S. Titanic_ had a "good press." It is perhaps because I have no
great practice of daily newspapers (I have never seen so many of them
together lying about my room) that the white spaces and the big lettering
of the headlines have an incongruously festive air to my eyes, a
disagreeable effect of a feverish exploitation of a sensational God-send.
And if ever a loss at sea fell under the definition, in the terms of a
bill of lading, of Act of God, this one does, in its magnitude,
suddenness and severity; and in the chastening influence it should have
on the self-confidence of mankind.
I say this with all the seriousness the occasion demands, though I have
neither the competence nor the wish to take a theological view of this
great misfortune, sending so many souls to their last account. It is but
a natural _reflection_. Another one flowing also from the phraseology of
bills of lading (a bill of lading is a shipping document limiting in
certain of its clauses the liability of the carrier) is that the "King's
Enemies" of a more or less overt sort are not altogether sorry that this
fatal mishap should strike the prestige of the greatest Merchant Service
of the world.
Pages:
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306