Page 148 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

open question. Some say they do and a great many capable men certainly say they do not explode. If her boilers did not explode it was not from that, and must have been the rush of imprisoned air; and the heat would be caused merely through its coming from the stokehold. 14101. (The Solicitor-General.) One of the other officers has some information to give your Lordship. (To the Witness.) That was how it struck you and how you saw it at the time? - Yes. 14102. You say you saw some six people who had got to this collapsible boat. Were they men? - Yes. 14103. I think you said they were standing on it? - As far as I remember yes, standing or kneeling. 14104. What happened to you? - I climbed on to it. 14105. Then just tell us what was the course of events after that from your point of view? - There were several people in the water round about us who struggled towards the boat and swarmed towards the boat and got on to it during the night occasionally. Of course we could not paddle that boat about; it was absolutely water-logged. 14106. I suppose it was shut up in the sort of sense that that little profile which is in your hand is shut up? - Yes, just upside down like that bottom up (describing). Do you mean she was shut up like that? 14107. Yes? - No, she is a flat boat like that. She consists of the shape of the boat and two bottoms divided into compartments which contain air. When the boat is turned over it is quite flat on the surface of the water. 14108. Like a raft? - Exactly. 14109. There are six and you yourself were there and others got to it? - Yes, as far as I know during the night. I did not count them. It was merely an estimate from other people. There were nearly 28 or 30 people on this raft in the morning. 14110. (The Commissioner.) Do not you know how many were taken off to the “Carpathia”? - No, my Lord, I do not. We were taken into a lifeboat before we went on board the “Carpathia.” 14111. (The Solicitor-General.) That is between the going down of the “Titanic” and dawn? - Yes. 14112. (The Commissioner.) When were you taken off this collapsible boat? - Just at daybreak. 14113. By what boat? - I do not know the number. 14114. Were you all taken by one boat? - Yes. 14115. And how many were in the boat that took you off when you got on board? - I counted those myself; standing in the stern I counted 65 heads. 14116. That included those that had been taken from the collapsible? - Including those taken off that boat, 65 heads. I could not myself see anyone who sat in the bottom of the boat. I judge there were at least 75 in the boat. 14117. Which boat are you talking of? - The lifeboat; I do not know the number. 14118. (The Solicitor-General.) I have the evidence of the chief baker, a man named Joughin, who kept afloat in the water till dawn and he had told us at dawn he saw an upturned boat and made his way to it, and I think someone gave him a hand and kept him up in the water for some time. Is that the collapsible boat you are speaking of? - I do not remember his being there. 14119. (The Commissioner.) How many were on this collapsible boat when you were transferred to the lifeboat? - I did not count them, my Lord, but I have been given to understand since from the men who saw it and the men on the raft, that there were 28 or 30 on there. 14120. And then when you got into the lifeboat, the total number then on the lifeboat when you were added to those that were already there was 75? - 75. 14121. So there would have been about 45 on this lifeboat when you approached her or when she approached you - that is right? - Yes. I may say there were two lifeboats approached us. 14122. Did not you all get into one? - We all got into one. This being the lighter one of the