Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-16
Ice and Fog Are Always
Great Elements of Dancer

The speed at which the Titanic was
traveling~when she went against the ice
berg will perhaps not be known until
the shrst of her survivors reach port
Whatever her rate of progress. however,
shipbuilders here and abroad must ad-
NIT that while the modern steamship
may defy wind and weather. ice and fog
remain an ever present element Of dan
ger No ship, they point out, no matter
how stanchly built, nor how many water
tight bulkheads protect her, may plunge
headlong against wall of ice without
grave results. The general. opinion is
that the Titanic equipment was put to
an extraordinary test which no vessel
could have Withstood.
Under ordinary circumstances these
water-tight compartments will preserve
kins, vice president Of the Newport News
Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, in
New York. but smashing into an Ice
berg could produce shattering. effects
that would render a ship helpless be-
yond the protection of any design yet
known"
Granting that only the forward bulk
head of the Titanic had been crumpled by
the impact with the iceberg, Mr.. Hopkins
was inclined to think that the relative
would have been sufficient to save the
vessel 1nasmuch as he was not familiar
with the relative division of the Tftanics
compartments he could not estimate how
many compartments must have given
way under the impact of the collision.
Vessel May Have Grounded.
Robert Stocker, naval constructor at the
Brooklyn navy yard, said:
In the case of the Titanic I am in
clined to think that her sinking was due
he az 80
the impact of collision. Frequently a ship
strikes what is known as pinnacle rock
ripping open her keel The iceberg against
which the Titanic smashed her bow may
have had some such submerged projec-
ton which did the additional damage to
the keel If the forward bulkhead of
the vessel had held after the impact
which smashed the bow. it certainly
seems that the relative buoyancy of the
remaining compartments would have been
sufficient to keep the ship afloat. I am
compelled to believe that a great many
Of her compartments must have been
punctured or sprung.
Lewis Nixon, the eminent naval archi-
tect. is inclined to think the Titanic was
either travelling at full speed or per-
haps crashed into a berg so tremendous
that there was practically no give. 'If
the I'LL Ou0 Oh tuO30 great Ice
Masses said Mr.. Nixon, 'it Is nxely
that she struck one that had no more
give than rock. Under these circum-
stances something had to give way, and
as the iceberg did not the great ship had
to crumple up. 1t is conceivable that an
impact of this sort might have buckled
her longitudinal plates from end to end,
soaring off and starting rivets and open
ing UP the watertight compartments
throughout the length Of the vessel"
Liner Regarded as Safe.
For many years steamship men have
asserted that the safest place to be is on
well equipped ocean liner. In proper
ton to the number carried the statistics
show there is less loss Of life and less
chance OF injury on board modern liner
than there is by any other means of
transportation. Fleets come and 20 from
New York and other ports with the regu-
larity of the tides, and those carrying
mail maintain a schedule which almost
equals in punctuality that of railway mail
trains.
Transatlantic steamers travel in well
defined routes. known as steamship
lanes" the westpound and the eastbound.
This reduces to a minimum the chances
of collision with one another. ut ice
bergs and derelicts have no respect for
these rules, and float into the paths Or
wallow across them to be a dire menace
In time of fog or very thick weather
There is no way to give warning until
too late.