Writing as a devoted socialist, H.G. Wells (1866 – 1946) saw the Titanic disaster through the lenses of one who has come to only expect the worst from the British class structure:
"It typifies perfectly to his mind the muddle of the present social situation and illustrates the incompetence of the upper class in modern society".
"It was the penetrating comment of chance upon our entire social system. Beneath a surface of magnificent efficiency was -slapdash. The ship was not even equipped to to save its third-class passengers; they placed themselves on board with an infinite confidence in the care that was to be taken of them, and most of their women and children went down with the cry of those who find themselves cheated out of life."
"The White Star Company is properly condemned for the fact that there was no suitable provision for saving life, no drill of the sailors, and further, that the bulkheads separating the watertight compartments did not close properly."
Here is a digest of the conclusion reached by the British government's "Special Commission on the Loss of the Titanic". A short, well illustrated article which sought to answer the question which so many were asking in the immediate aftermath of the Titanic disaster "How big is an iceberg?" As an architect of U.S. Navy battleships and a popular New York politician,
Lewis Nixon (1861 - 1940), maintained throughout this article that the full array of 1912 technology was ignored in the planning of Titanic's first (and only) voyage: "We have in our battle-ships devices to show when water enters compartments, and by simple and economical devices it would be possible to have the depth to which water has risen indicated on the bridge, and on merchantmen as well as on our men-of-war searchlights should be carried." An overview of both the British and the American reports concerning the sinking of the Titanic.
"An interesting comparison of the American and British official investigations of the Titanic disaster was published...the conclusions is reached that although the American investigators were practically an 'avenging' body and the English a 'vindicating' one, the recommendations made by the two come to very nearly the same thing...[but]in the matter of responsibility, the reviewer finds marked dissimilarity."
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