“That’s a safe bet,” replied the ensign, with a smile. “I shouldn’t be surprised if the carelessness cost him his position. Owners don’t like that kind of man to command their vessels. As for the passengers, it’s safe to say that they’ve lost all curiosity concerning icebergs, and will be content from now on to view them from a distance.
“It was not only the danger from the spur that should have kept him from getting so close,” went on the ensign, “but the possibility of part of the berg falling over on the ship. The bergs are breaking up all the time, and they only need something like the vibrations from a ship’s engine to set them going. The only safe thing with an iceberg is to give it as wide a berth as possible.”
“That underwater spur gives one the creeps,” said Joe. “You can see the iceberg, but you can’t see the spur. It’s like some great devilfish lying in wait to grip you.”
“That’s what it was that ripped the vitals out of the Titanic,” said the ensign. “The vessel didn’t come in contact with the part of the berg above the surface. She sensed that she was near the berg, and turned to escape it. But that deadly spur reached out and caught her.”
“I wonder if that disaster would have occurred if they’d known as much about radio as they do now,” observed Jimmy.
“Probably not,” was the reply. “At that time they relied chiefly upon the sudden chill in the air and upon the lookout to warn them of the nearness of the bergs. But both of those reliances were broken reeds. Sometimes the chill in the air under certain atmospheric conditions is scarcely perceptible, and in case of fog or darkness, the lookouts aren’t much good. Now, we on the Meteor could shut our eyes and yet know when we were getting near a berg.”
“How is that?” asked Bob, with interest.
“We have what is called an iceberg alarm,” explained Ensign Porter. “It’s a modification of the apparatus recently used by the navy for ascertaining ocean depths by echoes.”
“Echoes?” said Joe, inquiringly.
“Yes,” was the reply. “You see, a sound wave is sent to the sea bottom by a transmitter, and when it returns as an echo is heaved in a receiver. The interval of time between sending and receiving determines the distance of the bottom from the ship’s hull, since it is known that sound travels at the rate of about one thousand one hundred feet a second.