Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ivii. (1912}, No. 3. 3 



enormous floating hotels might be much reduced by search- 

 h'ghls, and wireless telegraphy had materially added 

 to the chances of safety. Thus he did not think there 

 would be an increase of risk in spite of the enormously 

 increased speed. It was, or had been, the order that 

 ships should not go north of 43 deg. in crossing the 50th 

 meridian, but the " Titanic " had only been in 41 (\q.^. 

 16 minutes just after crossing that meridian. An inter- 

 national agreement had been suggested that liners of all 

 nations should not go north of a certain latitude ; but such 

 an agreement was not likely ever to be made, because 

 the demand for rapid progress and the shortest route was 

 too great. Icebergs had been reported as far south as 

 38 deg. 40 min. To this I may add that an iceberg has 

 been recorded off the Bermudas Isles, 32 deg. 15 min. 



Writing to " The Times" of April i6th, Lord Montagu, 

 who is a noted authority on head lights for motor cars 

 and motor boats, asks : — " Does it not seem curious that 

 powerful search-lights are not habitually used by fast 

 liners during darkness ? He submitted that in the case 

 of the fast modern ship one or two powerful head lights 

 are desirable to be used, not spasmodically, but always. 

 Everyone who has seen the ordinary search-lights of the 

 Navy at work and stood on the bridge of a ship at night 

 when under way, cannot help having noticed the immense 

 assistance afforded the navigator as regards other shipping, 

 unlighted buoys, or narrow entrances to harbours." 



In addition to the foregoing statements by competent 

 observers on the value of search-lights for the mercantile 

 marine, profound dissatisfaction prevails among ocean- 

 going travellers, and officers of the merchant service, in 

 the present state of insecurity of life at sea (especially at 

 night), which finds expression in the press by letters of 



