Page 180 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

Mr. Roche: It looks as if at some time - I do not know that these witnesses are very definite about the time they were all opened again. He answers you, my Lord at Question 3793. “They were not closed again? - (A.) No, my Lord.” The Commissioner: If this evidence is to be taken as accurate, there was a time after the watertight doors in the bulkheads were closed, when they were opened again. Mr. Roche: That is how I read it. The Commissioner: From that time forward it would appear that they were never closed. Sir Robert Finlay: Only some of them. If your Lordship will look at page 99, Question 3789, 3790 and 3791, it is in answer to your Lordship. Your Lordship says, “Then you opened three watertight doors in the watertight bulkheads. The Attorney-General: Four, that is the evidence; from the engine room first. The Commissioner: Oh, from the engine room first. Then you opened four, did you? - (A.) Yes, my Lord.” The Commissioner: I remember this, Sir Robert. That meant that what perhaps might have been considered necessary doors for keeping out the water which had come in through the hole that had been made in the side, were left closed. Sir Robert Finlay: They were left closed. The Solicitor-General: That is right. The Commissioner: I suppose it was thought at that time that the hole in the ship did not let in any water aft of the point where this last door was left undisturbed. Sir Robert Finlay: Yes, my Lord, to enable the engineers to get on and do their pumping. The Commissioner: There was something said, and I have heard nothing more about it since that I remember, about some of these doors closing some other way automatically. Sir Robert Finlay: They can close on the bridge automatically those lower doors? The Commissioner: I mean some other apparatus altogether. Sir Robert Finlay: Oh, yes, where water rises and gets in there is a float which automatically closes the door. It was worked, I think? The Solicitor-General: Yes, I saw it worked. Mr. Clement Edwards: I was asking a question, and I was stopped by the learned Solicitor- General, who said he was calling evidence, and thereupon Mr. Laing got up and explained to your Lordship what from his point of view was the method by which this automatic float operated. The Commissioner: Certainly, I remember it. Up to this time I cannot say I have understood what this operation is. 14548. (Mr. Roche - To the Witness.) I do not know whether you could help us with regard to that. Supposing you do not want your float to close the doors, you want to keep them open for any purpose. Can you put it out of operation? - I do not think so. 14549. That is all you can tell us about that matter. Now I want to ask you the sequence of events when you came on deck. You come out first from your quarters, when you feel the shock of the collision? - Yes. 14550. And you see steam escaping? - Yes. 14551. That means, of course, that the engines have been stopped? - Yes. 14552. That the engines are not taking the steam and therefore they are blowing off. Were they ever put ahead again? - That I could not say. 14553. You could not feel it? - No. 14554. They never moved to your knowledge? - That I could not say; I could not say whether they were moved or not. 14555. Then you go back to your berth and are there for about half an hour? - Somewhere about that.