" THE LANGUAGE OF CREATION."

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12814, 13 July 1912, Page 3 (Supplement)

" THE LANGUAGE OF CREATION."

THE SENATE'S INQUIRY.

-•SENATOR SMITH'S SPEECH. y WASHINGTON, May 28. Senator Smith, m informing the Senate of the result of the inquiry of his 'committee, unsparingly condemned the laxity of the British Board of Trade and reviewed unfavorably the conduct of C»ptam Lord and the other officers of the Cahfornian. He claimed that, though Ins committee had no pretension to experience or sgecial knowledge of nautical affairs, vt^kfew important facts had escaped its knowledge. He said: — We went to the side of the hospital ship -with purpose and pity and) saw the almost lifeless survivors m their garments of woe — joy and sorrow so intermingled that it was difficult to discern light from .shadow, and the sad scene was only varied by the cry of reunited loved, ones whose mutual grief was written m the language of creation. At 10 o'clock on that fateful Sunday evening this latest maritime creation was cutting its first pathway through" the North Atlantic Ocean with scarcely a ripple to retard its progress. From the builders 'hands she was plunged straightaway, to her fate, and christening salvos acclaimed at once her birth and death. Builders of renown had launched her on the billows with confident assurance of her strength. . . No suffioient tests were made of boilers i»r bulkheads, or gearing, or equipment, and no life-saving", or signal devices were :reviewed ; officers and crew were strangers to one another and passengers to both ; - neither was familiar with the vessel or its implements or tools; no drill or station practice or helpful discipline disturbed the tranquility of that. x voyage, and when the crisis cc.rr.6 a state of absolute uivprcparedncss stupefied both passengers and crew, and, m their despair, the Ship went down, carrying as needless a sacrifice of noble women and brave men us ever clustered aljout the Judgment Seat m any single moment of passing time. ., We shall leave to the honest judgment <uf England ite painstaking chastisement <ut the British Board of Trade, to whose h-xity the world is ;largely indebted for this awful fatality. Of contributing causes there were very many. In the face of warning signals speed was m- • creased and messages of danger seemed to stimulate hereto action rather, than to persuade her to fear. :; i^HTg MAJESTIC PILE." ; Captain Smith knew the sea, and his "^lea'r eye and steady hand had often guided his ship through dangerous paths; for forty years the Storm King sought. in vain to vex him and m 'nace his craft ; but once before m all his honorable career was his pride humbled or liis vessel maimed, Strong m limb, intent of purpose, pure m character, dauntless as a sailor should be, ho walked the deck of this majestic pile as master of his keel, titanic though she W's; his indifference to danger was one ot the direct, 'and contributing causes of this unnecessary tragedy, while "his own willingness to die was the expiating evidence of his fitness to live. Those of us who knew him •-?.". — not m anger, but m sorrow — file o:i« twiciric charge against him, over-eonfk! :ijc an'cl neglect to heed the oft-repeated warnings of his friends ; but, m his horrible dismay, when his brnin was afire with honest retribution, we caa still sec, m his manly bearing and his tender solicitude for the safety of women and little children, some traces of his lofty spirit when dark clouds lowered all about him and angry elements stripped him of his command, while his devotion to his craft even as it writhed and twisted and struggled for mastery over its foe,, calm* ed the fears of many of the stricken - multitude who hung upon his words, lending dignity to a parting scene as inspiring as it is beautiful to remember. The mystery of his indifference to danger, when other and less pretentious vessels doubled their look-out or stopped their engines, finds no reasonable hypothesis m conjecture or speculation. , With the atiriosphere literally charged with warning signals and wireless mes sages registering their last appeal the stokers m the engine-roqnv fed their' fires with fresh fuel, registering m that dangerdus place the vessel's fastest speed. "THE ICE STOLE ON HER." At that -moment the ice stole upon her as hard as steel and struck her m a vital spot, while the last command of the officer of the .watch, distracted by the sudden appearance ; of extreme danger, and m his effort to Avert disaster, sharply turned aside the prow, tlie least dangerous point of contact, exposing the temple to the blow. At the turn of the bilge the steel encasement yielded to a glancing biow so slight, that the impact was not felt m many parts of the ship, although representing an energy of more than a million, foot-tons, said to. be the equivalent of" the combined broadsides of 20 of the largest guns m our battleship fleet fired at the same moment. f There is evidence tending to, show that the 'watertight compartments were jaot successfully closed either above or f below. No general alarm was given, lib ship's officers formally assembled, no orderly routine was attempted or organised system of safety begun. Haphazard, they rushed by one another, on staircase and m hallway, while men of self-control gathered here . and there about the decks ,, helplessly staring at one another or giving encouragement to those less courageous than themselves. Lifebelts were finally adjusted to all and tlie lifeboats were cleared away, although strangely insufficient _m number, only partly loaded, and m all instances unprovided with compasses, and only three of them with 1 lamps. They were manned so badly that, m the absence of prompt relief, they would have fallen easy victims to the advancing ice floe. One" witness swore that two of tlie three stewards m her boat, admitted that the^ had never had an ' oar m their hands before and did not even know what the oarlock was for. » ; The lifeboats were filled so indifferently and lowered, so quickly that, aacording to the uncontradicted evidence, nearly 500 people were needlessly sacrificed "for want of orderly discipline' m loading the feAv that yrere provided. And yet it is said by some 'well -meaning persons that the best of discipline prevailed. If this is < discipline, what would have been disorder ATTACK OIN THE OFFICERS. Among the passengers were many Btrong men who had been accustomed to command, whose lives especially fitted them for such an emergency. These ■were rudely silenced arid forbidden to speak, as was the president Aof. this company, by junior officers, a/ew of whom, I regret to say/ availed themselves of the first opportunity to leave the ship. Some of the men, to whom had been entrusted the care of passengers, quickly deserted ' the ship with a recklessness and indifference to the responsibilities of their positions as culpable and amazing as it is impossible to believe. And some of these men say that they "lay by" m their partly filled lifeboats and listened to the cries of distress "until the noise quieted down," and surveyed from a safe distance the unselfish men and women and faithful fellow officers and seamen, whose heroism lightens up this tragedy and recalls the noblest tradition of the sea. The refusal of Phillips and Bride, wireless operators, to desert their posts of duty, even 'after the water had mounted to the upper deck, because the captain " had not given them permission leave, is an exampleA of faithfulness V Worthy of the highest praise, while the 1 final exit of the Phillips boy from the ship and from the world was not so swift as to prevent him from pausing long enough to pass a cup of water to a fainting woman, who fell from her husband's arm into the operator's chair, aa he was tardily fleeing from his wireless apparatus, where he had ticked off the last message from -his ship and from his brain. ''". THE WHITE STAR DuNE. Marconi, genius and gentleman, sitting m his office m the capital of the Argentine Republic; read, as > in* an open book, a wireless' message" direct from the coast of Ireland. When' the world weeps together over a common loss, when nature moves m the same direction m all spheres, why. should not the nations

clear the sea of its conflicting idioms and wisely regulato this new servant of humanity? . To that end wages must be increased m proportion to the responsibility assumed, and service, to be useful must be made continuous, night and day, while this new profession must rid itself of the spirit of venality, to which, m my opinion, the world is indebted for a ( systematic reign of silence concerning . the details of tliis disaster. \ The course taken was singularly m ? accord with the reticence of the officials ; of the White Star Company, who knew I at 2.0 Monday morning, through the steamship Virginian and their office m Moritreal, what was supposed to have [ occurred, and according to their own admission the information then given, and which they battled against during all i of that day, contained absolutely the-en- [ tire story," and yet at 7.51 on Monday evening, a message from their own office, officially signed, containing the positive ; assurance of the safety of the passengers, was sent to a half-crazed father at Huntington, West Virginia, nearly two hours after their admitted familiarity with the details of the disaster. It is little wonder that we have not been able ' to fix with definiteness the author of this falsehood. CAPTAIN LORD. It is not a pleasant duty to criticise the conduct or comment urjori the shortcomings of others, but the plain truth ; should be told. Most of the witnesses of the ill-faed vessel before the committee saw plainly the light which Captain Lord says was displayed for nearly two hours after the accident, while the captain and some of the officers of the Titanic directed the lifeboats to pull for that light and return with empty boats to the side of the ship. Why did the California display its Mforse signal lamp from the moment of Iho collision continuously for nearly two hours if they saw nothing? And the signals which were seen by the captain and officer of the watch should have excited more solicitude than was displayed by the officers of that vessel, and the failure of Captain Lord to arouse the/ wirejess operator m his shjp, who could easily have ascertained the name of the vessel m distress and reached her m time to avert loss of life, places a tremendous - responsibility upon this officer from whjch it will be very difficult for him to escape. Had he been as vigilant m the move•ment of his vessel as he was active m displaying his own signal lamp, . there is a vexy strong probability that every human life that was / sacmced through this disaster could have been saved. Tlie dictates of humanity should have prompted vigilance under such conditions, and the law of Great Britain giving' effect to Article 2 of the Brussels Convention m regard to assistance and salvage at sea is as follows : The master or person m charge of a vessel shall, so far as he can do so without serious i danger to his own vessel, her crew, 'and passengers (if any), render assistance to every person even if such person be a subject of a foreign State at war with his Majesty, who is found at sea m danger of'being lost, and if ho fails to do so he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. The lessons of this hour are, indeed, fruitless and its precepts ill-conceived if rules of action do not follow hard upon the day of reckoning. Obsolete and antinquated shipping laws should no longer encumber the parliamentary records of any Government, and over-ripe administrative boards should be pruned of dead branches and less sterile precepts taught and applied. The sea; upon whose bosom the nations liave for ages commingled together, where arts and manufactures have been exchanged so freely, and. the knowledge of language spread to the remotest liriiits of civilisation, should now be rededicated to a new birth of reason and practical methods for safeguarding its dangers should be promptly devised. In a period of the sharpest rivalry, when the' very presence of the owner and builder unconsciously stimulates endeavor and prizes frequently await the fleetest skipper, the restraint of organised society is absolutely necessary to safet}'. As men have reformed * the natural banks of the ocean and struck the shackles from its contracted bounds, dedicating its bays and shores to commerce, we must! do our utmost to overcome its perils. "PIRACY AND PILLAGE." , Piracy and pillage we twin brothers of international concern, and, under the same searching scrutiny, modern shipping should be free from every inherent defect. Lines of travel must be more carefully defined,, .strength of .bow positive, and water-tight subdivisions sufficient to .-limit, life-saving equipment better and numerous enough for all, discipline and practice a rudimentary exaction, powerful lights should be carried by every ship temporarily to mark the place of the ship's burial m case of accident; and , men of strength, andj spirit there must be, won back to a calling already demoralised and decadent. .Americans must re-enlist m this service, they must become the soldiers of tho sea, and they should be better paid for their labor, their rights must be respected and their work carefully performed ; harsh and severe restraining statutes must be repealed and a new dignity given this important field of labor. In this sorrowful experience we can see again m our imagination the proud ship instinct with life and energy, with actiyj© figures again swarming upon its decks ; musicians who filled the last moment with melody and Spartan courage, and teachers, artists, authors, soldiers,, and men of large affairs; brave men and noble women , of every land; we can see the' unpretentious and the lowly, turning their back upon the Old World, where endurance is to them no longer a virtue an^looking 'hopefully to the new and the ship suddenly reels and gives up the unequal battle. But upon that broken hull new vows were taken, new fealty expressed, old love renewed, and those, who had been devoted m friendship and companions m. hfo went proudly and defiantly on tlie last life pilgrimage together. ■. In such a heritage we must feel ourselves more intimately related to the 'i sea than ever before, and henceforth it will send back to, us on its rising tide the cheering salutations from those wo have lost.