SAFETY ON ICEBERGS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 47, 13 July 1912, Page 4

SAFETY ON ICEBERGS.

The fishermen of Newfoundland are still wondering wliy tho officers and crew of the Titanic made no effort to save the passengers of the ill-fated liner by placing them upon an iceberg. The Hon. P. T. McGrath, a member of the Newfoundland Legislative Council, was in London a few weeks ago, and he said that hundreds of the passengers who lost their lives would have been saved had use been made of the masses of floating ice. He recalled in this connection'the famous journey of the survivors of tjlie Arctic steamer Polaris, who in April, 1873, were rescued by the sealing schooner Tigress from an ice r iloe on the, Grand Banks, after having drifted 1600! miles in 193 days. The Polaris had been crushed in the ice. in north Greenland; waters during the previous November, and the crew had made an attempt to travel across the floe towards the land. A storm drove the ice southward and they lived on it for six months. The Newfoundland sailors frequently made use.of floating ice when accidents have befallen their "ships and usually manage to take some/ood with them. "Scoresof instances could be mentioned where J cod-fishers and seal-hunters have escaped from death by this simple expedient," said' Mr. McGrath'. "The people aboard the' Titanic might have done the same. Fragments'' of. ice were available, to which the first boatloads could have been transferred, while the boats made a second, and third trip to the ship and brought off the remainder of the people. The women and children from Newfoundland hav.e survived experiences of this : kind for. from three to seven days, after being obliged to leave their bunks at a few minutes' notice in the darkness of night." The Titanic's passengers would have needed to stay on the bergs ' for only a few hours until the Carpathia came to their rescue.