No general alarm was sounded, no whistle blown and no systematic warning was given to the endangered pa.s.sengers, and it was fifteen or twenty minutes after the collision before Captain Smith ordered the t.i.tanic"s wireless operator to send out a distress message.
The t.i.tanic"s crew were only meagerly acquainted with their positions and duties in an accident and only one drill was held before the maiden trip. Many of the crew joined the ship only a few hours before she sailed and were in ignorance of their positions until the following Friday.
Many more lives could have been saved had the survivors been concentrated in a few life-boats, and had the boats thus released returned to the wreck for others.
The first official information of the disaster was the message from Captain Haddock, of the Olympic, received by the White Star Line at 6.16 P. M., Monday, April 15. In the face of this information a message reporting the t.i.tanic being towed to Halifax was sent to Representative J. A. Hughes, at Huntington, W. Va., at 7.51 P. M. that day. The message was delivered to the Western Union office in the same building as the White Star Line offices.
"Whoever sent this message," says the report, "under the circ.u.mstances, is guilty of the most reprehensible conduct."
The wireless operator on the Carpathia was not duly vigilant in handling his messages after the accident.
The practice of allowing wireless operators to sell their stories should be stopped.
RECOMMENDATIONS.
It is recommended that all ships carrying more than 100 pa.s.sengers shall have two searchlights.
That a revision be made of steamship inspection laws of foreign countries to conform to the standard proposed in the United States.
That every ship be required to carry sufficient life-boats for all pa.s.sengers and crew.
That the use of wireless be regulated to prevent interference by amateurs, and that all ships have a wireless operator on constant duty.
Detailed recommendations are made as to water-tight bulkhead construction on ocean-going ships. Bulkheads should be so s.p.a.ced that any two adjacent compartments of a ship might be flooded without sinking.
Transverse bulkheads forward and abaft the machinery should be continued watertight to the uppermost continuous structural deck, and this deck should be fitted water-tight.