In all
my years at sea (he made this comment a few years ago) I
have seen but one vessel in distress. That was a brig the crew
of which was taken off in a boat by my third officer. I never
saw a wreck. I never have been wrecked. I have never been
in a predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any
sort."
THE CAPTAIN'S LOVE OF THE SEA
Once the interviewer stopped asking personal questions,
Captain Smith would talk of the sea, of his love for it, how its
appeal to him as a boy had never died.
"The love of the ocean that took me to sea as a boy has
never died." he once said. "When I see a vessel plunging up
and down in the trough of the sea, fighting her way through
and over great waves, and keeping her keel and going on and
on--the wonder of the thing fills me, how she can keep afloat
and get safely to port. I have never outgrown the wild
grandeur of the sea."
When he was in command of the Adriatic, which was built
before the Olympic, Captain Smith said he did not believe a
disaster with loss of life could happen to the Adriatic.
"I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to the
Adriatic," he said. "Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond
that. There will be bigger boats.
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