THE "TITANIC": A LAST WORD.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14406, 13 July 1912, Page 6

THE "TITANIC": A LAST WORD.

A correspondent writes:—The scnso of shock, almost amounting to that of personal bereavement, felt by the average man at tho first news of tho great disaster has by this time become a memory only; and to-day wo treat the cabled scraps of evidence and expert opinion with comparative indifference. Yet when a man so well qualified as Mr Joseph, Conrad puts his views' on record we may well give ear to what,ho has to say. . And tho article which ho contributes, to the May number of tho "English Review" is characterised by all tho cogency and directness which, wo look for from his pen. point of view is of course that of the practical seaman.; and almost at tho outset he refers in _ scathing terms to the fatuous proceedings of the American Board of Enquiry (which at the time of writing was still proceeding), and grimly suggests that certain, pompous senators would be better employed in taking to task the wealthy magnates whoso railroads annually cause a far greater loss of life than the "Titanic" calamity was responsible for. As we read Mr Conrad's article we, -find a now prevalent opinion abundantly confirmed —that the "Titanic's" immense size, and consequent unwieldiness were in themselves prime- sources of danger.' u For my part," he says, "I could much sooner believe in an unsinkable ship of 3000 tons than in ono of 40,000 tons. It is one of those things that stand to reason. You can't increase the thickness of scantling and plates indefinitely. And the mero weight of this bigness is an added disadvantage. Further on, he says: "A great, babble of neyvs (and what sort of news too, good heavens!) and eager comment has arisen around this catastrophe, though it seepis to mc that a less strident note would have been more becoming in the presence of so many victims left struggling in the sea, of lives miserably thrown away for nothing, or worse than nothing, for false standards of achievement, to satisfy a vulgar demand of a few moneyed people for a banal hotel luxury." Tho writer points out in similar trenchant fashion to what extremes men are led by a blind faith in mere material — steel plates and modern appliances. He urges passionately that vessels shall be btiHt not as mere floating hotels, to bo crammed with waiters instead of seamen, but as ships that will allow of captain and crew performing their primary and bounden duty: that of bringing their craft safely through all •"perils of tho seas, rivers, and navigat.ion' , —if that be humanly possibly, and if .not, then at least of getting flheir , passengers safely into the boats; while they themselves, well content, ?.o down heroically with their vessel. This, he declares, was well-nigh impossible in tho case of tlio Titanic, though officers and crew did all that men could do in the circumstances. And Mr Conrad concludes with these weighty words, which tho shipping kings would do well to ponder: ''Yes, material may fail, and men, too, may fail sometimes; but more often men, when they are given the chance, will provo themselves truer than steel, that wonderful thin steel from which the sides and the bulkheads of our modern sealeviathans are made."