The Washington times., 1912-04-16
UBERROTH
SAYS SH|PWRECK is
SACRIFICE TO SPEED
Huge Bulk of Titanic Made
Disaster Certain, De-
clares Expert.

"The wreck Of the Tltsnlo is another
sacrifice to the speed god" ancording
TO Capt. p. III. Uberroth. assistant TO
the captain commandant In charge Of
personnel and operations Of the Rev
enue Cutter Ser yice and Can't. Charles
,llistar. Enginecr-in-chief Of that
service.
Captain Uberroth 70 an old mariner,
and was one Of the revenue cutter cap
tains who did valiant work In the res
cue Of the passengers and crew OF the
Republic. He is familiar with naviga-
tion Of the steamer iapes out Of New
York.
The Titani, was 60 big said Cap
tainI berroth today. that 1T was impos-
sible for her officers to avoid collision
with an iceberg or other similar object
without lights on a dark night. They
might sight the berg some distance
away, perhaps enough 10 save a
fmaller vessel. but a ship OF the IT.
tsnic's size would not answer to the
helm promptly enough to avoid COLI
sion. She could not reverse her en-
gines and hack off. Such AN attempt
would he futile. unless the berg was
sighted a milo ahead. for soibg at full
speed. approximately twenty miles IN
hour, size could not be brought to y
stop and reversed. She carried tremen-
tous headwav with her powerful en-
gines and great size.
"Ihe ocean-going travellers OF this
country do not realize that In IN
creased size and speed of vessels they
must pay the sacrifice in accidents
OF this kind. They are unavoidable.
The layman does not realize this
fact, but II preys continuously on the
| mind Of the navigator.
Sleepless Nights.
THE captain usually has sleepless
nights when he Is travelling east or
west on a.. in the spring and early
| summer, for the floating ice and
bergs are the greatest menace Of the
ocean. The chances are not one In
a hundred that you will run directly
on a berg, but II you do. the captain
is practically helpless. He knows his
| fate in an instant. ..
There are many things thatmay have
caused the sinking of the Titanic. IT
is likely that we will never know the
real facts, but my private opinion is
pressure. The larger the bulkheads.
that is the greater area they have to
| cover, the weaker they are, The ira
verse water-tisht bulkheads of the IT,
size. They we're made as strong as
| mand could make them, but any hy-
draulic engineer will acquaint you with
the tremendous power OF water pres
in the bow and collision bulkhead, the
bow would go down. The Titanic's hull
was forty-feet deep, and the lower her
| nose sank the greater the pressure.
with any momentum moving her ahead.
the bulkheads being at right-angies met
| full resistance"
The berg that the Titanic struck
ANkR
water. II SO the keenest eyed lookout
| could not detect II on q dark night.
| no matter how calm, until II was com.
paratively close: A calm sea removed
Mariners will tell you that sudden calm
water when the sea Is rough or choppy
will presage berg before 1t is visible
McAllister's View.
Captain McAilister, who Is an expert
on construction, repeated insubstance
the statements Of Captain Uberroth. He
added that there were many ways in
which the collision could have proven
so fatal.
'"The Titanic" he said. "was believed
TO be the acme of marine safety. She
was Of extraordinSfy yv neavy Any sh she strs,ck
the ice with sufficient impact TO crush
in her bow and forward bulkhead, and
perhaps one other.
|,
pen. It is possible that the water-dght
: bulkhead gear refused to work was
thrown out OF running oredr by the
force of the collision. Even IN that
event the Titanic would have been some,
time sinking, because she was cre1iteo
with being almost unsuitable. Then,
too, it is possible that her s.sovrx oT,kheaas SS
= our battIeships there is control lever
for all bulkheads. that the captain can
work from the bridge in anticipation Oh
; collision. nr,.a
. by the Titanic was not glacier ice, vus sH
, was one of the shore bergs formed oy
the extremely cold winter; 1t -, Is o,' 700
early for berg ice. According 10 fai,
terson's Nautical Encyclopedia
were shore ice of salt water, nine-tentnnss
of it's bulk was below water. This Wooia
! mean that il there were only twenty
] feet showing above the surface, small
speck compared to the, the d.ntS Ti1sSic: 3, tSS sS
feet with $50 feet below the surface
: Ice conditions are worse this year than
: they have been for decade"