Page 118 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

checked it in your head? - Yes. 13549. (The Commissioner.) I have taken it down differently. I had understood from you that when Moody told you that you would reach this ice-field about 11 o’clock, you had already calculated in your own mind that you would get there about 9.30? - No, my Lord, I am sorry I conveyed a wrong impression. 13550. I have no doubt you are right, and I am wrong about it, but when did you come to the conclusion that you would get there as soon as 9.30? - I really could not tell you the exact time. It was some time about 7 or 8 o’clock, probably. I really cannot remember, but I know it was after Mr. Moody had given me this time of his. 13551. I do not know what time it was that Moody told you you would reach the ice at 11? - It was some time shortly after that I came on deck. I cannot remember the exact time. 13552. (The Solicitor-General.) When you got this time suggested to you, 11 o’clock, as I follow you, you made the calculation in your head? - Exactly. 13553. You did not make a calculation on paper? - None whatever. 13554. I daresay you can make the calculation back for us now. - When the “Titanic” did strike the iceberg it was in longitude 50° 14’ W. 13555. So she had passed the 49th meridian and passed the 50th? - Exactly. 13556. If she struck the iceberg at 50º 14’ W. at 11.40, 20 minutes to 12, given her speed, it is not difficult to say approximately when she passed the 49th meridian? - It works out somewhere about half-past 9. 13557. That is what I thought. Then, of course, that was very important for you, as you were on the bridge and in charge until 10 o’clock? - Yes. 13558. And being on the bridge, and in charge, would it be your responsibility to determine any question about reduction of speed? - If I thought it necessary I should advise the Commander. 13559. But you thought the weather was clear enough and you could see? - Perfectly clear. 13560. (The Commissioner.) What is a growler? - A growler is really the worst form of ice. It is a larger berg melted down, or I might say a solid body of ice which is lower down to the water and more difficult to see than field ice, pack ice, floe ice, or icebergs. 13561. You did not know but what there might be growlers there. They are not nearly so visible as an iceberg, are they? - No, naturally they will not be - that is, to distinguish them from icebergs with regard to size. 13562. A growler, I understand, is an iceberg which is very much submerged in the water and shows very little on the surface. Is that so? - Their relative amounts above water and below are naturally the same. 13563. Yes, they are; but an iceberg is a mountain of ice standing up out of the water? - Exactly. 13564. A growler is the same thing, but instead of standing high out of the water it stands a very little way out of the water; is that so? - Yes, that is so, my Lord. 13565. Now can you see a growler ahead of you nearly so well as you could see an iceberg? - No, my Lord. 13566. Now when you were in the vicinity of the ice, as you believed you were at 9.30 entering the dangerous field, did not it occur to you that you might run foul of a growler? - No, my Lord, I judged I should see it with sufficient distinctness to define it - any ice that was large enough to damage the ship. 13567. (The Solicitor-General.) 21 knots is about 700 yards a minute. Is your view that you could see a growler at a safe distance at nighttime going at that pace? - I judged that I could see a growler at a mile and a half, more probably two miles. 13568. (The Commissioner.) Is this leading to the suggestion that the look-out men are to