THE TITANIC.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10, 5 September 1912, Page 3

THE TITANIC.

SENATOR SMITH’S REPORT. AN AMAZING SPEECH. Senator Smith, in informing tlio Senate of the result of the iiujuiry of his committee, unsparingly condemned the laxity of the British Board of Trade and reviewed unfavourably the conduct of Captain Lord and the other officers of the California. Ho claimed that though his committee had no pretension to experience or special knowledge of nautical affairs, very few important facts had escaped its knowledge. Following are some extracts from the report ; At ten 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 s!ie was plunged straightway 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. We shall leave the honest judgment of England its painstaking chastisement of the British Board of Trade, to whose laxity the world is largely indebted for this awful fatality. Of contributing causes there were very many. In the face of warning signals speed was increased and messages of danger seemed to stimulate her to action rather than persuade her to fear. 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, in conjecture or speculation; With the atmosphere literally charged with warning signals and wireless messages registering their last appeal the stokers in the engine-room fed their fires with fresh fuel, registering in that dangerous place the vessel’s fastest speed. At that moment the ice stole upon her as hard as steel and struck her in a vital spot, while the last command of the officer of the watch, distracted by tire sudden appearance of extreme danger and in his effort to avert disaster, sharply turned aside the prow, the least dangerous point of contact, exposing the temple to the blow. At the turn of the bilge the steel encasement yielded to a glancing blow so slight that the impact was not felt in 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 twenty of the largest guns in our battleship fleet fired at the same moment. There is evidence tending to show that the watertight compartments were not successfully closed either above or below. No general alarm was given, no shin’s officers formally assembled, no orderly routine was attempted or organised system of safety begun. Haphazard, they rushed one by one, on staircase and in 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. The lifeboats wore filled so indifferently and lowered so quickly that, according to the uncontradicted evidence, nearly 500 people were needlessly sacrificed to want of orderly discipline in loading the few that were provided. And yet it is said by some welhmeaning persons that the best of discipline prevailed. If this is discipline, then what would have been disorder? Among the passengers were many strong men who had been accustomed to command, whose lives especially Acted them for such an emergency. These were rudely 7 silenced and forbidden to speak, as was tiro president of this company, by junior officers, a few 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 the,sc men say that they “lay by’’ in 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 traditions of the sea. Marconi, genius and gentleman, sitting in his office in the capital of the Argentine Republic, read, as in an open book, a wireless message direct from! the coast of Ireland. When the world weep's together over a common loss, when nature moves in the same direction in all spheres, why should not the nations clear the sea of its conflicting idioms and wisely regulate this new servant of humanity?

To that end wages must be increased in proportion to the responsibility assumed, and service,to be useful, must be made continuous, night and day, while this new profession must rid iutself of the spirit of venality to Which, in my opinion, the world is indebted for a systematic reign of silence concerning the details of this disaster.

It is not a pleasant -duty to criticisei the conduct or comment upon the shortcomings of others, but tiro plain truth .should he told. Most -of the witnescs of the ill-fated vessel before the committee saw plainly the light which Captain Lord says was displayed nearly two hours after the accident, while the captain and some of the officers of the Titanic directed the lifeboats to pnll for that light and return with the empty boats to the side of the ship.

Why did the Californian display its Morse signal lamp from the moment of the 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 wireless operator in his ship, who could have easily ascertained the name of the vessel in distress and reached her in time to avert loss of life, places a tremendous responsibility upon this officer from which it will be very difficult for him to escape. Had he been as vigilant in the movement of his vessel as he was active in displaying his own signal lamp, there is strong probability that every human life that was sacrificed through this disaster could have been saved. The lessons of this hour are,' indeed, fruitless and its 1 precepts ill-con-ceived if rules of action do not follow hard upon the day of reckoning. Obsolete and- antiquated shipping laws should no longer enbumber the Par-

liamentai’y records of any Government, and ever-ripe administrative boards should be pruned of dead branches and less sterile precepts taught and applied. The sea, upon whose bosom the natoins have for ages commingled together, where arts and manufactures have been exchanged so freely, and the knowledge of language spread for the remotest limits of civilisation, should now be rededicated to a new birth of reason and practical methods for safe-guarding its dangers should bo promptly devised. Piracy and pillage are twin brothers of international concern, and, under the same searching scrutiny, modern shipping should be free from every inherent defect. Lines of travel must lie moref carefully defined, strength of bow positive, and water-tight subdivi-

sions sufficient to. limit life-saving equipment better and numerous enough for all, discipline and practice a rudimentary exaction, powerful lights should be provided, buoys should he Carried by every ship temporarily to mark the place of the ship’s burial in case of acid cut; and men of strength and spirit there must be, won back to a calling already demoralised and decadent.

Americans must re-cnlist in this service, the must become the soldiers of the sea, and they should he better paid for their labour, their rights must be respected and their work carefully performed; harsh and severe restraining statutes must he repealed and a new dignity given this important field of labour.

In this sorrowful experience we can see again in our imagination the proud ship instinct with life and energy, with active 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 backs upon the Old World, where endurance is to them no longer a virtue, and looking hopefully to the new; and the ship suddenly reels and gives up the unequal battle. Rut upon that broken hull new vows were taken, new fealty expressed, old love renewed, and those who had been devoted in friendship and companions in life went proudly and definatly on the last life pilgrimage together. In such a heritage we must feel ourselves more intimately related to the sea than ever before, and henceforth it will send hack to us on its rising tide the cheering salutations from those we have lost.