Evening star., 1914-07-24

The new rules provided by the inter-
national convention are designed to
! take every
New Rules Aimed to possible pre-
Check Disasters the us' recurrence oe
of such disasters. According to Capt.
| Ellsworth P. Bertho1f. commander Of
the United States revenue cutter serv-
Ice and one Of the American delegates
| to the international conference, there
are three essentials for safe sea travel:
Safety of construction. for the ship
itself Is the very best lifeboat that can
be devised; safety of navigation, which
| means prudent navigation to guard
against the accident Of collision, great
est of all dangers at sea, and provision
for saving passengers and crew in
| those extreme cases where. in spite of
all effort to insure the two preceding
essentials disaster overtakes the ship
| and she must be Abandoned
The very first of these essentials is
| of vastly greater Importance than the
other two. for If the ship be sufficiently
accident caused by imprudent naviga-
| ton and her human freight will not re-
quire the equipment for abandoning
| her.
1t may be said. therefore. that the
most important part Of the interna-
tional convention has to do with the
| rules of safety in construction. Under
| this new treaty no country will give a
ship a safety certificate unless it is
| constructed in accordance with the best
| practice Of modern ship building.
| But even the best of ships must be
prudently navigated if its passengers
are to be landed safely at their des-
tined port. The Titanic collided with
| = %1- H. tnvn Of ffa~
the time it's officers knew they were
| in the vicinity of ice. If the proposed
international convention had been then
in force article ten would have applied:
course the master of every vessel is
bound to proceed, at night, at moder-
ate speed. or to alter his course, so as
to get well clear of the danger zone"
| AS matter of fact, the fate Of the
Titanic already has caused great
many navigat-
Old Masters Would ing officers to
Observe the Rules. sar luopt t,emss,res inns 1'
| The Mauretania, on a recent west
ward trip across the Atlantic. sudden
! ly came upon a field Of icebergs. and
(; she turned her course well to the
southwark, avoiding danger complete
ly, although delaying her arrival in
| New York. When the new convention
, is ratified all masters would have to
| observe the same rules.
| Other rules of the road require that
| during fog, mist falling snow q
vessel shall proceed at moderate
speed. Unfortunately, the new conven-
| tion does not define the term mod
crate speed" which is now a part of
the rules recognized by all ships:
| The American delegates to the in
ternational conference desired to have
the term defined follows: That
whenever under the law a vessel is re-
term shall be construed to mean such
speed as will enable the master Of the
/ ship to stop his vessel in the distance
| he can see ahead"
tions did not think this definition
necessary. If it had been in force,
however, the disastrous collision be-
tween the Empress Of Ireland and the
Storstad in the ST. Lawrence river
would have been prevented. At the
same time, it would mean that in thick
fog all vessels would practically have
to stop still, and this would mean an
upsetting of shipping schedules such
as has been unknown since the de-
velopment of the modern liner
| The convention, however, accom-
plishes one thing of very great advan-
tage. It re-
Requires Wireless quires that
When IL Passengers. e,rrv,ns - kvsse,s as
many as twelve passengers shall be
equipped with wireless telegraph ap-
paratus. and that a sufficient number
Of operators shall be carried to keep
one on duty at all hours of the day