Unfortunately the Board of Trade requirements under which the _Titanic_ was built--and very conscientiously built--proceed along no such common-sense lines. Instead, the Board many years ago framed a set of rules in which the safety requirements were cut down to such a low limit, that the question of a ship's surviving a serious collision was reduced to a mere gamble with Fate. The Board of Trade ship may fill _two_ adjoining compartments, and then _with the top of her bulkheads practically level with the sea_, in the opinion of the Board, she will have a fighting chance to live _in smooth water_! The _Titanic_ filled at least five adjoining compartments, and hence,--thanks to these altogether inadequate and obsolete requirements, she is now at the bottom of the Atlantic; and, thanks again to the requirements of the Board as to lifeboat accommodations, over fifteen hundred of her passengers and crew went down with the ship! [Illustration: Water is hauled up in the canvas bucket and its temperature taken by thermometer. TAKING THE TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER] CHAPTER II THE EVER-PRESENT DANGERS OF THE SEA Boswell, that faithful, if over-appreciative chronicler, tells us that Dr. Johnson once described an ocean voyage as "going to jail with a chance of being drowned." Had some one quoted the grim witticism of the doctor in the spacious dining-room of the _Titanic_ on the night of April the fourteenth, it would have provoked a smile of derisive incredulity. Going to sea in the cramped quarters of the frail sailing packet of Johnson's day was one thing; crossing the Atlantic at railroad speed in the spacious luxury of a 60,000-ton liner was quite another. Yet, five hours later, when the vast bulk of that noble ship was slanting to its final plunge, the pitiless truth was brought home to that awe-stricken crowd that, even to-day, travel by sea involves the "chance of being drowned." The remarkable immunity of the high-speed Atlantic liners from such accidents as befell the _Titanic_ has been due in part to careful seamanship and in part to an amazing run of good luck. Of this there can be no doubt whatever. On a recent occasion the subject was brought up for discussion in the officers' quarters of one of the fastest liners. In answer to the writer's question as to whether the dangers of running at high speed through fog or ice-infested regions were not enormous, one of the officers frankly admitted that, not only were the risks most serious, but the immunity from such disasters as that which befell the _Titanic_ was to be explained on the ground of sheer good fortune. "I well remember," said he, "that the first time I found myself in charge of the bridge on a ship that was running through fog at a speed of over 20 knots, I fairly shivered with a sense of the possibilities of disaster that were involved. To-day--well--familiarity, you know----" [Illustration: Stewards are closing door in fire-protection bulkhead.