2 Wilde, Scarcli-Lights and the ''Titanic''' Disaster. 



been on this vessel, in my judgment the accident could 

 have been avoided." The speech was ordered by the 

 Senate to be printed as an annex to the Report and as a 

 public document. 



Similar views on the value of search-lights have been 

 expressed by survivors of the disaster; notably by Mr. 

 Beesley, a graduate of Cambridge University and late 

 Science Master at Duhvich College, whose book on " The 

 Loss of the Titanic " has received the highest commen- 

 dations of the press, " as the only account by a survivor 

 that will ever be published, possessing the importance of 

 an historical document." Under the head of Search-lights 

 Mr. Beesley remarks: — " These seem an absolute necessity, 

 and the wonder is that they have not been fitted before 

 to all ocean liners. Not only are they of use in lighting 

 up the sea a long distance ahead, but as flashlight signals 

 they permit of communication with other ships. He could 

 see through his window as he wrote the flashes from 

 river steamers plying up the Hudson in New York ; each 

 with its search-light examining the river, lighting up the 

 bank for hundreds of yards ahead, and bringing every 

 object within its reach into prominence. He supposes 

 there is no question that the collision would have been 

 avoided had a .search-light been fitted on the ' Titanic ' ; 

 the climatic conditions for its use must have been ideal 

 that night." 



In a discourse on Icebergs delivered at the Royal 

 Societies' Club on May 9th, Sir Clements Markham, 

 F.R.S., past President of the Royal Geographical Society, 

 stated that during his Arctic explorations the discovery 

 ship had charged an iceberg at 4 knots, stem on, and had 

 been brought up " all standing," but if they had been 

 going at 22 knots he (Sir Clements) would never have 

 been able to tell the tale. The risk for the modern 



