Page 178 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 1 - 5

3436. Was there anybody in it? - No, there was nobody in it - not a soul. 3437. What was happening at your boat? - There were about eight or ten firemen, and I asked if they belonged to it, and some of them seemed to hesitate - they did not know. 3438. Were there women there? - There might have been about four or five. 3439. Did they go in? - No. We did not lower for a good ten minutes after that. 3440. Was any officer there? - An officer got into the boat afterwards. This man handed me a lamp out of the boat. I saw a lamp standing on the deck. It was ready-lit. I said, “It will be all right for us,” so I stowed it in there. 3441. Had you seen whether the plug was in the boat? - Yes. 3442. And had it oars? - Yes, four oars. 3443. Had it any provisions? - I saw a loaf lying on the deck and a box of biscuits lying on the deck, but nobody seemed to care whether he put it in or not. 3444. When you came up again I think you said nobody was in the boat? - No. 3445. Could you explain how the boat came to be filled with people? - I got to the forward fall. I had asked one of the firemen (I do not know whether fireman or trimmer) “Have you a knife? There is no knife in the boat.” I had looked at the fall because anybody lowering the fall with a jerk might shove it off the blocks. I thought I must have a knife if nobody else had one. I asked the man and he handed me a razor. He told me his name was McCuliffe. He said “Remember me at Southampton and give it me back.” 3446. You took it? - Yes. 3447. And you stood by the fall? - Yes. 3448. Was anybody else in the boat then? - There was no one else then. Then the women and children got into it. 3449. Who put them in? - The chief officer. 3450. Were they women and children? - Yes; they could walk right into it because there were either gratings or something, you had only to step half-a-foot on to the ledge and into the boat. 3451. That was on the boat deck? - Yes. 3452. How long did that boat stay in that position on the boat deck? - She must have stayed a good quarter of an hour. 3453. Were there any other people standing by waiting to go in? - No, I saw 30 or 40 ladies going down the deck again. - No 2 boat is here, here is the companion right down there - right down to A deck. 3454. (The Commissioner.) Going back to their berths do you mean? - No, I do not think they were; they did not seem to realise that there was anything wrong. 3455. (Mr. Rowlatt.) So far as you saw they were going off the boat deck? - Yes. 3456. Down to the deck below? - Yes. 3457. And how much further you could not, of course, tell? - No. 3458. Was there any call for women and children at that boat? - All the women and children that were there could have got in. We could have put more in; in fact, we had not a full complement. 3459. Can you tell us at all what classes were represented? - I could not. 3460. When all the women that wanted to go in were in was the boat lowered? - No, it was put down perhaps 3 or 4 feet. They were told to go down to A deck to see if anybody else wanted to come in. There was nobody came down to A deck. It stopped opposite A deck. 3461. It looks from here as if there was a window there? - There is A deck (pointing on the model.) 3462. If it is lowered to A deck it looks as if it is outside a window? - There was no window, it was a free passage. 3463. Did anybody get in at A deck? - No, there was nobody to get in.