" "H'm, let's see. You are at night on
the bridge in charge of a 150,000 tons ship, with a motor track, organ-
loft, etc., etc., with a full cargo of passengers, a full crew of 1,500
cafe waiters, two sailors and a boy, three collapsible boats as per Board
of Trade regulations, and going at your three-quarter speed of, say,
about forty knots. You perceive suddenly right ahead, and close to,
something that looks like a large ice-floe. What would you do?" "Put
the helm amidships." "Very well. Why?" "In order to hit end on." "On
what grounds should you endeavour to hit end on?" "Because we are taught
by our builders and masters that the heavier the smash, the smaller the
damage, and because the requirements of material should be attended to."
And so on and so on. The new seamanship: when in doubt try to ram
fairly--whatever's before you. Very simple. If only the _Titanic_ had
rammed that piece of ice (which was not a monstrous berg) fairly, every
puffing paragraph would have been vindicated in the eyes of the credulous
public which pays. But would it have been? Well, I doubt it. I am well
aware that in the eighties the steamship Arizona, one of the "greyhounds
of the ocean" in the jargon of that day, did run bows on against a very
unmistakable iceberg, and managed to get into port on her collision
bulkhead.
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