I know very well
that the engineers of a ship in a moment of emergency are not quaking for
their lives, but, as far as I have known them, attend calmly to their
duty. We all must die; but, hang it all, a man ought to be given a
chance, if not for his life, then at least to die decently. It's bad
enough to have to stick down there when something disastrous is going on
and any moment may be your last; but to be drowned shut up under deck is
too bad. Some men of the _Titanic_ died like that, it is to be feared.
Compartmented, so to speak. Just think what it means! Nothing can
approach the horror of that fate except being buried alive in a cave, or
in a mine, or in your family vault.
So, once more: continuous bulkheads--a clear way of escape to the deck
out of each water-tight compartment. Nothing less. And if specialists,
the precious specialists of the sort that builds "unsinkable ships," tell
you that it cannot be done, don't you believe them. It can be done, and
they are quite clever enough to do it too. The objections they will
raise, however disguised in the solemn mystery of technical phrases, will
not be technical, but commercial.
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