The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-10-25
The Moro Castle
WILLIAM MFEE IN THE FORUM

Il in two ways in his attitude to the sea- He
has been conditioned to expect palace afloat.
The whole tendency Of modern sea catering is
to make the passengers forget they are at sea,
to make them valow in an endless round of
senseless amusement The other way in which
they have become corrupted is in their atti-
tude toward the men who run the ships. A
false romanticism with regard to the sea still
maintains its hold on the imagination of Ameri-
cans.
Against this romantic illusion which hides
the sea afar from from the average American
passenger it seems helpless to struggle But
the passenger must make his choice He can
not have the huge fast luxury liner at his serv-
ice with everything sacrificed to voluptuouS
speed and yet retain within call the austere
moral grandeur of a former age. Seaman belong
to their own times. They reflect pretty ac-
curately the ethics and the mores Of their
patrons.
The destruction of the Ward liner Moro
Castle has dramatiZed for us, nothing else
could do the fire hazards on modern ship.
She was within a few miles of the Jersey shore
and only twenty miles from Scotland lightship
when she burst into flames in her superstructure,
became manageable and had to be abandoned
so precipitously that several of her boats still
manned on the checks below the davits when
she was beached Passengers were burned to
into the sea- were either drowned or cut to pieces
by the still turning propellers.
Nobody who has served at can read the
evidence at the inquiry without feeling Of pro-
found humiliation 1t became more and more
manifest as the inquiry proceeded that neither
the acting captain nor the chief engineer had
had the faintest conception of leadership in time
Of danger, and it is therefore impracticable to
expect very much from the rest of the per-
sonnet.
MO life-saving apparatus ever will be of any
use in a fire at sea if the personnel fails
in fortitude and presence of mind. We have to
examine the psychology of seagoing, therefore,
in the light of present day social conditions We
have to inquire how far the public and the en-
ployer can expect the seaman to forget self
interest and adopt at moments notice what
the newspapers grandly call "the code of the
sea-" This code seems to boil down to that
that seaman's life is less valuable to him and
his family than passengers.
What the public, including all potential pas
sengers really demands of a modern seaman is
that he preserve for their benefit principle of
medieval ethics while they themselves continue
through his sacrifceS-to live and prosper in
the twentieth-century manner.
1t might make the problem a little easier
for the landsman to understand if the modern
passenger ship is viewed for what she really is,
a hotel built a floating base. 1t is in my
opinion, for example, unreasonable and it should
be legally indefenSible to regard bedroom
Stewards cooks bakers, bartenders and walters
members of a ships crew. Neither the train
ing nor the usual temperament of such people
makes it feasible to call them seamen or sea
women or to impose the responsibility OF a boats
upon them. Nobody on board who takes
tips should be ClaSSed as a seaman.
&c IF tho 1N1o oY1d HOY IF tJoo
ship officers life that the business Of boat and
fire drill disrupts the peace and routine of the
ship. The law requires that it be done once
week. and, so far as weather and circumstances
permit it is done on every ship at sea- But
circumstances are at times extremely stubborn.
The weather may make it impossible, and, when
a ship is in port, she is at dock on one side,
and lighters are tied up on her outer side.
The passengers may retort that the ship
should be anchored clear of the dock before
sailing, to carry out these drills.
Unhappily the passenger is the fly in the
amber The passenger is responsible for all the
hurry. The passenger insists on getting to
his destination at faster and faster rate of
speed and in luxury and splendor beyond any
thing the degenerate Roman emperors ever con-
ceived. The passenger is the first to utter loud
cries at the slightest delay.
ONCE very early days the question of life
~ boats has engaged the attention of inven-
tors, legislators, and owners. 1t must be borne
in mind by the landsman that no lifeboat even
approaches the theoretical ideal of safety. 1t
should be noninhammabe, in which case it
should be made of metal and therefore would
be subject to corroSion. 1t should be instantly
detachable, and it will be in consequence eX-
tremely vulnerable 1t must be accessible, and
it is therefore necessarily carried above the SUI
perstructure, which in modern, large ship is
about fifty feet above the waterline. 1t must
be buoyant and noncapSizable, which means it
must be of large capacity and thus heavy to
handle
1t may have a motor, when it will be douby
difficult to raise and lower 1t must be equipped
with sails and oars and also stores and water
for long voyage. 1t must have a compass for
navigating and flares to attract attention. 1t
must be a ship in miniature and it must also
have some protection from exposure.
Such a boat does not exist save in the minds
of nontechnical landsmen. The electrical gear,
which is used to raise and lower and move life
boats on a ship, may go out of commission If
the engine room is abandoned, and a motor
lifeboat on the davits of a burning ship is a ter
rible fire hazard if she uses gasoline. If the fuel
is a heavy oil she may take too long to start.
The best continuance for nfeboats is neither
motor nor an Dared boat but the Fleming life
boat, in which a propeller is driven by gears
actuated by folding side levers which in turn are
actuated by the passengers and crew, sitting
on the thwartS The Fleming lifeboat is &C
copied by the British Board of Trade in lieu
of motor boat for freight steamers. Its handi-
ness in getting away from a ships side is far
beyond that Of an cared boat.
VXTHEN the United States senate graciously
w designs to ratify the conclusions of the
London conference for safety at sea it will be
possible to offer more constructive criticism for
American ships. But nothing will take the place
of f1rst-rate men of the type of Fried and Sted-
man, in command Nothing will be Of any avail
unless the continual smolder of discomfort,
11.th o.