts them for very rough weather. The chief essentials, of course, are ease in launching, strength in withstanding rough water and bumping when beached; also strength to withstand striking against wreckage or a ship's side; carrying capacity and lightness. Those carried on board ship are lighter than those used in life-saving service on shore. Safety is provided by air-tight tanks which insure buoyancy in case the boat is filled with water. They have also self-righting power in case of being overturned; likewise self-emptying power. Life-boats are usually of the whaleboat type, with copper air-tight tanks along the side beneath the thwarts, and in the ends.
Life-boats range from twenty-four to thirty feet in length and carry from thirty to sixty persons. The rafts carry from twenty to forty persons. The old-fashioned round bar davits can be got for $100 to $150 a set. The new style davits, quick launchers in type, come as low as $400 a set.
According to some naval constructors, an ocean steamship can carry in davits enough boats to take care of all the passengers and crew, it being simply a question as to whether the steamship owners are willing to take up that much deck room which otherwise would be used for lounging chairs or for a promenade.
Nowadays all life-boats are equipped with air tanks to prevent sinking, with the result that metal boats are as unsinkable as wooden ones. The metal boats are considered in the United States Navy as superior to wooden ones, for several reasons: They do not break or collapse; they do not, in consequence of long storage on deck, open at the seams and thereby spring a leak; and they are not eaten by bugs, as is the case with wooden boats.
Comparatively few of the transatlantic steamships have adopted metal life-boats. Most of the boats are of wood, according to the official United States Government record of inspection. The records show that a considerable proportion of the entire number of so-called "life-boats" carried by Atlantic Ocean liners are not actually life-boats at all, but simply open boats, without air tanks or other special equipment or construction.
{illust. caption = CHAMBERS COLLAPSIBLE LIFE RAFT}
Life-rafts are of several kinds. They are commonly used on large passenger steamers where it is difficult to carry sufficient life-boats. In most cases they consist of two or more hollow metal or inflated rubber floats which support a wooden deck. The small rafts are supplied with life-lines and oars, and the larger ones with life-lines only, or with life-lines and sails.
The collapsible feature of the Chambers raft consists of canvas-covered steel frames extending up twenty-five inches from the sides to prevent passengers from being pitched off. When the rafts are not in use these side frames are folded down on the raft.
The collapsible rafts are favored by the ship-owners because such boats take up less room; they do not have to be carried in the davits, and they can be stowed to any number required. Some of the German lines stack their collapsible rafts one above another on deck.
NIXON'S PONTOON
Lewis Nixon, the well-known ship designer, suggests the construction of a pontoon to be carried on the after end of the vessel and to be made of sectional air-tight compartments. One compartment would accommodate the wireless outfit. Another compartment would hold drinking water, and still another would be filled with food.
The pontoon would follow the line of the ship and seem to be a part of it. The means for releasing it before the sinking of the vessel present no mechanical problem. It would be too large and too buoyant to be sucked down with the wreck.
The pontoon would accommodate, not comfortably but safely, all those who failed to find room in the life-boats.
It is Mr. Nixon's plan to instal a gas engine in one of the compartments. With this engine the wireless instrument would remain in commission and direct the rescuers after the ship itself had gone down.
LIFE PRESERVERS AND BUOYS
Life-preservers are chiefly of the belt or jacket type, made to fit about the body and rendered buoyant by slabs of cork sewed into the garment, or by rubber-lined air-bags. The use of cork is usually considered preferable, as the inflated articles are liable to injury, and jackets are preferable to belts as they can be put on more quickly.
Life-buoys are of several types, but those most common are of the ring type, varying in size from the small one designed to be thrown by hand to the large hollow metal buoy capable of supporting several people. The latter are usually carried by sea-going vessels and are fitted with lamps which are automatically lighted when the buoy is dropped into the water.
ROCKETS
American ocean-going steamers are required to have some approved means of firing lines to the shore. Cunningham rockets and the Hunt gun are largely used. The inaccuracy of the rocket is of less importance when fired from a ship than when fired from shore.
SPEED AND LUXURY OVEREMPHASIZED—SPACE NEEDED FOR LIFE-BOATS DEVOTED TO SWIMMING POOLS AND SQUASH-COURTS—MANIA FOR SPEED RECORDS COMPELS USE OF DANGEROUS ROUTES AND PREVENTS PROPER CAUTION IN FOGGY WEATHER—LIFE MORE VALUABLE THAN LUXURY—SAFETY MORE IMPORTANT THAN SPEED—AN AROUSED PUBLIC OPINION NECESSARY—INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED—ADEQUATE LIFE-SAVING EQUIPMENT SHOULD BE COMPULSORY—SPEED REGULATIONS IN BAD WEATHER—COOPERATION IN ARRANGING SCHEDULES TO KEEP VESSELS WITHIN REACH OF EACH OTHER—LEGAL REGULATIONS
IT is a long time since any modern vessel of importance has gone down under Nature's attack, and in general the floating city of steel laughs at the wind and waves. She is not, however, proof against disaster. The danger lies in her own power—in the tens of thousands of horse power with which she may be driven into another ship or into an iceberg standing cold and unyielding as a wall of granite. In view of this fact it is of the utmost importance that present-day vessels should be thoroughly provided with the most efficient life-saving devices. These would seem more important than fireplaces, squash-courts and many other luxuries with which the Titanic was provided. The comparatively few survivors of the ill-fated Titanic were saved by the life-boats. The hundreds of others who went down with the vessel perished because there were no life-boats to carry them until rescue came.
SURVIVORS URGE REFORM
The survivors urge the need of reform. In a resolution drawn up after the disaster they said:
"We feel it our duty to call the attention of the public to what we consider the inadequate supply of life-saving appliances provided for the modern passenger steamships and recommend that immediate steps be taken to compel passenger steamers to carry sufficient boats to accommodate the maximum number of people carried on board. The following facts were observed and should be considered in this connection: The insufficiency of life-boats, rafts, etc.; lack of trained seamen to man same (stokers, stewards, etc., are not efficient boat handlers); not enough officers to carry out emergency orders on the bridge and superintend the launching and control of life-boats; the absence of search lights.
"The Board of Trade allows for entirely too many people in each boat to permit the same to be properly handled. On the Titanic the boat deck was about seventy-five feet from the water and consequently the passengers were required to embark before lowering the boats, thus endangering the operation and preventing the taking on of the maximum number the boats would hold. Boats at all times should be properly equipped with provisions, water, lamps, compasses, lights, etc. Life-saving boat drills should be more frequent and thoroughly carried out and officers should be armed at both drills. There should be greater reduction of speed in fog and ice, as damage if collision actually occurs is liable to be less.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED
"In conclusion we suggest that an international conference be called to recommend the passage of identical laws providing for the safety of all at sea, and we urge the United States Government to take the initiative as soon as possible."
That ocean liners take chances with their passengers, though known to the well informed, is newly revealed and comes with a shock of surprise and dismay to most people. If boats are unsinkable as well as fireproof there is no need of any life-boats at all. But no such steamship has ever been constructed.
That it is realized that life-boats may be necessary on the best and newest steamships is proved by the fact that they carry them even beyond the law's requirements. But if life-boats for one-third of those on the ship are necessary, life-boats for all on board are equally necessary. The law of the United States requires this, but the law and trade regulations of England do not, and these controlled the Titanic and caused the death of over sixteen hundred people.
True, a steamship is rarely crowded to her capacity, and ordinarily accommodations in life-boats for a full list would not be needed. But that is no argument against maximum safety facilities, for when disaster comes it comes unexpectedly, and it might come when every berth was occupied. So there must be life-boats for use in every possible emergency. Places must be found for them and methods for handling them promptly.
Suppose a vessel to be thus equipped, would safety be insured? In calm weather such as the Titanic had, yes, for all that would be needed would be to keep the small boats afloat until help came. The Titanic could have saved everyone aboard. In heavy weather, no. As at present arranged, if a vessel has a list, or, in non-nautical language, has tipped over on one side, only the boats upon the lower side can be dropped, for they must be swung clear of the vessel to be lowered from the davits.
So there is a problem which it is the duty of marine designers to solve. They have heretofore turned their attention to the invention of some new contrivance for comfort and luxury. Now let them grasp the far more important question of taking every soul from a sinking ship. They can do it, and while they are about it, it would be well to supplement life-boats with other methods.
We like to think and to say that nothing is impossible in these days of ceaseless and energetic progress. Certainly it is possible for the brains of marine designers to find a better way for rescue work. Lewis Nixon, ship-builder and designer for years, is sure that we can revolutionize safety appliances. He has had a plan for a long time for the construction of a considerable section of deck that could be detached and floated off like an immense raft. He figures that such a deck-raft could be made to carry the bulk of the passengers.
That may seem a bit chimerical to laymen, but Nixon is no layman. His ideas are worthy of every consideration. Certain it is that something radical must be done, and that the maritime nations must get together, not only in the way of providing more life-saving facilities, but in agreeing upon navigation routes and methods.
Captain William S. Sims, of the United States Navy, who is in a position to know what he is talking about, has made some very pointed comments on the subject. He says:
"The truth of the matter is that in case any large passenger steamship sinks, by reason of collision or other fatal damage to her flotability, more than half of her passengers are doomed to death, even in fair weather, and in case there is a bit of a sea running none of the loaded boats can long remain afloat, even if they succeed in getting safely away from the side, and one more will be added to the long list of 'the ships that never return.'
"Most people accept this condition as one of the inevitable perils of the sea, but I believe it can be shown that the terrible loss of life occasioned by such disasters as overtook the Bourgogne and the Titanic and many other ships can be avoided or at least greatly minimized. Moreover, it can be shown that the steamship owners are fully aware of the danger to their passengers; that the laws on the subject of life-saving appliances are wholly inadequate; that the steamship companies comply with the law, though they oppose any changes therein, and that they decline to adopt improved appliances; because there is no public demand for them, the demand being for high schedule speed and luxurious conditions of travel.
"In addition to installing efficient life-saving appliances, if the great steamship lines should come to an agreement to fix a maximum speed for their vessels of various classes and fix their dates and hours of steaming so that they would cross the ocean in pairs within supporting distances of each other, on routes clear of ice, all danger of ocean travel would practically be eliminated.
"The shortest course between New York and the English Channel lies across Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Consequently the shortest water route is over seas where navigation is dangerous by reason of fog and ice. It is a notorious fact that the transatlantic steamships are not navigated with due regard to safety; that they steam at practically full speed in the densest fogs. But the companies cannot properly be blamed for this practice, because if the 'blue liners' slow down in a fog or take a safe route, clear of ice, the public will take passage on the 'green liners,' which take the shortest route, and keep up their schedule time; regardless of the risks indicated."
PROMPT REFORMS
The terrible sacrifice of the Titanic, however, is to have its fruit in safety for the future. The official announcement is
{illust. caption = A diagrammatic map showing how...}
made by the International Mercantile Marine that all its ships will be equipped with sufficient life-boats and rafts for every passenger and every member of the crew, without regard to the regulations in this country and England or Belgium. One of the German liners already had this complement of life-boats, though the German marine as a whole is sufficiently deficient at this point to induce the Reichstag to order an investigation.
Prompt, immediate and gratifying reform marks this action of the International Mercantile Marine. It is doubtless true that this precaution ought to have been taken without waiting for a loss of life such as makes all previous marine disasters seem trivial. But the public itself has been inert. For thirty years, since Plimsoll's day, every intelligent passenger knew that every British vessel was deficient in life-boats, but neither public opinion nor the public press took this matter up. There were no questions in Parliament and no measures introduced in Congress. Even the legislation by which the United States permitted English vessels reaching American ports to avoid the legal requirements of American statute law (which requires a seat in the life-boats for every passenger and every member of the crew) attracted no public attention, and occasional references to the subject by those better informed did nothing to awake action.
But this is past. Those who died bravely without complaint and with sacrificing regard for others did not lose their lives in vain. The safety of all travelers for all times to come under every civilized flag is to be greater through their sac-rifice. Under modern conditions life can be made as safe at sea as on the land. It is heartrending to stop and think that thirty-two more life-boats, costing only about $16,000, which could have been stowed away without being noticed on the broad decks of the Titanic, would have saved every man, woman and child on the steamer. There has never been so great a disaster in the history of civilization due to the neglect of so small an expenditure.
It would be idle to think that this was due simply to parsimony. It was really due to the false and vicious notion that life at sea must be made showy, sumptuous and magnificent. The absence of life-boats was not due to their cost, but to the demand for a great promenade deck, with ample space to look out on the sea with which a continuous row of life-boats would have interfered, and to the general tendency to lavish money on the luxuries of a voyage instead of first insuring its safety.
PROMPT ACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT—SENATE COMMITTEE PROBES DISASTER AND BRINGS OUT DETAILS—TESTIMONY OF ISMAY, OFFICERS, CREW, PASSENGERS AND OTHER WITNESSES
PUBLIC sentiment with regard to the Titanic disaster was reflected in the prompt action of the United States Government.
On April 17th the Senate, without a dissenting vote, ordered an investigation of the wreck of the Titanic, with particular reference to the inadequacy of life-saving boats and apparatus. The resolution also directed inquiry into the use by the Titanic of the northern course "over a route commonly regarded as dangerous from icebergs."
Besides investigating the disaster, the committee was directed to look into the feasibility of international agreements for the further protection of ocean traffic.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, in whose charge the investigation was placed, immediately appointed the following sub-committee to conduct the gathering of evidence and the examination of witnesses:
Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan, chairman; Senator Francis Newlands of Nevada, Senator Jonathan Bourne, Jr., of Oregon, Senator George C. Perkins of California, Senator Theodore E. Burton of Ohio, Senator Furnifold McL. Simmons of North Carolina and Senator Duncan U. Fletcher of Florida.
The Senate Committee began its investigation in New York on Friday, April 19th, the morning after the arrival of the Carpathia.
Ismay, the first witness, came to the witness chair with a smile upon his face. He was sworn and then told the committee that he made the voyage on the Titanic only as a voluntary passenger. Nobody designated him to come to see how the newly launched monster would behave on the initial trip. He said that no money was spared in the construction, and as she was built on commission there was no need for the builders to slight the work for their own benefit. The accident had happened on Sunday night, April 14th.
"I was in bed and asleep," he said. "The ship was not going at full speed, as has been printed, because full speed would be from seventy-eight to eighty revolutions, and we were making only seventy-five. After the impact with the iceberg I dressed and went on deck. I asked the steward what the matter was and he told me. Then I went to Captain Smith and asked him if the ship was in danger and he told me he thought she was."
Ismay said that he went on the bridge and remained there for some time and then lent a hand in getting the life-boats ready. He helped to get the women and children into the boats.
Ismay said that no other executive officer of the steamship company was on board, which practically made him the sole master of the vessel the minute it passed beyond the control of the captain and his fellow-officers. But Ismay, seeming to scent the drift of the questions, said that he never interfered in any way with the handling of the ship.
Ismay was asked to give more particulars about his departure from the ship. He said:
"The boat was ready to be lowered away and the officer called out if there were any more women or children to go or any more passengers on deck, but there was none, and I got on board."
CAPTAIN ROSTRON'S TESTIMONY
Captain Rostron, of the Carpathia, followed Mr. Ismay. He said the first message received from the Titanic was that she was in immediate danger. "I gave the order to turn the ship around as soon as the Titanic had given her position. I set a course to pick up the Titanic, which was fifty-eight miles west of my position. I sent for the chief engineer, told him to put on another watch of stokers and make all speed for the Titanic. I told the first officer to stop all deck work, get out the life-boats and be ready for any emergency. The chief steward and doctors of the Carpathia I called to my office and instructed as to their duties. The English doctor was assigned to the first class dining room, the Italian doctor to the second class dining room, the Hungarian doctor to the third class dining room. They were instructed to be ready with all supplies necessary for any emergency."
{illust. caption = DIAGRAM SHOWING THE PROXIMITY OF OTHER STEAMSHIPS TO THE TITANIC ON NIGHT OF DISASTER.}
The captain told in detail of the arrangements made to prepare the life-boats and the ship for the receipt of the survivors.
WEEPS AS HE TELLS STORY
Then with tears filling his eyes, Captain Rostron said he called the purser. "I told him," said Captain Rostron, "I wanted to hold a service of prayer—thanksgiving for the living and a funeral service for the dead. I went to Mr. Ismay. He told me to take full charge. An Episcopal clergyman was found among the passengers and he conducted the services."
TITANIC WAS A "LIFE-BOAT."
Captain Rostron said that the Carpathia had twenty lifeboats of her own, in accordance with the British regulations.
"Wouldn't that indicate that the regulations are out of date, your ship being much smaller than the Titanic, which also carried twenty life-boats?" Senator Smith asked.
"No. The Titanic was supposed to be a life-boat herself."
WIRELESS FAILED
Why so few messages came from the Carpathia was gone into. Captain Rostron declared the first messages, all substantially the same, were sent to the White Star Line, the Cunard Line and the Associated Press. Then the first and second cabin passenger lists were sent, when the wireless failed.
Senator Smith said some complaint had been heard that the Carpathia had not answered President Taft's inquiry for Major Butt. Captain Rostron declared a reply was sent, "Not on board."
Captain Rostron declared he issued orders for no messages to be sent except upon orders from him, and for official business to go first, then private messages from the Titanic survivors in order of filing.
Absolutely no censorship was exercised, he said. The wire-less continued working all the way in, the Marconi operator being constantly at the key.
Guglielmo Marconi, the wireless inventor, was the next witness.
Marconi said he was chairman of the British Marconi Company. Under instructions of the company, he said, operators must take their orders from the captain of the ship on which they are employed.
"Do the regulations prescribe whether one or two operators should be aboard the ocean vessels?"
"Yes, on ships like the late Titanic and Olympic two are carried," said Marconi. "The Carpathia, a smaller boat, carries one. The Carpathia's wireless apparatus is a short-distance equipment."
TITANIC WELL EQUIPPED
"Do you consider that the Titanic was equipped with the latest improved wireless apparatus?"
"Yes; I should say that it had the very best."
"Did you hear the captain of the Carpathia say, in his testimony, that they caught this distress message from the Titanic almost providentally?" asked Senator Smith.
"Yes, I did. It was absolutely providential."
"Is there any signal for the operator if he is not at his post?'{'}
"I think there is none," said Marconi.
"Ought it not be incumbent upon ships to have an operator always at the key?"
"Yes; but ship-owners don't like to carry two operators when they can get along with one. The smaller boat owners do not like the expense of two operators."
SECOND OFFICER TESTIFIES
Charles Herbert Lightoller, second officer of the Titanic, followed Marconi on the stand. Mr. Lightoller said he understood the maximum speed of the Titanic, as shown by its trial tests, to have been twenty-two and a half to twenty-three knots. Senator Smith asked if the rule requiring life-saving apparatus to be in each room for each passenger was complied with.
"Everything was complete," said Lightoller. "Sixteen life-boats, of which four were collapsible, were on the Titanic," he added. During the tests, he said, Captain Clark, of the British Board of Trade, was aboard the Titanic to inspect its life-saving equipment.
"How thorough are these captains of the Board of Trade in inspecting ships?" asked Senator Smith.
"Captain Clark is so thorough that we called him a nuisance."
TITANIC KILLED RAPIDLY
After testifying to the circumstances under which the life-boats were filled and lowered, Lightoller continued. "The boat's deck was only ten feet from the water when I lowered the sixth boat. When we lowered the first, the distance to the water was seventy feet."
"If the same course was pursued on the starboard side as you pursued on the port, in filling boats, how do you account for so many members of the crew being saved?" asked Chairman Smith.
"I have inquired especially and have found that for every six persons picked up, five were either firemen or stewards."
COTTAM TELLS HIS STORY
Thomas Cottam, of Liverpool, the Marconi operator on the Carpathia, was the next witness.
Cottam said that he was about ready to retire Sunday night, having partially removed his clothes, and was waiting for a reply to a message to the Parisian when he heard Cape Cod trying to call the Titanic. Cottam called the Titanic operator to inform him of the fact, and received the reply. 'Come at once; this is a distress message. C. Q. D.' "
"What did you do then?"
"I confirmed the distress message by asking the Titanic if I should report the distress message to the captain of the Carpathia."
"How much time elapsed after you received the Titanic's distress message before you reported it to Captain Rostron?"
"About a couple of minutes," Cottam answered.
COTTAM RECALLED
When the committee resumed the investigation on April 20th, Cottam was recalled to the stand.
Senator Smith asked the witness if he had received any messages from the time the Carpathia left the scene of the disaster until it reached New York. The purpose of this question was to discover whether any official had sought to keep back the news of the disaster.
"No, sir," answered Cottam. "I reported the entire matter myself to the steamship Baltic at 10.30 o'clock Monday morning. I told her we had been to the wreck and had picked up as many of the passengers as we could."
Cottam denied that he had sent any message that all passengers had been saved, or anything on which such a report could be based.
Cottam said he was at work Monday and until Wednesday. He repeated his testimony of the previous day and said he had been without sleep throughout Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and until late Wednesday afternoon when he had been relieved by Bride.
"Did you or Bride send any message declaring that the Titanic was being towed into Halifax?"
"No, sir," said the witness, with emphasis.
MARCONI EXPLAINS
In an effort to determine whether the signal "C. Q. D." might not have been misunderstood by passing ships, Senator Smith called upon Mr. Marconi.
"The 'C. Q.,'" said Marconi, "is an international signal which meant that all stations should cease sending except the one using the call. The 'D.' was added to indicate danger. The call, however, now has been superseded by the universal call, 'S. O. S.'"
BRIDE ON THE STAND
Harold S. Bride, the sole surviving operator of the Titanic, was then called.
Bride said he knew the Frankfurt was nearer than the Carpathia when he called for assistance, but that he ceased his efforts to communicate with the former because her operator persisted in asking, "What is the matter?" despite Bride's message that the ship was in distress.
Time after time Senator Smith asked in varying forms why the Titanic did not explain its condition to the Frankfurt.
"Any operator receiving 'C. Q. D.' and the position of the ship, if he is on the job," said Bride, "would tell the captain at once."
Marconi again testified to the distress signals, and said that the Frankfurt was equipped with Marconi wireless. He said that the receipt of the signal "C. Q. D." by the Frankfurt's operator should have been all-sufficient to send the Frankfurt to the immediate rescue.
ALL APPEALS RECEIVED
Under questioning by Senator Smith, Bride said that undoubtedly the Frankfurt received all of the urgent appeals for help sent subsequently to the Carpathia.
INVESTIGATION CARRIED TO WASHINGTON
The first witness when the investigation was resumed in Washington on April 22d was P. A. S. Franklin, vice-president of the International Mercantile Marine Company.
Franklin testified that he had had no communication with Captain Smith during the Titanic's voyage, nor with Ismay, except one cable from Southampton.
Senator Smith then showed Mr. Franklin the telegram received by Congressman Hughes, of West Virginia, from the White Star Line, dated New York, April 15th, and addressed to J. A. Hughes, Huntington, W. Va., as follows:
"Titanic proceeding to Halifax. Passengers probably land on Wednesday. All safe.