Page 69 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 1 - 5

731. Did water come into your boat? - No. Everything lowered easily right till she got to the bottom, to the discharge, then we had a difficulty in keeping it away from the ship’s side, to prevent the water coming in. 732. Did you succeed in keeping her away from the side and getting off? - Yes. 733. Did you have any difficulty in getting the boat free from the falls? - Yes. The boat was crowded. We could not get to the lever to get the blocks out. 733a. (The Commissioner.) That was because the people were in your way? - Yes, because the boat was crowded. 734. You had to push through? - You could not get through to where the lever was. 734a. (Mr. Raymond Asquith.) What did you do? - Barrett cut one end of the falls and a sailor cut the other. 735. What did you do when you got free of the falls; did you row away or did you stand by the ship? - We pulled a little way away and then laid on the oars. 736. Can you say about how far you pulled away? - Well, I could not judge the distance; it was not very far away. 737. Do you mean 100 yards or do you mean half a mile? - It was not half a mile. 738. Could you see from where you were what was going on on the deck of the vessel? - Yes, we could see what was going on. 739. How long did you remain there? - We pulled on our oars again then and pulled further away because of the suction of the ship. 740. What I asked you was how long did you remain in your original position? - What, stopped pulling the oars? 741. No. You told me you first of all rowed a short way away from the ship. How long did you stay in that position? - I could not say how long it was. 742. How long was it between the time when you launched your boat and the time when the ship sank? Can you say that? - Well, I should say about half an hour. 743. Within half an hour she sank? - Yes. 743a. (The Commissioner.) I want to ask a question about that. How long were you upon No. 13 boat getting her into the water? How long did it take you to get her into the water? - I could not say the time, but not very long. 744. What do you mean by not very long? - Everything worked all right and very easily till we got to the engine room discharge. 745. Yes, and then you had to push the boat away with your oar from the ship’s side? - Yes. 746. But how long were you altogether in getting that boat launched, getting the passengers in, getting in yourselves, letting her down, cutting the falls, and getting her into the sea? - I could not say. 747. Can you give me no idea? - Well, as quickly as possible. Every man did the best he could. 748. I have no doubt of that, but how long did it take? - I could not say the time. 749. Did it take an hour? - No, not an hour, certainly not. 750. Did it take 20 minutes? - No, Sir. 751. You did it in less than 20 minutes? - Yes, I should think so. 752. How long was it after the shock, after you felt the shock in the engine room, that you began to let down the boat? - I could not say. 753. To loosen the boat on the deck, you know? - I could not say. 754. We have heard something. You were a quarter of an hour drawing the fires and you were some time down in the stokehold after you got the order to stop. You were down there, as I understand, about half an hour after the order to stop came? - No, not so long as that. 755. Say 20 minutes, and then it took you 20 minutes to lower the boat? - It took us about that or less than that.