officers are responsible. It would have been wonderful if she
had not listed with such a hole in her side. Even the _Aquitania_ with
such an opening in her outer hull would be bound to take a list. I don't
say this with the intention of disparaging this latest "triumph of marine
architecture"--to use the consecrated phrase. The _Aquitania_ is a
magnificent ship. I believe she would bear her people unscathed through
ninety-nine per cent. of all possible accidents of the sea. But suppose
a collision out on the ocean involving damage as extensive as this one
was, and suppose then a gale of wind coming on. Even the _Aquitania_
would not be quite seaworthy, for she would not be manageable.

We have been accustoming ourselves to put our trust in material,
technical skill, invention, and scientific contrivances to such an extent
that we have come at last to believe that with these things we can
overcome the immortal gods themselves. Hence when a disaster like this
happens, there arises, besides the shock to our humane sentiments, a
feeling of irritation, such as the hon. gentleman at the head of the New
South Wales Government has discharged in a telegraphic flash upon the
world.

But it is no use being angry and trying to hang a threat of penal
servitude over the heads of the directors of shipping companies. You
can't get the better of the immortal gods by the mere power of material
contrivances. There will be neither scapegoats in this matter nor yet
penal servitude for anyone. The Directors of the Canadian Pacific
Railway Company did not sell "safety at sea" to the people on board the
_Empress of Ireland_. They never in the slightest degree pretended to do
so. What they did was to sell them a sea-passage, giving very good value
for the money. Nothing more. As long as men will travel on the water,
the sea-gods will take their toll. They will catch good seamen napping,
or confuse their judgment by arts well known to those who go to sea, or
overcome them by the sheer brutality of elemental forces. It seems to me
that the resentful sea-gods never do sleep, and are never weary; wherein
the seamen who are mere mortals condemned to unending vigilance are no
match for them.

And yet it is right that the responsibility should be fixed. It is the
fate of men that even in their contests with the immortal gods they must
render an account of their conduct. Life at sea is the life in which,
simple as it is, you can't