Page 141 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

The Solicitor-General: From A deck. Boat No. 4, my Lord, is the boat in which a man named Scott and a man named Ranger ultimately got. It is the boat, if your Lordship remembers, which came back and those two men at the last moment slipped down the falls from the davits on the afterend and got into this boat, and their evidence is that there were 40 people in the boat. The Commissioner: Yes, I have taken it down as 42, I think. 13950. (The Solicitor-General.) No, my Lord, I have finished with No. 6, which was 42, and I am now speaking of No. 4. It may be that there were 40 women and two seamen, but I am speaking of No. 4 now. The Witness: May I ask when these men say they got into the boat. 13951. Yes. You did not order them in. There are two witnesses who say that at the last moment (they were two greasers) they climbed down the falls from the davits at the afterend? - The afterend of the boat deck? 13952. Yes? - Not on the falls from which the boat was hanging? 13953. No, and No. 4 had come round and picked them up. What I want to call your attention to is that there were 40 people, there or thereabouts in boat No. 4 which is a full size lifeboat. Did you decide when the boat was full enough to be lowered down? - Yes. 13954. In your judgment had you filled it as full as you safely could? - Yes. 13955. So that it was not lowered down until you gave directions that it should be? - No. 13956. (The Solicitor-General.) If your Lordship cares to have the reference, Scott will be found at page 130, and Ranger deals with the number on page 104. (To the Witness.) Now we have got rid of No. 6 and what you think was No. 8 and No. 4. What was the next one to which you directed your attention? - The collapsible boat. 13957. (The Commissioner.) You had ordered the gangway to be lower, as I understand? - What gangway, my Lord? 13958. The gangway in the forward part of the ship? - I had ordered the doors to be opened. 13959. Well, that is what I mean. You had ordered the gangway doors to be opened? - Yes. 13960. And the gangway to be lowered from that point? - If there were sufficient time. We had a companion ladder. 13961. I do not see what is the use of the door if you do not lower the gangway? - We should probably lower the rope ladder; that was our idea. 13962. That is the same thing as a gangway. You would provide some sort of communication between the opening of the door and the boat in the water below? - Exactly. 13963. Whether it was a gangway or a rope ladder, it does not matter. You had ordered this door to be opened? - Yes. 13964. There was no use having that open unless there was some sort of gangway? - No. 13965. Now, was that for the purpose of putting more people into the boats as soon as they become water-borne? - Yes. 13966. Was that the object? - That was the object. 13967. Now I want to ask you this question. I think you have been asked it already. Did you give any directions (I think you said you did not remember) to the boats to remain about the gangway door? - No, my Lord. 13968. You did not? - Not that I remember. 13969. You do not remember? - Not that I remember. 13970. Would they then know that those gangway doors would be open - would the men in the boat know that those gangway doors would be open? - Hanging about the ship they could not very well fail to see if the gangway doors were open - the light shining through, the blaze of lights; and they would very soon be hailed by people at the gangway doors. The boatswain was down there. He has to use a little common sense as well, and when he has opened the gangway door he would naturally hail a boat, and tell them “starboard gangway door open,” “the port