AN EXPERIENCE OF SHIPWRECK.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12814, 13 July 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN EXPERIENCE OF SHIPWRECK.

LONDON, June 1. "Veritas," m a letter to the Times, gives an experience of shipwreck that has a bearing on some of the issues raised by the Titanic disaster : — The entire ship's company of passengers, captain, officers, crew and stewards — were saved— in all 230 souls. Yet we had a much shorter warning than the Titanic, as our captain — the last to leave the ship — left within 19 minutes of the collision. When I left the ship's name was already awash— 'going down by her head.' My position, as tho only director on board of the company, owing to the s.y. , was somewhat similar to Mr Bruco Ismay's, but different frorii his m that I was m an official capacity representing the owners as '"director m. charge" on the cruise. After our captain's precaution of calling the crew to "boat stations" and his examination of the ship's side followed by the report of "No serious damage above the water-line," I accompanied him back to the bridge-deck, where he awaited the report of the ship's carpenter. On receiving it as "Six foot six m No. 2 hold, Sir," the captain gave the order "Lower away all the boats immediately." I then asked the captain, "May I stay with you, Sir?" to which he replied, "No, Mr . Your duty is with the passengers. Mine is with the ship as long as there, is a soul on board. "The important point to bear m mind is that the captain of any ship - — whilst under orders from his owners, m everything else — is supreme m regard to navigation and the lives of those on board. This tradition of the sea may demand heroic sacrifice, as it did of Captain Smith. But the duty of a director is quite different. He lias no direct responsibility for the lives of those on board, but his indirect responsibility is the gravest, and it is his duty to be saved ! It may involve odium and.ignominious accusations of cowardice as the alternative to heroic sacrifice. That is the bitter cost. But his duty is to live to facilitate m every possible way the most searching official inquiry into the loss and the blame, and later, by the knowledge gained through such painful experience, to assist m establishing every possible safeguard for the future. If that is the general duty of a "director m charge," how much more does it become the duty of a chairman travelling as a passenger, . on whom is laid the stern and sacred charge of drastic initiative, to prevent for all future time not only needless sacrifice, but needless risk of human life on board his company's ships. In the supreme -moments — worth dying for or living throughdeath holds no fear for men. • They act on duty's call. I would willingly have gone down with my captain had duty called, as I am sure Mr Isriiay would with his, but whilst the captain's duty was by the ship his '(Mr Ismay's) was to take the reasonable chance of safety after giving preference and precedence to all others within sight or call m such a dark and frantic emergency.