SAFER NAVIGATION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1138, 27 May 1911, Page 5

SAFER NAVIGATION.

■ EXPLOSIV^SIi^ THESUB

•'The serious mishap to the Cunard steamship Ivernia, in striking Daunt's fcock, tour miles off the coast , of County 1 fork ami on tno direct routo troni .Liverpool to hew York, will again compel attention to tho risks and dangers attending tho navigation of this and other sections of tn» xrislx and British coasts during the prevalence of heavy togs, llaunfs liock, although a fine lightsiiip is moored closp alongside, is of evil t«puto to manners; it was nearby that tha xnman liner City of Chicago was totally wrecked in 1892 her 100 passengers having a miraculous escape, being hawed 300 feet up tho perpendicular siaes of the; cliff J and here again tho White Star steamer SLajestic had a narrow escape when in sheering oil in tho nick of time she grazed tho rock with one.of her propellers. Ordinarily liners pass' the rock when either leaving or-entering Cork. Harbour, about three miles on their beam and it is probable that tho, Ivernia in trying to. raaKfl for the mouth of the harbour had not till then sighted land and was proceeding by. dead reckoning. It was a fortunate circumstance that a safe entry was made of the land-locked Queenstown bay, because nowhero else along this precipitous and treacherous coast could the. vessel have boeu beached with. safety. Captain Turner, the Jlauretania's famous commander, and on« ol' tha most, skilful navigators afloat, recently expressed some interesting views to a representative- of the. New York "Outlook." He referred to a voyage on the Lusitania, hjs; previous command, when on-the wjiole passage from New 'York lie'-ihydridt.beeii able to make asinglo observation and had no means of calculating his exact position, yet knowing land to be only a few miles away.- Soundings,■ foro and aft, were of no avail, so judging the ship to be near Kinsale-ho. headed tho huge liner round, went,' dead .elow, aud pointed for the Ehore. Presently two guns were heard in quick, succession to starboard. He threw the helm over to port, and told tho officer on tho bridge, to time off six minutes, whon again the two guns were heard, nnd that meant the Head of Kinsale was closo at hand, and, twelvo miles further on, Daunt's Kock. Captain Turner believes' in tho explosive signals, but taid that the submarine bell is the most reliable warning. When captain of the Ivenria he was once groping his way through, haze and Istonn towards Boston, and distinctly heard the submarine bell belonging to the Boston- lightship ten miles at sea, and on another occasion the sound was located eleven and a quarter miles off. The wireless' telegraph is of little use in a fog; it assisted the Republic because tho weather fortunately cleared in timo to enable tho sinking vessel to be picked up at a distance. The problem of safety at sea, says the "Outlook," is only' half solved by that which is inventive and automatic. It still requires a man who makes no error of judgment, who is cool, calm, collected, ami who knows tho sens as if they were the streets of a ni.ipped-out city.