WIRELESS AND A CALM SEA

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1053, 18 August 1930, Page 8

WIRELESS AND A CALM SEA

TWO factors —one a natural phenomenon, the other a scientific achievement—have prevented the unfortunate mishap to the liner Tahiti from assuming serious, perhaps tragically disastrous, proportions. Wireless and-a calm sea have aided the disabled vessel drifting “upon a painted ocean” between the Kermadecs and Rarotonga. Throughout the week-end, anxiety on behalf of the 251 persons on board has been tempered by the assurance that they awaited the arrival of speeding rescue steamers under conditions that permitted the safe use of lifeboats as an emergency measure.

Until detailed reports from the officers of the Tahiti are available the actual extent of the necessarily severe damage that has brought about a very real danger of foundering, will not he known. The cause, unfortunately enough, is not an uncommon one. From time to time ships are disabled through loss or damage to a propeller or, less frequently, the breaking of a, shaft. Tt is seldom, however, that these accidents reach the proportions indicated by the Tahiti’s brief messages from the lonely waters of the South Seas. The bursting of bulkheads, the flooding of lower compartments to an extent that is beyond the control of pumps and harriers, the listing of the liner, and the decision to abandon ship, all point plainly to a position of extreme gravity and foreshadow the loss of the Tahiti together with the bulk of her cargo. With adequate help now at hand, fears for the safety of the passengers may be set at rest, and it is possible that a quantity of luggage, together with the ship’s mails, will Ije saved. Even so, the loss, apart from that of the ship herself, threatens to he great, for the advices indicate that her time afloat is limited."

But if the circumstances of the accident are unusual and unexpected, the services rendered by wireless—that greatest of marine life-saving devices—have been customary, and magnificently so. Again and again since this means of communication has been perfected, it has saved ships and saved lives, reducing marine disasters to the proportions of unpleasant and costly incidents. The case of the Tahiti is one in which wireless lias placed the resources of the Pacific trade-route at the disposal of the disabled vessel. It has stood between the ship’s company and the perils and privations of a voyage to safety in open boats, and it has allayed the anxiety of a listening and waiting world. Goodcan come out of such a happening as this in which a fast, veteran liner is involved if it stimulates a desire on the part of experts to improve still further the wireless facilities of every vessel on the high seas, and provide efficient operators who will continue 1o maintain the glowing and humanitarian traditions of their now essential service.