THE TITANIC WRECK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10442, 23 April 1912, Page 2

THE TITANIC WRECK.

ABUSE OF MR ISMAY.

SYMPATHY TURNED BY AMERICAN METHODS.

WHITE STAR LINE'S POLICY,

LESSON OF DISASTER.

HEROISM OF THE ENGINEERS

United Press Association —By Eloctrio Telegraph—Copyright. (Received April 23, 10.25 a.m.) LONDON", April 22. Shipping circles at Liverpool aro indignant at tho Amorjcan Senate Committee's methods of examining Mr Bruce I'smav, especially by innuendoes. They emphasise that during his management of the White Star Line he lias consistently studied tho passengers' safety and comfort. His aim in accompanying the Titanic on her maiden voyage was largely confined to that consideration.

In a further statement telegraphed from New York Mr Ismay said: "The only reason I wished the crew to return home was for their own benefit. When ordering their return I was not aware that an inquiry was contemplated. When I entered tho boat with Mr Garter, a passenger, 110 women. or other passengers remained on dock. The disaster has proved the futility of unsinkfable vessels. Tho present legal .requirements aro inadequate and mu6t l>e chaaiged.Owners have placed too much reliance on watertight compartments and wireless telegraphy. Steamers must have lifeboats and rafts for every soul, with men to handle them." Mr William Carter, interviewed ati Philadelphia, said emphatically that injustice was being done to Mr lsmayi Tho boat thev escaped in contained two , seamen and forty women and children from the steerage. Ho continued: "Mr Ismay, myself and several officers,walked up and down tho deck for several minutes shouting, ' any moro women?' There was no response. The then told Mr Ismay that he could enter a boat if ho rowed. This he did until tho Carpathia was sighted.

MR 'ISMAY'S DEFENCE.

WAS NOT CONSULTED BY \ CAPTAIN.

. . MADE NO SUGGESTIONS (Received April 23, 11.25 n.m.) LONDON, April 22. ' Mr Ismay emphatically declares that he was simply a passenger, and was not consulted either regarding.the speed or the navigation of the Titanic. Ha neither made suggestions nor exercised: any privileges. He saw th© captain only occasionally, and was never in his room nor on the bridge until after th® accident. Ho said it was unqualifiedly, false that he wished to put up a record. The only information that ice was sighted was the Baltic's message on Sunday, and the captain informed him of this in the evening, and posted it for the officers' information. THE BRITISH OFFICIAL INQUIRY, STRONGEST POSSIBLE TRIBUNAL.: (Received April 23, 10.25 a.m.) LONDON, April 22. The Right Hon S. C. Buxton, President of the Board of Trade, stated in the Houso of Commons that steps were being taken to constitute the strongest possibs Court of Inquiry into the Titanio disaster. ENGINEERS WERE HEROES. FACED DEATH FOR TWO HOURS. Lord Charles Beresford, in a letter to the " Times," says that the fact that lights were burning a few minutes before the last plunge shows that the ei> gineers remained at their posts for two hours after it was known that a terrible death awaited them at any minute through the bursting of a steampipo. PRECAUTIONS FOR PASSENGERS' SAFETY. Continental countries are applying the lessons of the Titanic disaster promptly. The German Government is reviewing the whole questions of the precautions to be taken for the safety of people ab sea. The Austrian Government is insisting that all passenger liners should be equipped with wireless apparatus. NEW LINER'S CONSTRUCTION. GIGANTIC TO HAVE CELLULAR SIDES. (Received Apri] 23, 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, April 22. It ia understood that the plans for the new White Star liner Gigantic, now being built at Belfast, havo been altered to provide for cellular sides for the engine-room and stokehold, and also to provide cellular sides above tlio waterline in the other holds. , THE POWER OF MONEY. HOW A MILLIONAIRE ESCAPED. New York newspapers report Mr Whiteley as saying that a boat was lowered on the starboard side before the officers issued their orders. It contained an American millionaire and hi 3 wife and child and two valets and seven firemen. The firemen were bribed, each receiving £5 wliemaboard the Carpathia. FRIENDLESS CHILDREN. Two French children, Lolo and Louis Hoffman, aro among those saved. Nothing is known of their .parents. CONTROL OF WIRELESS. THE AMATEUR DANGER. There is a general demand in America that every liner should have adequate lifeboats, and that wireless apparatus should be standardised and should ba under Government supervision. They advocate th© strict control of ail stations, both on land and sea. Violation of the regulations should bo a criminal offence. ■ It is said that the confusion of the earlier stories regarding th« safety of all the passengers arose from the picking up of fragments of wireless messages by amateurs. NAVAL MEMORIAL SERVICES (Received April 23, 8.5 a.m.) LONDON, April 22. Memorial services for the Titanic'* dead were held on all British battle*

j fhips. Services were held also throughout the United States, Canada and I South Africa. Many congregations 'sang "Nearer, mv God, to Thee." ( DISTRESS IN'SOUTHAMPTON. tiix ■tuncw'od families are in necessitous circumstances in Southampton as '(the result of tho wreck of the Titanic. DEAD RAILROAD PRESIDENT. AN IMPRESSIVE TRIBUTE. (Received April 23, 11.10 a.m.) ' VANCOUVER, April 22. { As a tribute to the memory of Mr 'C. M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Line, who was among tho victims of the Titanic wreck, every wheel along the linn of the Grand Trunk Company in Canada and the United States "Will cease turning during tho courso of the memorial service to the deceased president, ABOUT CAPE RACE. THE SCENE OF THE COLLISION. SHIPMASTERS' EXPERIENCES. Mr H. Bramwell, of the Park Hotel, Bathurst, who has had twenty-nine ' years nt sea, and holds a master s certificate, had something to say concerning tho ill-fated Titanic. " I have crossed the Atlantic over 200 times," said Mr Bramwell, " and the neighbourhood of Capo Race, in which the Titanic is said to havo collided with an iceberg, is particularly dangerous on account of the fogs whicli almost coniimially hang Around there. It is about there that all the steamer lines converge. It may bo news to some to Icnow that the outward and homeward tracks across the Atlantic are followed almost along strictly defined lines, which in nautical phraseology are called steamer lines. Tho lines are from fifty to a hundred miles apart generally, and thus diminish the risk of collision between the steamers of the outward and homeward routes. But to- 1 Wards Capo Race they converge, and leaving there diverge more or less «» the steamers are bound to Boston, yvew York, Philadelphia or Baltimore. " The vicinity of C ape Race 1b particularly dangerous, also, from the fact that it is near the fishing ground of tho cod fleet, which Kipling, in his ' Captains Courageous,' describes with such I illness and accuracy.

, "By the aid of 'wireless, steamers Leonid be summoned to her assistance, but whether they could find the Titanic 5f the fog continued is another matter. Knowing that bergs were in the vicinity, they, for their own safety, would te compelled to proceed with caution, lit might even be only by tho Titanic's to'histle that they would he guided to slier.

'' What surprises me is that bergs are fro far south so early in the year. Jun© (Is generally the earliest they are looked for. It is rather exhilarating work lieing in charge of a ship about Capo Raco in a fog. You are continually fancying you can see ship and fishing boats or a derelict. It might be a berg at any lime, and if you do meet one it is generally too late to avoid it."

He was asked if the presence or , vicinity of icebergs could be determined. "By some experts they can be," he replied. "The waters about Cape Race are in the Gulf Stream, the temperaiture of which is very much higher than the water on either side of it. In a fog a man is employed drawing water nnd taking the temperature of any considerable drop is an indication ithat ice is in the vicinity. But it is not by any means a reliable test, as the berg may be shifting towards you nnd thus leaving tho old track beI'iad." i CONCERNING ICEBERGS. Captain Stollberg, commander of the German mail steamer Gneisenau, which *vas in Sydney last week, was for nearly nine years in the N.D.L. Company's express steamers crossing the North Atlantic, and he states that the Bank of Newfoundland is a locality where \cebergs and fields of floating ice are >f particularly frequent oocurrence, *nd from April to July dense fogs are ■juite the rule. On the big liners, he explained, it is the practice to test the temperature of the sea water every ton jtninutes, and any excessive drop in the thermometer readings are a warning that icebergs are probably in the vicinity. Captain Stollberg says he has known a difference of from 6 degrees .o 7 degrees centigrade (1.0,8 degrees to 12.6 degrees Fahr.) in two consecutive tests of tho sea's temperature. Ship masters are assisted also by the publication in Germauy and America rvery month of charts showing the furthest positions south that icebergs had faeen sighted from the big liners, the officers of which report regularly any pergs that may be noticed.

An iceberg is a much larger object ithan it appears. Above the water from ,tine-eighth to one-third of the total jniiss only can be seen, and as they Inelt from huge mountains of ice perlip's miles in extent down to nothing, t can be judged how easily a vessel lan nollido with a lump of ico say as )ig, as a house—quite largo enough jto wreck a ship, and small enough to be 'unnoticed 011 a dark night. Icebergs tome down as far south as 3odeg north, 'and from there upwards shipihasters ■have to keep on the look-out. They are seldom met farther east than the 49th meridian, which, is about 300 miles beyond the Great BanK of Newfoundland, i The " North' Atlantic Directory" says that icebergs hate a natural offijlgence or "ice-blink," which frequently renders them visible at some distance even on the darkest nights. At m short distance this effulgence may appear like a white cloud extending over nr nearly over a vessel's masts. The presence of floating ice may often be detected by a decrease in the tempera- ' Vii sea, and possibly a roaring pr the waves nt the base of the bergs in ,-ough wefithor.