THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1912. THE TITANIC INQUIRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15025, 21 June 1912, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1912. THE TITANIC INQUIRY.

The closing of the official British inquiry into the loss of the Titanic Ifeaves public opinion uninformed as to the intentions of the British Board of Trade in the' formulating of new regulations for the safety of passengers and crew in sea-going ships. But as one very natural result of the monstrous character of the Titanic disaster the hand of the British Board of Trade is being already forced by the action of other countries. The United States has determined to regulate the lifesaving facilities of ships bringing passengers * to her ports, and although the British Overseas Dominions might not be able to legislatively affect British navigation methods they are exerting steady influence upon the immigrant-carry-ing lines in order to obtain sufficient lifeboat accommodation. British public opinion has also to be reckoned with, not only in its effect upon administrative action, but in the encouragement given to the seamen who are taking somewhat spasmodic and irregular but very practical action to protect their interests by refusing to man insufficiently equipped vessels. Under the circumstances, therefore, we may hope that the Board of Trade will fall into line with the universal feeling of the public and will promulgate regulations requiring all sea-going vessels leaving the ports of the United ' Kingdom to carry lifeboats sufficient ' to take away every man, woman and child on board. Other stringent : regulations are called for, but the need for ample lifeboat aceommoda- ' tion is by far the most imperative, affecting as it does the fundamental * conditions of the sea. The modern ' belief that ships could be so built as. to be practically unsinkable, and that, therefore, it was waste of I money and- space to provide boats as was done on old-fashioned liners, has been totally, exploded. The previous

1 magnificent record of the White Sta " Line, which had carried millions o passengers with practically no loss of life, actually served 'no • bet to purpose v than to give a false ' sense of security through whicl ■ so many hundreds perished. Wher ' a--catastrophe occurred it occurrec on such a gigantic scale and in such a convincing manner that the . "unsinkable" ship immediately became a mere phantom, and wiL never again be treated seriously until modern maritime architecture is . radically and revolutionarily transformed. The British Board ol Trade, however reluctant it may be to abandon its old methods, and ■ thus to confess its errors, can hardly avoid accepting the principle that e place in the boats must be provided for every person'taken on board a sea-going ship. Throughout the inquiry it has been evident that tliis supposition of the " unsinkablo" steamer has exertec an influence beyond its legitimate value. The designer of,the Titanic 'recommended the carrying of sufficient boats to have saved every sou] on board, but appears to have' been overruled by the long-current belief that a great steamer could only be lost under conditions which - rendei it impossible. for boats to life. The big steamers have greatly accentuated the tendency to belittle boats, for as their decks rose higher into the air and their keels sank deepei into the sea, the amount .of • deck space- available became proportionately less, while the - demands -upon it constantly increased. We are told even after the -'disaster and by reputed experts that great steamers - cannot carry enough boats under conditions enabling easj launching to hold all their passengers and crew. If. this be true it sounds " the death-knell of the mammoth liners, for whatever the result they will certainly, be compelled in the future to meet this simple requirement. It is, however, not true in reality, for the questior involved is simply one of the best use that deck-space can be put to. Tennis courts and walking tracks, palatial smoking - rooms and rooi gardens, will' yield precedence tc lifeboats when Compulsion bids. It is quite possible, however, that the suppression of an unreasonable advantage' possessed by under boated and undermanned leviathans over smaller but proportional ely better-equipped vessels may favour the evolution of a smaller, less hotellike and more maritime type. The question -of. the control of wireless telegraphy at sea is another problem arising from the great disaster. In any . case, this cannot remain as it was before the loss ol the Titanic. The lack of co-opera-tion and co-ordination, the absencc of any effective. organisation and the extraordinarily casual way in ■ whicl ,the system is worked even on the North Atlantic is one»of. the mogt extraordinary revelations of the inquiry. One equipped vessel lay close enough to the Titanic to see her lights, , yet the wireless jnstalla tion was not availed of; on the rescuing vessel the message appears to have been taken up by a providential accident; it will never be known how many possible ways oi escape might have been opened tc the doomed ship's company by s little more of the. sharpness com--1 monly regarded as inherent in maritime officers. Apart from all this, the absurdity of allowing any pri vate interests to interfere with.the systematic organising of wireless telegraphy at sea is apparent. International action will certainly be taken in this direction with the assured result that travellers anei seamen will benefit by wireless tele graphy in the future even more v thai in the past.