On Tuesday, Mr. A. B. Forwood, in addressing a meeting-
at Prescot, near Liverpool, dealt with the behaviour of the 'Resolution' in the Bay of Biscay. As he was a member of the Board of Admiralty at the time of her construction, he had taken special pains to investigate the matter, and his con- clusions seem to have been that the ship was sound enough both in design and in practice, but that she was not very skil- fully handled. It was the 'Resolution's' first voyage, her officers and crew Were only recently appointed, and unaccus- tomed to the ship. She carried a complement of seven hundred men, and however admirable might be the discipline of British seamen, "much allowance must be made for all on
board a ship being strangers, to one another, and new to the arrangements and fittings of the vessel. They were sent to sea before they had learnt their way about, or had organised their work in a proper manner." Again, before a great liner went to sea, all her loose fittings were secured, and all aper- tures so arranged that at the first sign of bad weather all could be closed and no water get below. Such was not the case on the 'Resolution,' and hence the water "got below in tons." The stability and safety of the ship were never really in doubt. In the hull structure there was not a strain. Mr. Forwood ended by declaring that our naval officers have not "enough experience in handling big ships at high speed in bad weather, and urged that they should be attached for a period to the great liners, "where they would learn to conduct leviathan ships at 20-knots' speed against the great and angry Atlantic."
Previous page
