CHUTES DOWN SHIP’S SIDES
“Since, under certain conditions, which have been of frequent occurrence of late, safety lies in getting afloat, there should be regular chutes down which one could slide and be delivered clear of the vessel. When one thinks of jumping from the deck of a vessel as high as a house the terror of contemplation results in demoralization just at a moment when the keenest wit is needed. Of course, this does not argue that we must not have the best boat and boat-lowering equipment possible.
“The safe transfer of all passengers into the life-boats is, of course, the most desirable outcome, but, as we see, this is not always possible.
“A side-wiping blow delivered by such a vessel as the Storstad would sink almost any vessel, though I am inclined to think that the heavy scantlings of large vessels like the Lusitania, the Imperator, or the Vaterland, would break off the stem of a vessel so much smaller and so localize the damage.
“Our aim must be of course to keep them apart. Years ago I endeavored to have experiments made with various kinds of light rays with a view to fixing the courses of Staten Island ferry boats in fogs.
“There may be found if not a light ray a dark one that will penetrate fog and, while we have no light-ray transformers like current transformers, if they do penetrate, their presence can in some way be made manifest.
“I have expected before this to see some direction indicator, to the end of which I called attention when the Titanic sank. But in this last accident there seems to have been ample warning of approach and enough knowledge of location to have prevented disaster, were proper precaution taken.