The following speech was delivered at the inauguration of the classes on Naval Architecture at Glasgow University in 1912, after the Titanic disaster, by Professor John Harvard Biles, at the time Vice-President of the Institution of Naval Architects. He discussed the causes of the loss of the Titanic and the proposals of the Board of Trade for exercising control over the designs of ships in their early stages. He referred to the catastrophe to the Titanic as the most momentous event in shipping during the year. I transcribed it in Anniversary Gregg.
Attachment: a-first-assessment-of-the-sinking-of-the-titanic.pdf
First some ?corrections:
p6c1 l14 Should this be considerED rather than considerING?
p5c2 l8 is “be given” missing from the end of the line?
p7c1 l5 is this “when” and not “earn”?
Then an issue with some of your phrases. Gregg seemed to emphasise the notion of “forward motion”. Many of the ways he included in his system were there to prevent too many of the strokes going much below the line. So when I see (p4c2 l19) “which has been given” and (p5c2 l11) “on behalf”, I wonder if the fluent ease of the phrase is sufficient to overcome the leap back to the line for the next word. Breaking up the phrase may be better. But not being a speed writer myself I’m not really able to be certain. I suppose it is just a balance.
On intersections: I see you put the T of “Board of Trade” at the bottom of the B. I had not thought of this before. So for televion (TV) I should write the T from the line and then put the V though it ending up below the line.
And a pronunciation difference which contradicts the dictionary. “Longitudinal” (p4c1 l21). I would write it as l-ng-t-u-dn-l (the ‘g’ comes out after the ‘ng’ when you say it — long-git-tude-inal) no ‘j’ in it at all. Both pronunciations are correct according to my OED.
And now (though I went through the text quite quickly and it made sense) I have many words to clarify:
(1) p1c1 l5 second outline – is it “under circumstances”?
(2) p2c1 l2 first outline (before “of”)
(3) p2c2 l9 first outline
(4) p2c2 l9 last outline
(5) p3c2 l13 “greater ? of”
(6) p4c1 l19 “up the side ? of the”
(7) p4c2 l13 last outline
(8) p6c1 l21 was this a correction of “inquire” to “to enquire”? Did you leave it there to show how to make a correction when writing speedily?
(9) p6c2 l23 is the first outline “scope”? If so the dictionary has it as s-k-o-p.
(10) p7c2 l4 first outline
Phrasing is entirely personal, so if you feel more comfortable splitting some of those, I don’t see an issue. I write lots of phrases because that’s how I think, plus it’s faster in my case.
About “television”, yes, you’re correct.
About “longitudinal”, the outline in the UK edition of the Simplified Gregg Shorthand dictionary and in the US Anniversary dictionary use the j (unlike, for example, “garage”, which has the sh in the UK dictionary).
Lastly, here are your doubts and corrections:
(1) p1c1 l5 second outline – is it “under circumstances”?: Yes, but I now rewrote it because it is a non-standard abbreviation that I use.
(2) p2c1 l2 first outline (before “of”): “two-thirds”
(3) p2c2 l9 first outline: “beyond”
(4) p2c2 l9 last outline: “to assist”
(5) p3c2 l13 “greater ? of”: “chance” (there was a scanning error)
(6) p4c1 l19 “up the side ? of the”: “in the way”
(7) p4c2 l13 last outline: “it is true”
(8) p5c2 l8 is “be given” missing from the end of the line?: “should have” is the correct phrase.
(9) p6c1 l14 Should this be considerED rather than considerING?: Yes, corrected.
(10) p6c1 l21 was this a correction of “inquire” to “to enquire”? Did you leave it there to show how to make a correction when writing speedily?: I left it there inadvertently, so I removed it. But yes, that’s one way of correcting a mistake, plus crossing the wrong outline.
(11) p6c2 l23 is the first outline “scope”? If so the dictionary has it as s-k-o-p.: Yes, corrected.
(12) p7c1 l5 is this “when” and not “earn”?: It’s “whether or not” in this case.
(13) p7c2 l4 first outline: “great deal”
Thank you Carlos,
I should have got “beyond”; also “to assist” as I encountered “assist” subsequently.
I don’t think I’ll ever be using “whether or not” though – a very obscure outline – I’ll cross it out from my phrase book! (The single word “determine” took me a long while to get used to.)
But thanks for working you way through all my questions,
Nick
You’re welcome!
Wow! I finally have transcribed this piece with the help of my new Anniversary shorthand dictionary. I truly enjoyed the transcription, but would encounter many areas I had to work over and over before coming to the actual text. I typed the transcription, and as always was surprised how long this piece actually was. Thank you, Susan Johnston
This is so awesome, Susan! Congratulations!