Inspections should be taken seriously and should be by no means cursory. - Arthur Rostron

Many people imagine the lot of a captain and his officers on a modern liner is one round of pleasure and good food. We do mix with the passengers and share with them the luxuries of the ship. We have excellent quarters which make the old berths look like the cheapest kind of doss houses. But that is not all. See these same men on the bridge. It is a wintry night. A gale is sending the spray over as high as the bridge though that may be ninety feet above the waterline. The rain beats into the face, striking like pellets from a gun- one of the penalties of great speed. The visibility is bad. It's bitterly cold. There are other ships somewhere in the vicinity. These officers have no time now for comfort or for laziness. All that luxury, all that sense of safety enjoyed by the passengers dancing below, is in the care of these men. A sudden emergency- a quick decision. Down below no one knows of it, that threat of trouble, but on the bridge a thrill has run up a man's spine, and is followed by a sigh of relief. All's well.

I can look back to the nights on a passenger ship when one wax candle afforded all the illumination between two cabins. Hot water was carried to the passengers in jugs; baths were luxuries. Smoke rooms were just being added; libraries were practically unknown. Progress has meant two things- speed and comfort, though with us there has always been the matter of safety first. Out of common experience a hundred devices have come into use that make for safety- inventions apart altogether from life boats, bulkheads and so on. Wireless, wireless direction finders, the fathometer for taking soundings, and smoke and fire detectors.

A busy life and a good one. I can honestly say I have enjoyed every hour of my long seafaring experience. If I could go back I should want to do just what I have done- and a man is lucky if, when the time comes to retire, he can assert that. So with confidence I say to the young aspirant for a captaincy in the Merchant Navy: You will have many worries, hard times and responsibilities, but it's worth it all. And, as the real inspiration for your life's work, remember you are a unit in a great service with hundreds of years of honourable and stirring traditions behind it. It's a grand profession.