Page 187 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 1 - 5

- The bedroom stewards were all told to go to every room and put life preservers on the passengers and get them out of their cabins. 3619. Did the men carry out those orders as far as you could see? - As far as I could see. 3620. Now I want to ask you a very vital question. How many men were in the steward department of the “Titanic”? - I think something like 470 altogether - there must have been. 3621. Were they all Englishmen? - I do not know whether the restaurant were included in it or not. 3622. There is a restaurant there? - Yes. 3623. What is that staff constituted of? - Mostly Italians and French. I do not know. I never mix with them, so I cannot tell you; but there were none of them Englishmen as a rule. 3624. How many Italians and Frenchmen would there be in the crew? - Do you mean my average? 3625. Yes? - Well, I should say 50 to 60. 3626. Can you tell us whose jurisdiction they were under outside the captain - the chief steward or somebody else? - Mr. Gatti. 3627. Who was Mr. Gatti? - A nice little man. 3628. What was Mr. Gatti’s position on board the “Titanic”? - He was like chief steward in his own department. 3629. Do you know if any of Mr. Gatti’s men took part in any drill at all; had they a boat station? - I do not know. 3630. Did you see any of those men after, shall I say, the alarm had been given? - Well, I saw them all bunched together, but everyone was bunched together at first; but after that I only saw one, and he saved himself. 3631. I want to ask you your opinion - supposing there had been what we will call a proper boat muster of all hands on the “Titanic” to the boat stations when that collision took place, do you think, if that had taken place, and they had mustered on the boat deck it would have been possible from the time the ship struck, before the boats were lowered, to have got every woman and child out of the third, second and first-class? - Well, my opinion is, suppose everyone went to their boat stations - you had all your boat stations, and perhaps eight or ten stewards, five or six firemen, two or three sailors - I do not think there would have been more ladies in the boats. 3632. You missed my point. When you go to a boat station to muster, you go there to receive orders? - Yes. 3633. A bugle goes - is that so? - Yes. 3634. Did any bugle go that night? - No. 3635. If a bugle had gone, the men would have gone to their boat stations, I take it? - Some of them would have gone, and some would not, because they never thought about looking to their boat stations. 3636. Not the stewards department? - Some of them did not. 3637. I am asking for your opinion. Supposing they had done so, was not there time then to turn the spare men out of the boat, and say, “Go down and show the women, second and third- class, and also the first-class, up here”? - If you had got them up - but you could not drive the women. 3638. How do you know that? - Because I tried it. 3639. Where did you try? - For our boat. 3640. I mean down in the third-class, in the rooms; that is what we want to get at - if the stewards had been told to go down and bring them up? - They were told, but they did not think she would go down, and they were laughing when the passengers were carrying their baggage about. 3641. Your contention is that they were told, and that the women would not come up on deck?