Page 24 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 1 - 5

the “Titanic” acknowledged. The Commissioner: I think you have other copies of this chart. The Attorney-General: Yes, I will hand them up. I am sorry we did not have them before. Certainly, I quite agree that it is very important that the gentlemen who are with your Lordship should have them. I handed you up my own, my Lord. The Commissioner: I should like something to be marked on my chart at all events to show these icebergs. The Attorney-General: Certainly, my Lord. The Commissioner: What I should like, Mr. Attorney is - perhaps Mr. Aspinall will do it for me - to have the points indicated on my chart which correspond with the information given by the “Caronia” as to the position of the ice. I do not know, Mr. Aspinall, whether you could mark it with a red pencil. The Attorney-General: We could do that if your Lordship will hand the chart down to us. Mr. Aspinall: I do not know, my Lord, if I might make this suggestion - that on of the Assessors, Captain Clarke, would do it with much greater accuracy than we could. The Commissioner: Very well, I will ask Captain Clarke to do it for me. The Attorney-General: If your Lordship will just pursue the line for about an inch to the right of the blue cross, that is the exact spot as I make it. The Commissioner: It is no use my going along unless I have got it accurately in my mind. The Attorney-General: I think that is right, my Lord. The Commissioner: I daresay, but I want to see it on the chart, and I want to know also whereabout the “Titanic” would be on her course at 9.44 in the morning of the 14th. The Attorney-General: Yes, that, of course we do not know, we shall have to form an opinion from calculation. The Commissioner: She was steaming 21 knots an hour you say, and you can put her back to 9.44 in the morning and ascertain where she was then, so that I may see what her relative positions were with the ice that was indicated. When you talk about 9.44 in the morning you are taking that time I suppose from the “Caronia”? The Attorney-General: Yes. The Commissioner: Does that mean the “Caronia’s” mean time, or what is it? The Attorney-General: I am not quite sure what it means. It may mean, of course her time, I do not know. I rather gathered it was, but I will not be sure; but I know in the “Baltic,” which is the other vessel, that is given as New York time. So that we shall have to ascertain that as we proceed, I do not know myself; I have made a note to ask the same question. The Commissioner: I do not know if it is of very serious consequence. The Attorney-General: No, I do not think it is, because, put it at what time you like, it is a considerable time before the casualty. The Commissioner: Yes, it is more than twelve hours before the casualty. The Attorney-General: Yes it would make a difference. The “Baltic” (I have given you the “Caronia” and I am dealing now with documents so that I can be precise) passed on reports of ice by wireless telegraphy to the “Titanic” from 49° 9’ W., to 50° 20’ W. The Commissioner: When did she pass on those reports? The Attorney-General: They were passed on and acknowledged by the “Titanic” at 1 p.m. New York time on the same day. The Commissioner: At 1 p.m.? The Attorney-General: Yes, quite roughly, I think it would work out to about 3 p.m. by the “Titanic.” The Commissioner: About 3 p.m. by the “Titanic’s” time? The Attorney-General: Yes, that is it, and my Lord, while I am upon that, having given your