Perils of Ocean Speed.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 June 1910, Page 4

Perils of Ocean Speed.

TXDTCTMEXT BY A LTX'ER'S OFFICER.

•The "ernzo" for records by Atlantic passenger sluips is stronflv denounced in an article punished in the "Atlantic Monthly." The n-nter, nn officer of a Transaltlantic liner, says the steamship lines overtax the strength of the commanders o* their great liners at critical times.

I have been in cluirg© of a linier carrying 800 passengers aboaitl at a time, he says, "when I have been rrom thirty (to forty hours on duty wuthbut sleep. Everybody's safety dopendetl on my vigilance, when soul, mind, and body had long been worn out.

To keeip awake a,t such ia itiime is torture. One must walk and walk to get through somehow. And all ■■thus in waters crowded with shipping, -where vessels are sulbiecrted "to the whims of the tide. At no time in their lives are passengea'sjn such jeopartly. "Years ago tbo lending steamship campaniles agreed on ocean tracks. These tracks minimise the risks of ocean passage, but .the gravest and rnbst tiniwarmnitaibie risks are taken in the sea's worst places, and , under the worst possible condiitions." The writer alleys that some captains seek to break records bv cooking' 'the average day's runs, and by not following the regulation ocean pathways, but cnltiting corners prrttemling tiliey <lid the entire offlcifll dMance, which was really nnt covered through the steamer "abandoning the ocean track. The writer is anonymous, but the magazine vouches for his staraJJno-