COLLISIONS AT SEA DURING FOG. 293 



Probably individual ideas of duty, propriety, and 

 self-interest will continue to govern men's actions, as 

 heretofore, though it will be found, I think, before 

 many years have passed, that the facts published 

 during recent discussions have been somewhat widely 



noted. 



Echo, 1878. 



COLLISIONS AT SEA DURING FOG. 



THE care with which money is saved over the signal- 

 lamps of ships, &c. especially steamships at night 

 is most praiseworthy. Several pounds a year must be 

 saved by using only two side lights the red port light 

 and the green light on the starboard side ; and what if, 

 when a collision occurs, half-a-million of money's worth 

 may go in a few minutes to the bottom ? A ship lost 

 is a ship lost, but economy must be attended to as all- 

 important. 



But seriously, when we consider the power which 

 science has attained over the forces of nature, when we 

 jremember how, by virtue of such power, we can make 

 our ships independent of wind and tide, and how we 

 urge them each with its freight of living souls 

 along the great trade routes in hundreds, it does seem 

 to imply stupidity and want of care, to say nothing 

 worse, that such means as science affords for defending 

 them against the risk of collision should not be em- 

 ployed. I will not here consider the general question 



