Page 199 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 1 - 5

3960. You went through a watertight door for that purpose? - Yes. 3961. How many of you went through that watertight door when you did? - About six or seven - seven. 3962. How many of you helped to open the watertight door? - As we got into each section the men were in it, in their own boiler rooms. At No. 1 boiler room we had to lift the door up, and when we got to the next section there were men belonging to that section in it. 3963. You lifted No.1; how many of you did it? - Three - three on the pump. 3964. What did you do it with? How did you do it? - With a pump handle. 3965. You turned that? - Yes. 3966. Was it two or three turned that handle? - Two or three. 3967. When you had got into No. 1 boiler room, who told you to go into No. 2? - We had to open the doors and we had to work through. 3968. And you continued through to No. 4? - Yes. 3969. Were you told to stop then? - Yes. 3970. Who told you to stop? - One of the engineers. 3971. What did you understand this was being done for? Why were you opening these watertight doors and going through these boiler rooms? What was the object of it? - To allow the engineers to get at the pumps and valves, I think. 3972. Did you know at all why you did not go into No. 5 boiler room? - Yes, I had an idea. 3973. Why? - On account of the water - too much water. 3974. You think that was why? - Yes. 3975. Did you hear anything about that at the time you were in No. 4 boiler room? I mean, did you hear that you were not to go into No. 5 because there was too much water, when you were in No. 4 boiler room? - No. 3976. Then how do you know? - Well, I judged that. In my own estimation I thought that was the reason we did not open the door, because there was too much water in No. 5. The Attorney-General: I have a notice which I will read, so as to get it on the note, which my friend has handed me. It is a notice which is pasted on the bridge on the watertight door apparatus. The Commissioner: Where the button is? The Attorney-General: Yes. “In case of emergency, to close watertight doors on tank top, press bell; push for 10 seconds to give alarm; then move switch to ‘on’ position and keep it there. Note: Doors cannot, however, be operated mechanically whilst switch is on.” The Commissioner: That means that the switch must have been taken off? The Attorney-General: Yes. The Commissioner: Before these doors could be opened by the handle in the way described by the Witness? The Attorney-General: Yes; that is as I understand it. The Commissioner: My recollection is that there is the same notice on the “Olympic.” The Attorney-General: That may be. The Commissioner: I think I remember reading it. The Attorney-General: My friend will correct me if it is wrong, or Mr. Wilding, but as I understand the effect will be that when the bell is pressed and the switch is on, then the watertight doors to the tank top come down. They cannot be raised again from there. They must be raised, I suppose, down below. That is right? Mr. Laing: Yes. The Attorney-General: They would have to be raised down below one at a time. When you have released the clutch at the top they drop by gravity. The Commissioner: I do not know that there is any significance in it at all, but those doors