Page 188 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 1 - 5

- I am certain of it. 3642. How are you certain of it. It is a very serious answer you are giving now? - Well, I am certain by our boys, because some of our boys would have been saved if they had come to the boat stations. 3643. You have had conversations since? - I have never spoken to the boys. 3644. How do you know? - Because I know all the old ones were lost. 3645. That is not the point. You make a statement that a man was there and that the women would not come up, and then you said, “Some of our boys have been saved”? - I did not say they were saved; I said all the best of the boys went down. 3646. How do you know the women and children would not come up? - Well, I could tell by the bedroom stewards. I saw them driving, and I saw Mr. Ismay try to drive a few, and he had a pair of slippers on and his dust coat, and he was trying to get the women, and they would not go in for him into our boat. 3647. That was on the boat deck. I am talking about down below - the third-class quarters? - I was not down there, and I could not tell you. The Commissioner: This Witness was not down below in the third-class quarters. Mr. Cotter: He states there was a steward sent down there, and he also states that the women would not come up. The Commissioner: I suppose he only says that because he only saw some women come up. Some certainly did come up and got into his boat. 3648. (Mr. Cotter.) You are not sure what was going on down below? - No. 3649. You say the second steward, Mr. Dodd, came back with a dust coat over his head? - Yes, he had his dust coat in his hand and gave me his lifebelt, and did not come back for it. 3650. Did he give any orders? - No, he gave orders in the glory hole; he had no business to give orders on the deck. 3651. Are you sure he had no right to give orders to the steward department on deck? - Certainly not; it is under the officers, that. 3652. Now when you got into the boat did you find any biscuits and water there? - No. I trampled over a loaf of bread, a big pan loaf; there were biscuits carried up, but nobody seemed to care to put them in. 3653. Who carried the biscuits up? - Williams had one box - Billy Williams - and there might have been four or five boxes carried up through the companion way. They were shoving each other on. 3654. There were some stewards bringing the stores up? - Yes, they were bringing the stores up. 3655. Had you any difficulty in launching your boat? - Nothing at all earthly - easy. 3656. There was no attempt to rush the boat by the men? - No; it would have been rushed at first; but when they saw it was not going down, they went away from our boat. 3657. Did you see any stewards putting lifebelts on the passengers? - I did not, because I was not amongst them. 3658. How many women do you think were on deck just as your boat was lowered? - When it was lowered there was not a woman near our boat, because we could not get any more to go in. 3659. Were there any there? - They were walking up and down. As I told you I saw Mr. Ismay trying to get them into our boat, and he took them to the starboard side; he went to the starboard side with them. 3660. Was your boat the first away? - No, I should think it would be about fifth on the port side - fourth or fifth on the port side when it went away. 3661. Yours was one of the emergency boats? - Yes. 3662. It would be the first boat on the other side? - Yes.