The Indianapolis times., 1928-11-21
BY CHARLES JOHNSON POST,
Copyright. 1923, by the New York
Telegram)

"'NAA viz NSoNAAo NAodobcls
BY CHARLES JOHNSON POST,
Copyright, 1923, by the New York
Telegram)
There has not been a major dis
aster at sea in the last filthy years
that was not due to the rapacity
and greed of the ship owners"
A man who holds a masters
license and who has had years of
sea experience and shore experience
in the business of ships, made this
remark to me. 1t was not, there
fore, the statement of an emotional
enthusiast, wringing his hands over
the tragic fate of 113 women and
children and men who were drowned
in the sinking of the Vestris, of the
Lamport & Holt steamship line.
1 went to another mana man Of
the sea, an engineer--for I am not
a sensationalist, but wanted to
know.
1T is a broad statement" he said,
and then he paused to reflect. "Yes,
1T is substantially true"
Answer Is the Same
I went to others, all of them men
OF the sea and of sea business-nor
sailors before the mast, mind you.
or stokerS, but men of certificates
and both practical and technical
ability and experience. And the
answer was the same.
I'll ask you to note the manner
and substance of the men now bear,
ing witness before Commissioner
O'Neill in the matter of the wreck
of the VestriS.
Here are men, sober men of in
duStry and character and in,-
telligence, (else they could not have
secured the licenses and certificates
they have) suddenly talking in whis-
pers, in embarrassed pauses, and
who shuttle and shift in obvious
evasionS.
Is this ether natural manner?
Man, man, have you ever been tc
sea? Do you know these men when
they have a clear sweep and no lee
shore and have a tale to tell?
What has changed themP Fear
fear is the only thing that can
change men like that. Fear Of
what? 1t is the same fear that
gripped the luckleSS Captain Carey,
the fear of costing the owners a
dollar extra, no matter what the
hazards may be to themselves.
Couldn't Stay AfiOat
The single basic and absolutely
fundamental fact is that the Yes,
iris was unable to stay afioat.
Had the VeStris been able to keep
afloat, there would have been no
need for lifeboats.
The plain fact is that there was
not the slightest excuse from an
engineering point of view for the
Vestris sinking at all, had she been
properly constructed in the light of
modern safe principles, or had she
been reconditioned in accordance
Herewith.
The sinking of a ship today is not
a matter of SeamanShip; it is a mat
ter of ship design. The unsinkable
commercially practical ship is here
and perfectly available TO any ship
owner. But not at the price of a
Sinkable ship.
Who Is Responsible
There is no law either in Great
Britain or in the United States to
compel any Ship0wner to keep his
ship abreast of the times in matters
of security through reconditio, ing.
Or, to put it a little differently:
Once ship is launched, there is
no way of condemning the use of
that ship for transporting either
passengers or crew. She. will, of
course, have to provide herself with
lifeboats and rockets ard flares and
various secondary equipments of
that kind. But she may be the
veriest water-trap-so long as she
has complied with the law at the
time she was built-and she can 90
on her profitable ways without re-
proach.
And then the crew must shuttle
and shift and blame it on the
weather, misunderstood by the pub
lie, and quivering helplessly as they
protect the ships owners and their
only job on the sea.
Suppose bridge collapses and
kills number of people. What do
we do about it? We do not lay any
initial stress upon the bridge-tend-
ers or gatekeepers or bridge em-
ployes or whether ladders were
properly placed for rescue work.
Not a bit.
The first thing we do is to scan
the plans of that bridge to deter
mine if that bridge was faulty in
construction. All other points are.
subordinate to the fact that the
bridge itself collapsed.
And. as a matter of fact, we do
not wait. ordinarily, for a bridge
or building to collapse. We con-
denim it first.
We compel the owner-if it is a
building-to make his building
properly secure and safe.
But when it comes TO the sea
and the ships-and the men who
go down to the sea in ships-then.
in that field. we adhere to tradi-
ton and superstition.
The sea is full of heroisms and
full Of scandals. Let us not allow
the heroisms to be used to blind
us to the scandals, whether they