Page 134 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

That was being continued at the same time. Of course, there were the falls to coil down. 13831. You took No. 4. Was the swinging out of No. 4 earlier than the swinging out of the other boats on the port side? - Yes, as it happened. You see the men coming up the staircase on the forepart would naturally come to No. 4, and No. 4 was got under way first and would be completed first. 13832. Did you go on your way down the port side getting it done? - Yes. 13833. Taking the swinging out of the last boat that you saw to on the port side, how much later would that be? - That was very late on. 13834. (The Commissioner.) That is what I want to know? - Well, you see, if I may give it to you in the order that I was working, I swung out No. 4 with the intention of loading all the boats from A deck, the next deck below the boat deck. I lowered No. 4 down to A deck, and gave orders for the women and children to go down to A deck to be loaded through the windows. My reason for loading the boats through the windows from A deck was that there was a coaling wire, a very strong wire running along A deck, and I thought it would be very useful to trice the boat to in case the ship got a slight list or anything; but as I was going down the ladder after giving the order, someone sung out and said the windows were up. I countermanded the order and told the people to come back on the boat deck and instructed two or three, I think they were stewards, to find the handles and lower the windows. That left No. 4 boat hanging at A deck, so then I went on to No. 6. 13835. And was No. 6 still on the boat deck? - Yes. Then I proceeded to put out No. 6 and lower away. Previous to this, I may say I had had orders from the Commander to fill the boats with women and children, put women and children into the boats and lower away. 13836. Of course, the model we have there shows the starboard side, but the arrangement is the same for this purpose, I think, and one sees that if one took the boat immediately abaft the emergency boat, and lowered it to A deck, it would in that model come against the closed-in side? - Yes. 13837. With the windows in it? - Yes. 13838. And your idea was that those windows should be opened and the people should get from the windows into the boat from A deck? - Exactly. 13839. Then that plan was not, in fact, carried out? - No, not on the port side. 13840. For the reason you have explained? - Yes. The Commissioner: I am still without the information I want. 13841. (The Solicitor-General.) I realise that, and I will come back to it. (To the Witness.) No. 4 would take some time. Then what was the next boat, so far as you are concerned, which was filled with women and children? - No. 6. 13842. And the next one? - As far as I remember, No. 8. 13843. That exhausts the boats, which are forward, on the port side? - Yes. 13844. Then did you see to the loading of any others on the port side? - I went forward - the last lifeboat for me to load on the port side was No. 4 from A deck. 13845. It got as far as that? - Yes, and it remained there. 13846. Now what I want to know is this - making the best estimate you can, can you give us some help as regards the time - either the time which had elapsed, or the time by the clock when the lowering away of No. 4 actually took place, putting it into the water? - Would it be of any assistance, if I gave you the time that the collapsible boat, the actual last boat, got away on the port side? The Commissioner: Well, it might. (A.) I can remember that distinctly - lowering it only about 10 feet. 13847. I will tell you what I want, and then perhaps you will be able to answer. You said that after the boats on the port side had been lowered the ship had no list, either to port or starboard,