Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-06-23

board. If the Pretoria had come up on
the right of the New York, so that the
Pretoria had been off the New York s
starboard bow and the New York off
the Pretoria's starboard bow, hen Il
movement by each to starboard, given
the right distance from each nther,
would inevitably make them strike
each other. This might have peen the
position of the two ships in this IN
stance if the Pretoria had wandered
still further to the north o. the New
York half mile further to the south.
But some fairly definite clue to the po-
sition of an approaching ship should,
it seems to us, be obtained from the
sound of it's signals. 1t is true that fog
is an uncertain conductor of sound.
One of our government marine off,
GERS, speaking about this on Monday
last, said:
at is hard to account for the grow
ing number of accidents of late. | DC
not think it is because of carelessness,
but perhaps because there is more
fog. Accurate detection of direction
of sound in fog is nearly impossible.
Sound follows the line of least re-
sistance. and when there is rift in
the fog it deviates in unlooled-for di-
Iections."
No doubt he is right about this. But,
assuming that a fog remains station
airy for five or ten minutes, it is GER
tainly possible for any trained ear to
detect well within that space of time
whether the sound of the signals is
increasing or diminishing. If the sound
becomes more distinct, the danger evil
IDENTIFY is increasing; whereas If the
sound grows less distinct the danger is
diminishing. Ten minutes, with an
ocean liner under any kind of head
way, is not a great space of time;
and when the captain of one of these
great marine machines loaded down
with hundreds of inexperienced people
of all kinds, and usually of various
nationalities, has to decide in that
space of time, and wholly in the dark,
as to what he shall do next, or indeed
as to whether or not anything can be
done, anything might happen.
But if these blasts of the steam
whistles and the foghorns cannot tell
him something of the real nature of
the situation in which he stands, we
do not see what can. The direction
from which these warming sounds
come, if he can trust his own ears, is
everything in such a case; but If he
cannot trust his own ears as to the
direction. it seems to us that at Least
he could trust his own ears as to
whether these signals sound louder
or fainter. Instead of finding the
other ship, his problem ought to oe
not to find her: and as soon as he can
decide what direction reduces the
sound of these signals, that is the
direction which he ought to take.
The old notion among shipowners
was that captains should keep TO
their regular course no matter what
happened. But in these days. with
safety first as an entirely valid rule,
ship captains probably feel free 10
break their trip in this direction or
in that when the safety of the snip
and it's passengers requires it. There
is no other known aid to safety in
fog at sea except the sound of sig
nails; and it seems to us for ships
thus caught, rather than to try to
pass each other by signal, far safer
to take the reducing sound of these
signals as a guide to the direction III
which safety lies, and to swing then
ships in that Observation-Disclosures
Courant.