Page 205 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 1 - 5

4107. Dillon. Your Lordship will remember he said he was picked up by No. 4 boat. Now I will ask you just one question about the lights. When you went away in the boats, did you see any lights? - Yes, the lights were burning. 4108. The lights of the “Titanic”? - Yes. 4109. You would have a particular interest in the lights? - The emergency light engine was running as I passed it coming up the dummy funnel. 4110. Just above the electric store that was pointed out before. Now just tell us about the lights. You saw the lights of the “Titanic” as you moved away. Did you notice at all when the stern, the afterpart of the vessel, got on a level keel whether there were any lights then? - The lights seemed to be going out then. 4111. Did you hear any explosion? - No, Sir. 4112. When you say “The lights seemed to be going out,” will you explain to us what you mean? You saw the vessel dive down? - Yes. 4113. The fore part of her? - Yes. 4114. When you say the forward end seemed to break off, and the afterpart came back on a level keel, and then you say the lights were going out. When she came back like that on a level keel were there any lights? - Right aft. The lights were right aft what were burning, on the afterend what was floating. 4115. You mean the afterpart of the aft end? - Yes. 4116. Where, the taffrail, or where? Did you notice? - Along here. (Showing on model.) 4117. Just about abeam of the dummy funnel, do you mean? - Yes. 4118. And did they continue burning then right away aft to the taffrail? - Yes, right aft. The Commissioner: I do not understand this. 4119. (The Attorney-General.) How long did you see them burning? - The lights gradually went out as the aft end of the ship went under. The Commissioner: That is what I do not understand. I should have thought that the lights would either remain all alight or all go out. The Attorney-General: When the water gets over the dynamo it would stop them, would not it? The Commissioner: They were being worked, as I understand, at this time by the emergency dynamo. 4120. (The Attorney-General.) Yes. That, if it were working, would be as he describes, just about abreast of the dummy funnel, directly underneath it. As I understand it, he says the lights were burning in the afterend. (To the Witness.) I suppose that when the emergency dynamo got into the water the lights would go out? - Yes, it stops the fuse. The Commissioner: I understood him to say - I do not know whether I am wrong - that aft of the dummy funnel some of the lights were out and some of them were in. The Attorney-General: I understood him to say so at first, but I understood him to alter that, and at last I think he was right in what he said. At first I took the same view as your Lordship. I understood him to say he was dealing then with the afterpart of the ship which had righted itself on to a level keel. The Commissioner: She was only at the top of the water for a few minutes. 4121. (The Attorney-General.) Yes. And then he says from the point which he marked for us there, which was just about abreast of the dummy funnel right away aft to the taffrail the lights were burning. (To the Witness.) Is that right? - Yes. 4122. (The Commissioner.) All the lights were burning? - All the lights aft. 4123. (The Attorney-General.) At the afterend of the aft part of the ship they were all burning, but nothing forward, I understand. - No.