The Dominion. MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1912. LESSONS OF THE WRECK.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1419, 22 April 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1912. LESSONS OF THE WRECK.

Organised society haa learned from its troubles and disasters tho greater part of what it knows; and it has had to learn a very great deal in that way in the present age of rapid mechanical development. There is, indeed, rather a tendency to exaggerate the conclusions to be drawn from disasters on land and sea, largo or sm.ill. Hardly any accident caa occur without a coroner's jury, or the press, or the public, improposing the adoption of some specific method of making difficult or impossible that kind ol accident. It is possible that conclusions unduly wide will be drawn from the tragedy of tho Titanic, for the disaster resulted from a combination of circumstances, somo of which were quite uncommon and extremely unlikely ever to come into conjunction again. Of course, it is perfectly obvious that ocean liners must avoid routes that expose them to the. perils of collisions with icebergs: but it is not at all clear thai, the wreck of the big , liner is a warning against high speed, since tin; disaster would almost certainly have been just as complete had the Titanic been steaming at only fiff.nnn knotn, Tho Prnsidont of tho British Board af Trado Jiaa

suggested that an inquiry should h e held as to whether veswls could he forbidden taking the Northern Atlantic route in tho spring, and if there wns power to stop ocean racing; but it is n o t, at all likely that tin; sharpness 'A the impression caused by Hie wreck will . persist long enough en enable a practical treatment of these very difficult questions. -I'lie cabled reports that are still coming in are so conflicting in many respects that it is very difficult to know exactly what did happen between the launching of the first boat and (he sinking of the steamer. One report; which is printed to-day, is very significant if it is true, and it has every appearance of being true. The, bulk of tho passengers we arc told, were so comfortably certain that the vessel was unsinkable that there was some ridicule of those who went oft" in the first boats. No doubt if. all on board had instantly concluded that the extreme disaster was certain, the number of those saved would not have been greater than actually was the case—the fearful disorder and panic might, indeed, have even increased tlio great deathroll. That these enormous vessels are unsinkable is a very widespread belief, founded partly upon their careful construction and partly upon the impossibility that anything short of an iceberg or a full" collision with an equally largo vessel can cause irreparable disaster. The problem of providing an ocean liner with the means of saving her passengers and crew in case of wreck' is far simpler than it used to be. In earlier years a boatload of castaways had either to make land or to perish unless picked up by accident in time. Nowadays, when almost every oceangoing passenger steamer is equipped with wireless telegraphy, rapid assistance is practically assured for every boat. There is not the same need to build lifeboats' for voyaging so much as to build boats capable of holding a large number of persons, sinco they have merely to float and await the arrival of the rescuing vessel called by the wireless operator. Perhaps the principal practical result of this terrible disaster will be the establishment of some new form of lifeboat or raft, such as can be carried in numbers that will accommodate all those on bonrd. It is high.lv improbable that there will be any diminution either in the size of the Atlantic liners or any material reduction of their speed capacity.