But the _Arizona_ was not, if I remember rightly, 5,000 tons
register, let alone 45,000, and she was not going at twenty knots per
hour. I can't be perfectly certain at this distance of time, but her sea-
speed could not have been more than fourteen at the outside. Both these
facts made for safety. And, even if she had been engined to go twenty
knots, there would not have been behind that speed the enormous mass, so
difficult to check in its impetus, the terrific weight of which is bound
to do damage to itself or others at the slightest contact.
I assure you it is not for the vain pleasure of talking about my own poor
experiences, but only to illustrate my point, that I will relate here a
very unsensational little incident I witnessed now rather more than
twenty years ago in Sydney, N.S.W. Ships were beginning then to grow
bigger year after year, though, of course, the present dimensions were
not even dreamt of. I was standing on the Circular Quay with a Sydney
pilot watching a big mail steamship of one of our best-known companies
being brought alongside. We admired her lines, her noble appearance, and
were impressed by her size as well, though her length, I imagine, was
hardly half that of the _Titanic_.
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