The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-27
Manager and Captain Must
Have Known Danger.
TRIED TO BEAT BERGS
Believe This Was
CAPTAIN Smiths Intention.
General Grants Estate Larger
Than Friends Thought.

New York, April 27.-Not all of
the marine engineers and architects
have approved of the tendency in re-
cent years to construct larger and
larger ocean steamships. And yet Lord
Pirrie, who is one of the foremost of
the men in Great Britain engaged in
steamship activities, was reported
when in this city last summer to have
said that he could see no scientific
reason for fixing the practicable di-
menSiOn of any ocean-going vessel,
the only question being the adequacy
of dock facilities and the depth of
the channels. Lord Pirrie thought it
likely that he would see an ocean
steamship fully one thousand feet in
sions is reported to be under contract,
the ownership being in one of the
German steamship lines.
In this city the marine engineers
and men of science suspect that after
the questions in the Titanic tragedy
investigation that are imperatively
pressing are answered, perhaps the
more important one which will relate
to future steamship construction will
be given exhaustive consideration by
the steamship builders.
The questions which the marine en-
gineerS say are imperativelJ pressing
now relate chiefly to the manner in
which the Titanic was handled, the
efficiency of it's crew, the discipline
which was maintained, how far cow
ardice prevailed and who showed it
and also many questions which will
have bearing upon the settlement OF
insurance or of claims for damages.
But behind these questions, these
engineers say, lies, after all, one which
is of fundamental importance. That
is thiS-what was the cause of the
accident and was it a cause which was
preVentable? The discipline of the
crew, the cowardice of passengers, the
fact that the lookout did not have
powerful glasses with which to sur
Vey the Ocean-eVen if these matters
be established by testimony before the
senate committee or in the courts
are, after all, from one point of view,
merely incidental. They may show
damages can be made. They may
show lack of foresight, and If there
were any fault of that kind then it is
within the power of the British gov
eminent, under whose flag the Titan
ic sailed, to censure or to punish.
There may have been indifference to
the life-saving apparatus, SO far as
sufficiency was concerned. But, after
all, the engineers say that the real
crux of this whole matter is this
why did the Titanic, after having been
warned of ice. plunge ahead at al
most railroad express speed?
The captain of the Titanic and
probably the managing director must
have known that the colossal force
engendered by the impact of a gigan-
tic body against another body prac-
tically immovable, would make trag-
edy inevitable.
The engineers say that all the ma
rine architects have recognized as an
unanSwerable assertion that a great
ship going ahead at full speed through
those parts of the ocean where ice
bergS prevail al certain seasons of the
year courts danger.
They Cannot Re RIIiTt
The first lesson of the Titanic dis
aster is that no steamship can be built
strong enough to prevent disaster if it
be pushed ahead at almost it's speed
limit and strikes a great body of ice.
In the next place, the engineers say
that the marine architects have never
doubted that a steamship which
scrapes its keel or bottom along
submerged mass, either ice or derelict
or unsupported rock, cannot escape
destruction unless there be rescue.
Science as yet has pointed the way
to no device which will make a ship
immune against accident of that kind.
The engineers, therefore, now are in
clined to the opinion that the limit of
great steamship construction was
reached with the Titanic or with those
other great vessels still under con-
struction in European shipyards. Elk
perienced navigators of the sea upon
these great vessels have always said