H. Kirk, who installed the
compartment doors in the ships of the United States Navy. Mr. Kirk's
opinion follows:

"The Titanic's disaster will cause endless speculation as to how similar
disasters may be avoided in the future.

BULKHEAD DOORS PROBABLY OPEN

"The Titanic had bulkheads, plenty of them, for the rules of the British
Board of Trade and of Lloyds are very specific and require enough
compartments to insure floating of the ship though several may be
flooded. She also had doors in the bulkheads, and probably plenty of
them, for she was enormous and needed easy access from one compartment
to another. It will probably never be known how _FEW_ of these doors
were closed when she struck the iceberg, but the probability is that
many were open, for in the confusion attending such a crash the crews
have a multitude of duties to perform, and closing a door with water
rushing through it is more of a task than human muscle and bravery can
accomplish.

"A Lloyds surveyor in testing one of these hand-operated doors started
two men on the main deck to close it. They worked four hours before they
had carried out his order. If all the doors on the ship had worked as
badly as this one, what would have happened in event of accident?"

MANIA FOR SPEED

General Adolphus W. Greely, U. S. A., noted American traveler and Arctic
explorer, vehemently denounced the sinking of the Titanic and the loss
of over 1600 souls as a terrible sacrifice to the American mania for
speed. He gave his opinion that the Titanic came to grief through an
attempt on the part of the steamship management to establish a new
record by the vessel on her maiden voyage.

The Titanic, General Greely declared, had absolutely no business above
Cape Race and north of Sable Island on the trip on which she went to her
doom. Choosing the northern route brought about the dire disaster, in
his mind, and it was the saving of three hours for the sake of a new
record that ended in the collision with the tragic victory for the
ghostlike monster out of the far north.

It was the opinion of General Greely, capable of judging after his many
trips in quest of the pole, that neither Captain Smith nor any of his
officers saw the giant iceberg which encompassed their ruin until they
were right upon it. Then, the ship was plunging ahead at such frightful
velocity that the Titanic was too close to avert striking the barrier
lined up across its path.

CHAPTER XXV.