Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1912-04-23
THE PROTECTING CONVOY.

The suggestion that has been made that, if suf-
fcient life boats cannot be provided, steamers in
the nsAtlantic service should sail in pairs and
convoy each other This plan has attracted In
slant and widespread attention in shipping cir
eles and the press and its feasibility is granted
on all hands 1t would afford the greatest meas
ure OF protection that probably be devised,
and il has the merit of actual test. 1t is ex-
pertinent.
Since the first fleet of warships or galleys
sailed To meet a foe, naval officers have been
studying and practicing maneuvers TO keep the
vessels under their command in close touch with
another for the mutual protection. To all the
systems of signalling of past days the wireless
telegraph has been recently added, thus abating
the danger Of separation in fogs and sudden
squalls
Only one objection to the New York CONNER
cial suggestion has been raised Ii would limit
the speed of each pair TO that of the slower
sci; but since rival lines choose the same sailing
days and put vessels of much the same class in
complication with one another. there wOud be lit
tie loss of time in actual practice, if they can
come to or be forced into agreements for mutual
conveys. At that. it would be possible for each
important line to send its ships out of port in
pairs. The boats that carry freight in place
of Storage passengers probably do and certainly
can carry enough life boats TO hold their first
class passengers and crews, so they can be left
out of the ease.
II is nearly twenty years since the British
board of trade revised its navigation rules, and
II did not then dream of such vessels as now
ahoat The rule specifying the number and size
Of boats states that vessels of ten thousand tons
more shall carry sixteen life boats and four
collapsible boats, and that rule has been applied
to vessels five times the size of what then
thought TO be the maximum displacement of any
ship likely to be built The modern bulkhead con
str IN ho rtrttlna Grim
facts have upset that theory
New rules will have to be framed and vessel
owners will have to conform to them just as
they did to the Plimsoll act which set the load
lines and prescribed methods of loading. If the
thousand-foot steamer that is coming cannot carry
boats enough it must sail with convoy.
Vessels have had their plates pierced by ice
and have lived to tell the tale. but in these
the force. of the impact was not great enough
TO shatter or loosen the frames. Large ships are
much weaker than small boats in respect. A
small boat can rest ON blocks placed at end
end without giving way, but any large vessel
wonld break its back under such a strain This
cannot be overcome BY any known MEANS
This fixed law of naval construction would
have destroyed the Titanic if she was forced
IN an incline plane of ice under water. A small
boat could slide up out of the water and escape
serious injury, but not large ship Bulkhead,
afford little protection when the keel buckles. Had
the THAMES side been pierced by block of ice
her bulkheads would have saved her but wher
her frame gave way there was hope. The
outer plates are less than half inch thick and
blow that will pierce them need not be heavy
enough to such vessel to tremble Thai
danger is probably well guarded against by water
tight compartments
The world now knows that the iceberg is the
master of all the ships that sail the seas Since
it cannot be met it must be avoided and the
berth given it must be wide, for, sailors say
would give steamers fair protection from this
danger and would give those aboard a good
chance TO escape in case one of them came to
grief