The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-11-11


Banks of Newfoundland, and the Champion,
off the capes of Delaware, were run into
needless collision with destructive OBJ
stacles. But there are not enough Fridays
! in year to give space for all the calanities
that are made possible by bad seamanship
| and the criminal indifference of officers to
their responsibilities, so that on this occa-
sion the catalogue spreads into the next
day, for on Saturday last occurred the
third OF the collisions with steamers which
have been reported in two days issue OF
the Herald.
Reasonable people regard the omen of
unlucky days and happy or unhappy stars
with little respect but with three such dis
asters, punched together as it were in
point of time, with two steamers sent to
the bottom and one wrecked, yet kept afoat.
all within about thirty-six hours, in far
separated seas. we can scarcely wonder that
the sailor, with his dim perception of causes
and his natural tendency to superstition,
should put it all to the score of malign
stars and unpropitious hours. For him
there seems an imperative necessity that
facts SO nearly related in outward character
should be more nearly related yet
in the hidden world of unknown causes
He gropes for an explanation, catches hold
upon the 'sbarren ideality" of unlucky
days, and is satisfied; and is perhaps as
contented in his confidence as the philoso-
pher who gropes in larger circle and salts
ties himself with the equally "barren ideal
ity" of sun spots. But the public and the
authorities that administer admiralty law
will not stand on points Of this nature. In
the opinion of the travelling public lies,
perhaps, the heaviest penalty for the own
ers of steamers SO badly guarded as the
Arizona was. No fine or other infection is
SO ruinous as the loss of public confidence
in the safety of given line. Even this,
however, will not acquit officers or owners
OF their responsibility to the law.
From the example Of the Arizona 1t might
be judged that it is scarcely possible to
send to the bottom by collision thoroughly
stanch and properly constructed ship.
An enormous vessel urged at full speed by
engines of great power is driven with full
Roadway fair into the side of mountain of
ice and her bow crumbles away like pastry
| for certain distance, but the remainder
of the ship is practically uninjured. She
backs away and goes safely into the nearest
port only so many feet the shorter
for her remarkable mishap. It would ap-
pear from this that the resistance of good
ship is such that it is impossible to putinto
her engines driving force enough to destroy
her, whatever obstacle she may encounter.
! But if this appears In the case of the Ari-
zona how different is the story told by the
tate of the other two steamers Or,
| to take the case in another way,
how remote they were from the
necessary stanchness which is the basis
of such safety If in one case it APP
pears that there is not power enough in q
ship to give blow that will send her TO the
bottom, in the others it seems almost as if
any blow whatever were sufficient for the
purpose. It is understood that between
magnificent ship built for the trade in
which the Arizona was engaged and the
lighter steamers run to ports on our South
ern seas there cannot be q fair comparison |;
but between every ship intended to carry
passengers on the Atlantic and every other
ship intended for the same purpose, with
out regard to the directions in which they
sail, there should be such o relation in
point of structure that they will be equally
tit to meet the accidents that are not pecu-
liar to any latitude. In the Arizona we see
what ships should be to guarantee the pub
lie against the incapacity Of those who sail
them. In the other ships we seem to see
mainly that they should never be twenty
| years old.
Certainly the efficiency of the water-tight
bulkhead is to be counted Tor great deal
OF the result in the case of the Arizona
Had this addition to naval architecture
failed in its Office, as has so often hap-
| pened, the passengers thrown from their
chairs by the collision would scarcely have
recovered their feet for the inward rush of
the sea For once bulkhead has saved
the ship and everybody ON board. At the
time the water-tight compartments were
first conceived and applied it was conf
IDENTIFY predicted that there could. be
no more loss Of life by calamities
to ocean steamers save by some un-
imaginable general catastrophe. Colli-
sions would only ruin ono compartment,
and the others would float the ship. As to
leaks it would be the same, and so on
through the catalogue. But. in fact, ships
with water-tight compartments have uni
formly gone down, very much as ships did
in the days when their capacity was not
thus divided. 1t could not be alleged posi-
tive1v pravious to tho event under CON.
sideration that compartments had reduced,
in any degree whatever, the danger to life.
Such losses as that OF the Pommerania, in
November, 1878, seemed to destroy oil
ground Of faith in their utility for such q
purpose. But 1t is manifest. and beyond
eli ,,arad t11ra In this nasa- that a wafar~