Page 144 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

14023. (The Commissioner.) The fore part of the ship must have been under water? - A deck was under water. 14024. And the bridge must have been under water? - Almost immediately afterwards the water came from the stairway. There is a little stairway goes down here just abaft the bridge, which goes right down here and comes out on this deck for the use of the crew only and it was almost immediately after that the water came up that stairway on to the boat deck. 14025. (The Solicitor-General.) When you were filling that collapsible boat and preparing it to go, had you noticed that the water was over the bows of the ship? - I could not say the bows of the ship but I could see it coming up the stairway. 14026. You noticed that? - Yes. 14027. And the other people on the boat deck could see that too? - If they looked down the stairway, yes. 14028. There was good order you say up to the last? - Splendid. 14029. (The Solicitor-General.) My Lord, there is a little evidence about this boat. It is a man named Lucas. Your Lordship will find Lucas begins on page 49, and the facts about it are given on page 51. Lucas says that No. 16, which was the aftermost boat on the port side, had gone, and was, of the lifeboats on that side, the last to go. Then he says at Question 1518: “(Q.) What did you do then? - (A.) I went over to the starboard side to see if there was any more boats there. There were no more boats there, so I came back, and the boat was riding off the deck then. The water was up under the bridge then. The ladies sung out there was no sailor in the boat and no plugs, so I was a sailor, and I jumped into the boat.” He points to the place where it is, and says it is “a surf boat; they call them collapsible boats.” Your Lordship will see in the next column, at Question 1538: “(Q.) Who got into her? - (A.) About 40 women;” and then he says: “I found three men in the boat afterwards.” Apparently they were the two. The Witness: Hardy was one I ordered in, I remember - a steward. 14030. He says two foreign passengers? - Those were the ones I heard about afterwards. 14031. You did not know they had got in? - No, I did not. 14032. They apparently were hiding. Then as far as you knew was there no man except the sailors in any of the boats which you saw lowered? - None, with the one exception of the passenger I ordered in, Major Peuchen. 14033. You ordered him in? - Yes. 14034. That applies to Nos. 4, 6 and 8? - Whatever boats I worked at. 14035. Had you time to do anything more after you got that collapsible boat afloat? - I called for men to go up on the deck of the quarters for the collapsible boat up there. The afterend of the boat was underneath the funnel guy. I told them to swing the afterend up. There was no time to open her up and cut the lashings adrift. Hemming was the man with me there, and they then swung her round over the edge of the coamings to the upper deck, and then let her down on to the boat deck. That is the last I saw of her for a little while. 14036. There was no time to open her up at all? - No, the water was then on the boat deck. 14037. Can you tell us, this last one you speak of, whether there was time to open her; was she ever really cast clear of the ship? She would be lashed, of course, to something or other. Were her lashings cut away? - Her lashings would be cut away before we could get her off the side of the house and put her on the deck. 14039. That shows she was free of the ship? - Free of the ship. 14039a. We have to piece it out. We have some evidence about one collapsible boat, that the after-fall was cut, and it was doubtful whether the other one was cut. This boat, I understand, was never put on the falls at all? - The one I am speaking of? 14040. Yes? - No, it was not put on the falls at all. 14041. Then there would be no occasion to cut that away? - None whatever.