The Life and Death of the "Titanic." 



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beneath the waters of the Atlantic. The public, their 

 sense of security gone, their feeling of trust violated, 

 demand to know the why and the- wherefore. The 

 travelling public has become one great, shocked, and 

 indignant note of interrogation. No subterfuge is of 

 any avail, no shuffling will be tolerated. Not only is 

 the truth going to be brought out, but steps are going 

 to be taken to safeguard the future— on that the 

 public is determined, and rightly so. 



.SENATOR SMITH AND THE AMERICAN COM.MISSIOnT 



We feel it our duty to state boldly and without any 

 qualification that we think the United States Com'- 

 mission of Inquiry, presided over by Senator Smith, 

 has been of the greatest public value. It has given 

 us an example of energetic action, a mass of fact and 

 opinion has been brought out, and all the more effec- 

 tively because there was the minimum of delay. 

 Senator Smith and the Commission were the first 

 articulate manifestation of the views and opinions of 

 the |)ublic. He may have been ignorant of technical 

 questions, he may not be an e.xpert in ship construc- 

 tion or the management of a liner, but this only 

 makes him a most competent representative of that 

 vast public note of interrogation. Experts have told 

 us that the Titanic was unsinkable— we prefer 

 ignorance to such knowledge '. Senator Smith wanted 

 to know things, and know them straight ; so do wc. 

 Just as the travelling public means to probe matters 

 and wants matters searched, so Senator Smith probed 

 the (luestion in his own way. The ignorance of the 

 Senator is preferable to the knowledge of a liner's 

 officer who does not even know the number of the 

 crew ! 



WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS. 



While we do not contend, nor do they themselves 

 pretend, that the American Commission was a high 

 judicial tribunal, we do hohl that it has ensured that 

 the British Commission will be far more efficacious 

 and far more sweeping than might have been the 

 case otherwise. It cannot help itself now — which is 

 the surest guarantee. The public wanted its facts 

 and truths straight and quick. The American Com- 

 mission s cured them for the public like so many 

 blows in the face. Afterwards the judge and skilled 

 lawyer; over here can dot the i's and cross the t's. 

 Skilfully developed cross-examination will doubtless 

 bring truths to light, but in a serial-like fashion, long 

 drawn-out enough for the first half to be forgotten 

 before the end appears. The public wanted action, 

 n )t legal machinery. The truths already elicited are 

 stunning in their brutal directness. 



WHAT WE KNOW ALREADY. 



And we hold that enormous good must result. 

 .Already we know much. We have had confirmed that 

 there was an obsession of unsinkahility ; that in 

 consequence time was lost ; that there were too few 

 boats; that this was common knowledge with all 

 connected with the building, running and management 

 .of the vessel ; that no further attempt had been made 



to provide every passenger with a chance for life ; 

 that, though warned of ice, the steamer was steaming' 

 full speed ahead — and besides this that there was no 

 disciplined organisation for launching and manning 

 boats. This list might be continued almost indefi- 

 nitely. .All the treasured beliefs and shibboleths 

 which the public has held have gone, and there remain 

 only a great anxiety and a great and pertinent query. 



IS.MAV TYPIFYING THOSE WHO KNEW. 



\Vhen we speak of the knowledge of Mr. Ismay we 

 mean the knowledge of those responsible for the 

 present condition of aff'airs. We have no intention 

 of attacking .Mr. Ismay, who may be left to his own 

 conscience, or the White Star Line, since we hold 

 that it was just chance that it was one of their boats 

 which gave the truth to the world. Horrible though 

 it is that it should have been the greatest and 

 newest vessel, carrying the largest number which 

 was lost, we must admit that the loss of no 

 other vessel could have so absolutely torn the veil 

 from the eyes of the world. Since the Titanic 

 was a White Star boat, and since Mr. Ismay was on 

 board, we take him to typify all those, builders, 

 officers, and officials, whom the public used to trust 

 and whose expert knowledge was accepted as 

 adequate to reassure us all against danger. But now, 

 ignorant though we are, we do not mean to rely 

 blindly upon knowledge of experts. And for this 

 reason we reiterate that we prefer the ignorance of 

 Senator Smith to the knowledge of Mr. Isnuy, 



UNIVERSAL PLEA OF GUILTY. 



.\ White Star liner has given the world this lesson, 

 but undoubtedly practically all the passenger vessels 

 of this country are in the same situation — trans- 

 atlantic liners and Channel steamers all have been 

 dominated by the obsession of unsinkability ! The 

 .'Vmerican Commission, before ever reaching a result 

 to its investigations, has seen steamship company after 

 steamshi[) company plead guilty and announce the 

 addition of boat accommodation. A remarkable 

 result this in itself; but does it not seem to argue 

 beyond chance of denial a knowledge on the part of 

 all the companies that they had been relying 

 absolutely on the unsinkability of their vessels, and 

 had ignored making provision for other contingencies ? 



A RED HERRING. 



We would, however, here sound a note of warning. 

 Increasing the number of boats does not suffice ; it is 

 something, hut it must not he allowed to be a red 

 herring and divert the public's attention from the 

 main question. There are jilenty of ships' officers 

 who will tell you that it is only in one case out of a 

 hundred that boats would he of any use. An admiral 

 writes to say that it is impossible to fix boat capacity, 

 since this varies with the strength and nature of the 

 conditions of wind and sea. 



TIIK STRBNCTU OF IGNORANCE. 



We, secure in our igiiDraiiCf, do not profess to 

 know. I'.oals may be good, more boats may be 



