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glamour-seeking first-class passenger list.
Also of importance to the passengers was
the comforting knowledge that they were on
the safest liner ever built. Ostensibly the
perils of the sea had been mastered by
20th century science.
The key factor believed to make the Titanic
unsinkable was its system of 16 watertight
compartments. With these bulkheads
the effects of any rupture in the ship's hull
could be limited - quickly. The technical
magazine Shipbuilder had concluded its
explanation of this mechanism with this
sentence, "The captain may, by simply moving
an electric switch, instantly close the
doors throughout and make the vessel practically
unsinkable."
Moreover, a recent invention had heightened
the safety factor. In 1912, most firstline
ships had become equipped with the
exciting wireless telegraph. This scientinc
marvel promised to bring ocean crossings
to a new high level of safety: It provided
ships at sea an instantaneous inter-communication
system.
By wireless telegraph ships in trouble
could immediately call to their aid all boats
within a radius of hundreds of miles. Moreover,
the wireless enabled ships to keep
each other posted on storms and other natural
hazards.
Warnings Crackled
In performance of this latter function the
wireless telegraph did yeoman duty on
April 14, 1912. Again and again that day,
ice warnings crackled through the cold air
of the North Atlantic sea lanes.
The reconstructed log of the Titanic's
wireless during the last 24 hours tell a
haunting story of such warnings.
At 9 a.m. the first ice warning comes from
the Caronia.
At 1:42 p.m. the Baltic reports ice, giving
location by longitude and latitude.
At 1:45 p.m. the Amerika reports ice.
At 7:30 p.m. the Californian reports ice,
giving location.
At 9: 40 p.m. the Mesaba reports ice, giving
location.
26
At 11:00 p.m. the Californian again reports
ice, but is cut off before she can give
location.
Significantly, the report to the Titanic
from the Mesaba at 9:40 p.m. placed the
ice at the exact location where the Titanic
struck it just two hours later.
Six times the Titanic was warned. Six
times the warnings were ignored. The Titanic
sailed onward to its doom at top
speed.
Why?
No one has ever found a satisfactory answer
to that question. Like other secrets of
the sea, it will always remain unanswered.
Shut Up, I'm Busy Working
But the lessons to be learned from the
Titanic tragedy were immediately apparent,
and some of them are perhaps more apt
today than in the wake of the disaster.
Let me show you what I mean.
The last iceberg warning to the Titanic
came from the small 6000-ton freighter, the
Californian. Scarcely 10 miles away, and
almost surrounded by ice floes, at 11 p.m.
the Californian had decided to send out a
second ice warning.
This vital message from the Californian
blasted the ears of the Titanic wireless operator
just like your radio does when a nearby
station is tuned in with your volume knob
turned high. In quick exasperation, the
Titanic operator cut into the call from the
Californian vlith this stinging rebuke:
"Shut up, shut up, I am busy. I am working
Cape Race!"
These 12 ill-spoken words destroyed the
last chance of preventing the most spectacular
sea disaster of the 20th century.
The immediate result was that this last
warning never got to the captain's bridge,
where it probably would have been disregarded
anyway.
A secondary result was equally important.
The rebuff ended contact with the one
ship close enough to have carried out fullscale
rescue operations if communications
had been maintained. For shortly after this
harsh cutoff, the Californian operator closed
FAITH AND FREEDOM