11 JANUARY 1952, Page 4

The climax of the drama of the 'flying Enterprise' almost

justifies retroactively the inordinate amount of space most of the daily papers have been giving to photographs and descriptions, at no one knows what sacrifice of other news. The courage and tenacity of Captain Carlsen have fired the imagination and most rightly stirred the admiration of the world. A new epic of the sea has been enacted and the great traditions of the sea reinterpreted. For "the captain was the last to leave" we are getting rather near" captains never leave." That would be going too far. Brave men's lives must not be sacrificed for shareholders' dividends, which is what it might come to in the last resort. As this is written everything hangs in suspense—the tow-rope broken, the ship wallow:ng and in danger of capsizing or breaking-up and to all appearance little possibility of saving Captain Carlsen and the mate of the ' Turmoil ' if that happens. Too little has been said about The heroism of the latter. He deliberately and most perilously boarded the Flying Enterprise' when the danger was substan- tially greater than when Captain Carlsen decided to stay on her. There can be no invidious comparisons, but there must be no unthinking injustice either. There is nothing to choose between Carlsen and Dancy in courage.