SHIPWRECK PROBLEMS.
[To TIM EDITOR Or TUB "SracriaoR,"1 Sin,—Vertical watertight compartments aro very primitive. Even if they close all right they still are primitive. The vertical principle is obviously wrong except when used in reinforcement of a horizontal system—i.e., a system of horizontal watertight compartments in the upper part of each and every deck, at least above the water-line. These horizontal compartments should be from two to four feet high, and they should reach from end to end and from side to side of the
vessel, everywhere except where pierced by funnels, machinery, and hatches.
There is very little harm done if such a ship sinks, even if she sinks very swiftly. She will sink nearly upon an even keel. The deeper she sinks the more buoyant does she become. She will "bring up" in time, that is, when enough buoyancy has been developed by sinking, and she will be towed into port later with her passengers on board or in safety else- where.
There is nothing dangerous in sinking. Sometimes you cannot make her float except by sinking. All she needs is further buoyancy, and this she gets by sinking. Water never sinks a ship. Water is the ship's best friend. It lies always ready, indeed it stands pressing, to buoy the ship up. But it needs an ally in the architect, else this cannot be done. Depend upon it that in deep water it is always the architect that sinks a vessel.
All the naval architects that I know are splendid men. In this matter, however, I think none of them have learned the first principles of building ships for the transportation of passengers. And such is human nature, and such, too, the professional adhesion to the habitual and to the views of owners—most usually a wise adhesion—that we must not hope for this principle to be soon adopted. Human safety really counts for very little in these matters Here, again, we have human nature. In a month's time the ' Titanic' disaster—or even some disaster probably now preparing which may be even more ' Titanic '—will practically be forgotten. Not until marine and accident assurance companies shall take hold of the matter and discriminate against our modern coracles will ships be built to float, floating even piece by piece.
The principle I am advocating to your intelligent readers makes for lightness as much as it makes for strength. Nor do I think it expensive. It is merely the principle of the hollow carried to an extreme in the building of all decks above the water-line, and perhaps of one or more below the water-line. The quill, the bamboo, the animal bone, are all made hollow, not only in the interest of lightness, but of strength and of economy of material to be supplied and from time to time replenished. A vessel built with the uppermost two, three, or four feet of every deck converted into a sort of mezzanine deck might, strength for strength, well cost less than one built according to the present absurd lofty fashion; and it might, with forced ventilation, be made airier than at present. The getting from one deck to another will in any case be done mainly by lifts on board the liners.
The only ship fit for passenger transportation is one that is fool-proof. It is idle to expect the ordinary human being to use much precaution against a risk which once has become familiar. I am not censorious ; we must remember human nature. Second Officer Lightoller testified that the tempera- ture of the water was taken once in two hours. Think of it, dear Sir, the chill of a little iceberg just big enough to sink the ' Titanic' is expected to be felt forty miles away And where it is, and whether the water is getting any colder, we shall know perhaps in a couple more hours ! Once in two minutes, however, is really gross negligence when the ship's speed is from a third to half a mile a minute. The truth is, there ought to be two steady veins of water picked up auto- matically by the ship, and they should be made to stream steadily past thermometers, and the temperature ought to be recorded automatically upon a dial, and the dial ought to be watched every instant by a more careful look-out than usually is found upon the bridge. One vein should be drawn from near the surface; the other from four or five fathoms deeper. This last may be the practice with some, but I do not believe it, The absurd stream-line theory—vicious, barren, mongrel- bred betwixt hydrostatics and hydrodynamics—still held to by most naval architects is responsible for the absence of simple contrivances for warning of approach to solid obstacles. So far from obeying the stream-line theory, in point of fact a ship shoves along ahead of her, below the surface, a very, very long cone of water which friction constantly peels off and which is constantly renewed. When the blunt apex of this cone strikes an obstacle far ahead a reaction is sent back instantly upon the vessel's bows beneath the surface. Not only is that quite clear from the primary laws of hydro- dynamics, but it ought to have become already well known from speed trials in shallow water as compared with those in deep water. I do not doubt that an apparatus so delicate that it would not keep the ship back one ship's length in twenty- four hours would for a vessel of the Titanic's ' speed and size register the presence of an obstacle from three to six miles ahead.
A ship ought to be provided with boats against the accident of fire, even if so built that she really cannot sink. But a boat is of no service, often, without an officer to see that it is lowered properly and swiftly, he to be in it himself. Think of its taking the fifteen to twenty minutes of which Second Officer Lightener speaks for lowering a boat on board the ' Titanic' I Think of boats half filled ! Of boats without officers 1 Of boats without seamen! Of boats hacked loose from the hoists at last by a stoker's knife Had the sea not been marvellously still a hundred lives would have been an astoundingly happy salvage—all this when naval architecture and naval management are supposed to have reached perfection. In many things we are still far below the brutes. There is not a flock of crows, not a band of wild horses, but has its supreme commander, and he does not have to fear the consequences to himself of any of his orders. Do not let us blame the directors. They, indeed, are in com- mand, but command calla for knowledge. A captain usually has knowledge, but if he acts upon his knowledge as he would wish to do he will certainly have to look for other employers. Directors for the most part do not know any better. There ought to be an experienced Navy officer of recognized reputa- tion worth preserving on board of every liner. His salary should be paid by the company—to the Government, not to himself. He should enforce all necessary drills against pas- sengers not on the sick-list, and should take supreme com- mand whenever be thinks it advisable for safety. And it ought to be made an offence punishable with imprisonment for life to give to him, or to another for his gratification, any- thing of value. Most liner captains would put up objections pro forma, and would really welcome such a bulwark against the desires and requirements of ignorant directors.—I am, Sir, &e., MARSTON NILES. Topsham, Maine, April 22nd, 1912.
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