The Washington herald., 1912-04-21
CALL ON CRUISERS
FOR INFORMATION
Secretary Meyer to Make Investiga-
ton of Charges on Navy Wire.
less Operators.

In order to determine the facts con-
cerning the fruitless efforts Of the
scout cruisers Chester and Salem TO OBJ
tain definite information from the Car
pathia, following the Titanic disaster,
Secretary OF the Navy Meyer yesterday
directed an inquiry into the incident
Orders were sent to Commander Lloyd
F. Chandler, commanding the Salem, and
Benton c. Decker. commanding the
Chester, now at Newport and Philadel-
phia, respectively, to make complete in
vestigations Of the efforts Of their wire
less operators TO communicate with the
Carpathia- Under the naval regulations
all wireless operators are required to
keep a complete file Of all messages
sent and received, and also to have all
OF these messages copied. No matter
whether q message Is received or not by
the ship to which II is being sent, q
copy iS> always placed on file with
record as to whether an acknowledg-
ment Of receipt was obtained. Further
more, the operators are required to
copy all messages which they may be
able to pick up, passing between other
naval ships.
This is for the purpose Of having a
record Of the message, in case the ship
addressed should fail to receive IL. The
operators also are required to pick up
all messages possible sent from any ship
or station outside Of the naval service
giving information Of disaster or men
aces to navigation. The captains Of
these two ships were directed to forward
complete set OF the original messages.
with a statement Of all efforts made by
the wireless operators TO dispatch mes
sages to the Carpathia or to pick up mes
sages that were being sent from the Car
pathi6, whether to naval stations at sea
or on shore or to the Marconi or other
commercial stations.
This information Is desired by the Navy
Department, not only to vindicate the
Department OF the charges made by the
the navy operators Sere unable to OBJ
tain news through their own inefiiciency.
instead Of a refusal Of the CarpathIa to
work with them,
q Reports on file in the department show
that for some time IL has appeared to
the authorities that one OF the CONNER
cial companies has either declined to
work with the navy operators, in In
stances where important messages were
being sent, or was actually interfering
with the transmission OF these massages
These reports also aIlege that the COM
pany In question has practiced various
means to belIttle the naval service and
to obtain contract for supplying all
instruments used by the navy. 1t is
freely stated by naval authorities that
the commercial company has endeavored
TO obtain a monopoly OF the wireless
business.
The reports called for yesterday by
Secretary Meyer will probably provide
material for a communication from the
Secretary to the committee In Congress
having in charge the matter Of legisla-
tion for Federal control OF wireless tele-
graphy. This material also viii be avail
able in case the Senatorial investigating
committee should decide to go into the
subject of the lack Of information COM
ing from the Carpathia wednesday and
Thursday. when that vessel was within
radius Of communication with the
Chester.