Page 12 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

11224. You did not? - No. 11225. Before you left the “Carpathia” did you and the other members of the small boat’s crew write your names on Lady Duff-Gordon’s lifebelt? - Yes. 11226. As a memento? - Yes. 11227. And you parted with the Duff-Gordon’s in terms of respect? - Yes. We were asked to put our names on it, and we did it. 11228. Was the boat, at the time you got in her, rather crowded at the sides with oars and boat masts and things of that kind? - Yes; they were all on one side. 11229. There were oars, and were there boat masts. They are spoken of as poles? - Oars and a mast and a boat hook, I think. 11230. Which were stowed on one side, and which occupied a space? - Yes. 11231. And made the position of the passengers and members of the crew rather cramped, did it not? - Well, it did for a time until we got them out. 11232. Did you ever throw them overboard or get rid of them out of the way? - No. 11233. Were not they there stowed alongside the whole time, so that there was barely room for two people to sit abreast on the seats where the two people were sitting? - They certainly took up a space at the side of the boat. We had the oars out and then there was a little more room. 11234. Were not the people in the boat crowded by reason of the mode in which the seats had been packed while the boats were on the davits? - I could not say that. 11235. You did not notice that? - No. 11236. Tell me, with regard to the “Titanic” and Lady Duff-Gordon, from the time you first left off rowing, that is when you had got what was considered a proper distance from the vessel, to the time the “Titanic” went down, was Lady Duff-Gordon practically all the time violently seasick? - Not then; she was after. 11237. From the time you left off rowing in the first instance until very near the time you came in sight of the “Carpathia,” was she violently seasick, and was she lying along upon the oars which were occupying the side of the boat where she was? - Yes, she was. 11238. Was not that her condition at the time the “Titanic” went down? - I could not say. 11239. I suggest to you, Mr. Hendrickson, that your statement that she took part in any conversation about the boat is a complete error? - That is what the lady said, what I am telling you; I am telling you the truth. 11240. How far off was she from you? - I reckon about 200 yards. 11241. I am not speaking of the ship, I am speaking of the lady. There were several seats between you and her? - I was in one seat here, and a gentleman was in this seat, and she was in the next one. 11242. She was in the second seat from you towards the stern of the boat? - Yes. 11243. Lying down - in a reclining position. She had her head down upon those oars and tackle? - Yes. 11244. I put it to you that at that time, the time the ship went down, she not only was not conducting conversation with anybody, but she was not in a condition to conduct conversation? - She was talking to her husband at intervals. 11245. I put it to you that her conversation to her husband was considerably after that time? - No; she got up now and again and lifted her head up. 11246. Was not the only communication which passed between her and her husband at that time the efforts the husband made to comfort his wife and to try and help her in her condition? - Yes. 11247. It was so? - Yes, when I saw them. 11248. Did that go on for a very long time when the boat was afloat? - For some time after the “Titanic” went down.