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August, 1914 the part of Captain Kendall and a con- sciousness that his ship was possibly in too close proximity to the Storstad. "We think that he would have been better advised if he had given the Stor- stad a wider berth, and had navigated his ship so as to pass the Storstad at a greater distance on his beam than he originally intended. We do not think, however, that his stopping, which was really done for greater caution, can be said to have been an unseamanlike act, nor do we consider his failure to give the wider berth as a contributory cause of the disaster." The report found that there was no lack of discipline on board the Em- press and that the Empress complied with all the regulations regarding boat equipment, watertight doors, etc. To prevent such loss of life in the future the commission made these sug- gestions : ; "First--That in foggy weather all watertight doors and port holes below the top of the watertight bulkheads be closed. Preferably they should be closed all the time between sunset and sunrise. "Second--That it might be desirable to consider whether rafts could not "be placed in such a position on the upper deck flat they would float automatically on the' water as the ship sank." " .. Localizing Sound Theré has been--as a matter of course-- no end of suggestions regard- ing methods of preventing collisions in fog such as that which caused the dis- astrous loss of the Empress of Ireland, and wireless for all--tramps included-- the universal use of submarine signals, and several other methods of com- municating from ship to ship have been recommended. But all, or very nearly all, those who give gratuitous ad- vice forget one of the cardinal facts of the situation. They forget that no method has yet been devised for "localising" a wireless message--that is, for telling the direction or the dis- tance from which it comes. So when the captain of a ship which is be- fogged receives a wireless from an- other ship in the same condition he does not know where that other ship is, how far away she is, or whether she is heading towards him or away from him. He knows she exists within range of his receiving apparatus, that is all. If the fog has just newly settled down both vessels will know their bearings, at least approximately, or one of them May happen to know her bearings while the other does not. In the latter case the knowledge is of very little value to either of them, as they cannot know their relation to each other. Submarine signalling suffers from the THE MARINE REVIEW same defect in that it cannot help one vessel to "locate" another. Granting that two ships have lost their bearings in fog, they can talk to each other, but they may be steaming right up against each other for all that wireless 'or sub- marine signalling can help them. I have heard of a system of "localising" the sounds of syrens, so that the re- ceiving ship may tell very closely the direction from which a sound comes, Everyone knows that though the sound of a syren may be heard very clearly in fog, it is difficult to say accurately. the direction in which the vessel lies from which the sound is coming. If. this difficulty alone can be overcome, an important point will have been gained, » and it will not be surprising if '"local- ising' is accomplished through the old- time syren rather than through the newer wireless or submarine signaling. But even then the difficulty of estimat- ing distance will remain. In this ques- tion of communication between ships in fog there is great scope for the in- ventor, for, with all the scientific appa- ratus which now crowds the bridge of a large passenger liner, the captain is really as helpless when fog comes as he was twenty years ago. He must just grope his way at dead slow speed, and keep his syren continually shrieking, and for the rest trust to his lucky stars. The man who devises means of meas- uring distance and determining direction at sea in fog will be the greatest possi- ble benefactor of the mercantile marine, and will deserve thoroughly all the fortune his invention may bring him. --Fairplay. What Captain Norton Says Capt. George L. Norton, for many years an experienced navigator and now the editor of the Marine Journal, ex- pressed his views to the Journal of Commerce as follows: "It is a bold statement to make, but none the less true, that the three notable collisions.in fog at sea within the year 1914, that of the Nantucket and Monroe, Empress of Ireland and Storstad, New York and Pretoria, each were avoidable, and the blame for each lies with one or the other or both of those in command at the time. In each case wind, sea, or fog did not prevent whistles being ex- changed and heard, locating to a degree the proximity of an approaching vessel. Consequently, there was no reason for not stopping their engines, and cautiously feeling their way past each other under headway sufficiently slow to enable stop- ping either ship in less than her length, even if not discernible through the density of the fog, each vessel contin- ually blowing her whistle to determine whether she was nearing or drawing away from the other. These collisions s 289 were caused through lack of careful navigation. The penalty for such ac- cidents should' be heavy and fixed through international law. Each vessel had unlimited space to maneuver in and pass clear of the other if the re- ports made by their respective repre- sentatives are true. "Perfect safety at sea at the present time is the desire uppermost in the minds of those who cross the ocean, whether on business or pleasure bent. The most eminent naval architects of this country and Europe claim that non- sinkable fire-proof passenger vessels can be built beyond a doubt; but whether the great cost could be compensated through returns in earnings is a matter for the operator to determine. Let that be as it may, I believe that there is no necessity for such costly experiments. It has been proven that with all their fury, the wind and sea have never been able to founder the South Shoal Lightship off Nantucket anchored out- side of land in the broad Atlantic for many years, which has weathered every gale, and after each had done its worst with its mountainous seas, this stanch, steel hull lay at her moorings as grace- fully as the gray gull that spends a lifetime on its' sufface. © True, this Lightship has parted her moorings sev- eral times, but after the gale abated has 'been returned to her station uninjured. This *1s satisfactory. 'proot that "fe modern ocean steamship, constructed with even greater strength in compari- son, will float for any length of time if given sea' room. "All or nearly all the modern built ocean-going steamships, transatlantic and coastwise, are able to withstand the elements; collision and fire now being the only great and dreaded dangers. The best proof that even these can be reduced to a minimum needs only refer- ence to the record of the Cunard Line, which since 1840 has been constructing and operating a transatlantic line of ships between this port "and Great Britain, providing them 'with every known device that would add to their safety, and during this 74 years' career they have lost but one ship, no fires, and the only loss of life was that of five persons being washed overboard by a big sea. chee "The foregoing record is my reason for stating that there is no necessity for building ships with their passenger and cargo spaces largely taken up with bulkheads athwart ships and lateral from double bottom to deck. The Aquitania, Olympic, Imperator, Maure- tania, Lusitania, Vaterland and others now built and building are everything that is needed to provide the necessary safety at sea as far as the ship is con- cerned.