Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1912-05-22
LESSONS FROM "1i1ANIc" DISASTER, i
Life Boats Uncertain, Several Improve.
Inents Needed to Make Sea travel Safer

Now that the first shock of the
''Titanic" disaster is over, the
world is in better condition to
hear what the most able authori-
ties have to say on the subject.
In the June Lum Der of Popular
Mechanics Magazine appears an
article by D. W. Taylor. Naval
Constructor. s. Navy. discuss
ing the accident i'll it's important
phases. Mr.. Taylor is pre-. emi-
nently fitted to write on this sub
ject, and his article is enhanced
by many fine illustrations and
diagrams. He says:
"The Titanic. catastrophe
teaches no new lesson as regards
the fallibility of man. It simply
furnished another example of the
| we'll established principle that if,
in the conducs of any enterprise,
an error of human judgment or
faulty working of the human
senses involves disaster comes.
"Looklng back ward it is easy to
sse that the long established pass
age lanes of the Atlantic involved
iangtr OF just such an accident,
and from the point ef view OF
safety it was all error of judg-
ment to give them such a north
erly location.
Looking backward it seems all
error of judgment of the captain
of the Titanic, to risk pass age
near the ice. That gallant officer
and gentleman went down with
his ship to honorable death, and
his story can never be told. 1t
seems practically certain that be
did not for one moment think he
was running any material risk of
accident to his vessel, much less
risk of destruction. The mere
fact that he was not on the bridge
at the time of the collision is
very strong evidence that he
thought his cenrae would have
cleared the bergs whose position
had been reported to him.
"Picked captains of Atlantic
liners cling to the bridge to the
point of exhaustion whenever
they consider the circumstances
to involve the least danger to the
ship.
eff Captain Smith erred, it was
the error of a captain whose rec.
ord and experience were of the
best. We need not expect to Sc
cure greater safety by better cap
tains.
"The most salient fact il thss
if the Titanic had carrrid more
boats or a number of life RATS in
addition to her boats, many more
lives would have been saved.
"The facts that under the cir.
cumstances more boats would
have saved many more lives from
the 'Titanic' and that she could
have carried about three times az
many boats as she had, should
not blind onr eyos to the fact that
lifeboats are, after all, very in
efficient device for saving life
from a sinking vessel. If the
Titanic had actually crrried Sc
boats, it does not seem at all like
ly that nearly all of them would
have been launched. One she
did carry was not launched at all,
being inconveniently slowed. The
crew was new to the ship and ap-
parently had been given no ade-
quate boat drill, but on the other
hand the conditions were excep-
tionally favorable, there being ap.
,parently an unusually smooth sea
and little list Of the vessel at any
time Had there been any sea
worthy of the name, the roll of
survivors would have been short
indeed.
'The difficulty of launching
lifeboats is enormously increased
by a very moderate sea and the
chance of living in them after
launching very much reduced
Properly built boats with all
tanks would not sink, but if over
loaded ad inadequately manned,
the majority of the passengers
would succumb vey soon. A boat
| uhic wonld corry EO or RO ,,or-