Page 167 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

14379. Are you quite sure of that? - I think I may say I am sure of that. 14380. Nothing at all in the regulations? - But there is a regulation that covers ice and everything else. 14381. I take you to the regulation that covers ice. What is prescribed for you to do then? - You do not quite understand me. There is no regulation that particularly alludes to ice; but in all instances everything must be sacrificed to the safety of the ship, and no thought of making a passage - that is to say a fast passage - must be at any time entertained. 14382. Is there no specification of certain dangers with instructions to the commanding officer as to what he is to do then - I mean, like haze, fog, and ice? - Oh yes; there are fog regulations. 14383. Under what head do the ice regulations come? The Commissioner: There are none, I understand. Mr. Scanlan: What I gathered from him, my Lord, was that the ice regulations would be found in a certain category of regulations for certain circumstances of danger. 14384. (The Commissioner.) Are there any such regulations? - Not referring to ice, my Lord. 14385. (Mr. Scanlan.) None at all. Now, in your evidence in America, you narrate a conversation which took place between yourself and the Captain when he was on the bridge with you. Senator Smith asks you, “Was anything else said?” and you say “Yes; we spoke about the weather, the calmness of the sea, the clearness - about the time we should be getting up towards the vicinity of the ice, and how we should recognise it if we should see it, freshening up our minds as to the indications that ice gives of its proximity. We just conferred together generally for 25 minutes”? - That is right. 14386. The principal thing you had been talking about was ice? - Naturally. 14387. Did you decide, then, when you first saw ice you would stop or slacken speed? - No. 14388. Do you mean to say that the policy of the Captain and you was to go right ahead at 21 1/2 knots? - No, I do not mean to infer that. 14389. Unless there was a haze? - No, not necessarily unless there was a haze. Had we come across ice, as I just said, in any degree, whether the Commander had been on the bridge or not I should have acted on my own initiative. 14390. You freshened your minds up as to the indications? - Quite so. 14391. You had a purpose in doing that. Would it not have been desirable then to have communicated the points of knowledge that you had evolved to the look-out men? - Oh! no. 14392. You did not think it was necessary to communicate with them? - No. 14393. Although from a look-out point of view they were of greater consequence than the men on the bridge? - Pardon me, not at all. 14394. Well, they ultimately discovered the ice you know, and the men on the bridge did not? - You say the men on the bridge did not. I may say I discussed that immediately on the “Carpathia” with the look-out men - not necessarily discussed it, but asked them questions whilst their minds were perfectly fresh, and the look-out man told me that practically at the same moment he struck the bell he noticed that the ship’s head commenced to swing showing that the helm had been altered probably a few moments before he struck the bell, because the ship’s head could not have commenced to swing at practically the same time he struck the bell unless the ice had been seen at the same moment or a few moments before he saw it. 14395. I take it then that your position is to justify the conduct of the Captain and those who were navigating the “Titanic” from 11 o’clock till the collision? - Yes. 14396. In going ahead at 21 1/2 knots, although you all knew that you were in the presence of ice? - Well, you hardly state it correctly when you say we knew we were in the presence of ice. We did not, we only had reports to go on. 14397. You had no reason to disbelieve those reports? - On the contrary we had, having so many years gone across and never seen ice though it is repeatedly reported.