Page 165 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

14351. (Mr. Scanlan.) Because you so stated to Mr. Murdoch when you were leaving the watch according to your evidence here yesterday? - Yes. Let me explain my point and we will get it far clearer. You see we were making for a vicinity where ice had been reported as you say year after year, and time and again, and I do not think for the last two or three years I have seen an iceberg although ships ahead of us have reported ice time and time again. There was no absolute certainty that we were running into an ice-field or running amongst icebergs or anything else, and it might have been as it has been in years before ice reported inside a certain longitude. 14352. (The Commissioner.) I can understand that; it does not follow that because ice is reported you are going to have a collision with an iceberg? - That is what I wish to convey. 14353. You need not trouble about that at all as far as I am concerned. The point which I understand is being put to you at present is this, that you knew you were steering into what I may call an ice-field, a district in which there were icebergs and growlers and field ice. That is what you want to put, Mr. Scanlan? 14354. (Mr. Scanlan.) Yes, it is, my Lord. (To the Witness.) You knew you were heading there when you left the watch? - Yes. 14355. Do you not think, then, it would have been desirable, especially as you say the conditions were abnormal, to have slackened speed? - It has never been done in my experience. 14356. We have heard it from the officer - 14357. (The Commissioner.) You do not answer the question? - I answer from experience, no. 14358. (Mr. Scanlan.) We had evidence a few days ago from an officer on another company’s steamers that they have a regulation about taking extra precautions when they get into an ice- field, or when ice is reported ahead of them. Does your company, the White Star, issue any regulations to their Captains and Sailing Officers as to what they ought to do when they come into an ice region? - No. The Commissioner: I should like to know this, Mr. Scanlan, if you can tell me. Do the German boats issue any such regulations? Mr. Scanlan: My knowledge does not extend to that, I regret, my Lord. The Commissioner: I doubt whether you will find any such regulations issued to regular liners. There was one witness who was here from the “Mount Temple,” the Canadian Pacific line, a steamer which belongs, I suppose to the railway company. Mr. Scanlan: Yes, but a big carrying passenger steamer. The Commissioner: Are there such instructions issued to any regular British lines or German lines crossing the Atlantic? Mr. Scanlan: I do not know as to any German line, my Lord, but I have been informed that it is a customary thing to give instructions for British lines. (After a short adjournment.) 14359. (Mr. Scanlan.) Can you tell us at what speed the “Titanic” was going when you left the bridge at 10 o’clock? - About 21 1/2 knots. 14360. What was the indication from which you make that calculation? - I judge from what I remember of the revolutions. I think, as far as I remember, the revolutions were 75, and I think that will give an average of about 21 ½. 14361. The speed was taken down, I understand, in the log? - Yes, that would be kept in the scrap log. 14362. I do not suggest that you wanted to make a record passage on this occasion, but had not you all in mind the desirability of making a very good first trip, from the speed point of view? - No, I am afraid not, because we know that in the White Star, particularly the first voyages - in fact you may say pretty well for the first 12 months - the ship never attains her full speed.