Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury [Connecticut]) 1903-1917, 1905-09-19
SAFE OCEAN TRAVEL.
MODERN STEAMSHIPS ARE SAT-
ER THAN RAILROADS.
Latest Inventions for the Security Of
Water Transportation Re
move Many of Its
Dangers.

"a Gle presence OF the fearful loss Of
linz O. accidents on our railroads it is
win relief that we contemplate the ever
increasing safety of travel by sea. Year
after year passes by without any of the
important passenger steamers that
cross the Atlantic ocean, or other oceans
on which passenger travel is heavy,
meeting with an accident that causes
risk of life or limb to the passengers.
This fact, says the Scientific American,
is the more remarkable when we remem-
Der that ocean travel has increased by
leaps and bounds during the past dec
ade; that not only are there more steam
ers following the lanes of travel, but
that they are running at much higher
speed The mail steamers come and go,
with regularity approaching that of
the best railroad schedule, and it takes
the very fiercest of Atlantic midwinter
gales to interfere seriously with this
punctuality. In seeking for the causes
Of this remarkable immunity from &C.
,cidents we have to look not at the
natural, but at the human elements of
the situation.
Seas are as broad and tempestuous
as ever; fogs as impenetrable as those
that baffled the early navigators still
brood over the surface of the deep;
the sunken roofs, the shifting sand
bar, the variable current and many
another natural cause of marine dis
asters still beset the path of the navi-
gator. Therefore. it is to the triumphs
of invention and the perfecting of hui
man control and management that we
must look for an explanation of the
all but absolute security of steamship
travel to-day. The secret of this Sc,
Icurity is to be found both in the struc-
lture Of the ship itself and in the mar
velously ingenious devices which sci
ence and invention have placed at the
service of the navigator to guide him
in the more perilous phase of his
duty. Without enumerating those ele-
'ments of water-tight subdivision, vast
size and better control in the ship
itself, or the wonderfully sensitive and
refined apparatus at the command Of
the modern navigator, we need but re-
fer to two of the very latest safe
guards, in the form of wireless teleg-
raphy and submarine signaling, to
show that the present immunity from
accidents is traceable to clearly recog-
niZed human causes.
II The last-named invention is close
rival to the wireless telegraph in the
great increase that it has made in the
safety of travel on the sea. Testimony
to its efficiency was recently given by
an officer of the Kaiser Wilhelm der
Crosse, upon which the new equipmnt
is carried. We have so frequently de-
scribed the device in the columns Of
the Scientific American THAT it is suf.
flcient to say that at the lighthouse or
lightship there is bell upon which
signals are sounded and that. upon the
ship Is carried a receiving device in the
form of an iron tank attached to the in
side of the plating below the water line,
from which wires are to be led to tele-
phones in the chartroom or on the
bridge. One receiver is placed on each
side Of the ship, with separate wires
from each, and by the use of the tele-
phones the officer is able to hear bell
that is being struck at a point many
miles distant from the ship and deter
mine its direction.
The officer on the Kaiser Wilhelm der
Crosse states that on the last trip over,
when the ship was four miles distant
from the mouth of the River Weser, he
plainly made out the signals conveyed
from the light ship there. Furthermore,
as the vessel neared Nantucket and
when she was about four miles distant
from the lightship he heard through the
telephone the signal So" This consists
Of six strokes of the bell, which is the
Nantucket lightship code signal. At
about the same distance from the Fire
island light and from the Sandy Hook
lightship the respective signals were dis
tinctly audible. The value Of this de-
vice in preventing collisions between APP
preaching ships is evident, for It has
this advantage over the foghorn, that
the direction Of the approaching vessel,
whether from port or starboard. is de-
termined at once by the fact that the
sounds are audible to the port or star
board telephone.