Tribute from Republic’s Captain, Who Served Father and Son 25 Years

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Special to The New York Times

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ANN ARBOR, Mich., April 21---Capt. Inman Sealby, commander of the steamer Republic when she was rammed by the Florida, and now studying law in the University of Michigan, would make Congress responsible for the lives of travelers on the ocean, and defends J. Bruce Ismay from the attacks made on him regarding his escape from the sinking Titanic.

“I have been a servant of the White Star Line since boyhood,” he said to-day. “For twenty-five years I served under an Ismay, father and son, and during that period I never saw anything which would have led me for one minute to anticipate anything but the best of conduct in Mr. Ismay at all times and under all circumstances. Until the exact circumstances of his escape from the Titanic are placed before me it would be impossible for me to pass an opinion in the matter.”

“The whole world, and especially the shipbuilding world, knows that none of the passenger steamers have been able to carry lifeboats enough to care for one-half of the passengers,” Capt. Sealby continued. “I believe that, by way of reducing the possibility of such tremendous disasters as that which overtook the Titanic, increased lifeboat facilities should be added to the passenger steamers, and that watertight bulkheads should be constructed as strong as the hull itself.

“I would recommend that steamship commanders be ordered to take the southern track and always travel slowly in fog, under penalty of dismissal. I would make the owners responsible to the Government for the carrying out of these regulations, and would have the members of Congress responsible to their constituents in the matter, and would compel them to resign if such laws are not enacted and enforced.

“The structural alterations and the carrying out of these requirements would mean additional cost to ship owners, and this cost would have to be met by the public. The question is, Does the public want it? The solution of the problem is up to the people themselves.”