Page 225 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

although I was showing these green lights occasionally, with the intention of getting all the boats together. There was not a boat anywhere near us. I did not see any. I was the first boat picked up on board the “Carpathia.” 15483. You were the first picked up? - Yes; he saw our green lights and steamed down for them. 15484. Did you watch all the other boats being picked up after you got on board the “Carpathia”? - I was down in the other boats. I suppose a good half an hour had elapsed before any of the other boats were there. 15485. Can you tell us how many boats were picked up by the “Carpathia”? - No, I did not count them. They counted them, but all our boats were picked up with the exception of the one collapsible boat, where the crew were taken out of her in a sinking condition. 15486. One collapsible boat and two lifeboats, did you say? - Yes. 15487. When I say picked up I do not mean taken on board. We know 13 were taken on board, but I mean how many were accounted for? - I really forget now how many were accounted for. I remember we turned some of them adrift. 15488. Did you see any ice when the day broke? - Yes, I saw quite a lot of ice at daybreak. 15489. Large bergs, did you see? - The first ice I saw, I saw it probably about half a mile on the port bow of the “Carpathia” just as I was approaching it, when I got about two ships’ lengths away from her. Day was breaking then. Examined by Mr. SCANLAN. 15490. I think after the disaster it was you who worked out the calculation as to the position of the “Titanic”? - That is so. 15491. I understand that there is some dispute about the position, but had the position you worked out been checked in any way by any other officer? - Oh, no. 15492. You reckoned the position and you brought it to the notice of the captain? - Yes. 15493. He asked you to go down to the wireless operators’ room and give it to him? - Yes. 15494. It was that statement of the position that went out from the wireless to give intimation of the collision? - Yes. 15495. And you say the position was accurate? - Yes, I am quite certain of that. I am quite confident the position was quite correct. 15496. After the collision I understand that you and some other officers went on the bridge to look at the iceberg. Is that so? - That is so. Yes. 15497. And you saw the iceberg? - Well, I was not quite sure of seeing it. 15498. What length of time was this after the collision? - Only a couple of minutes afterwards. 15499. What distance from you did the iceberg appear to be then? - I do not think it would be a couple of minutes afterwards. It appeared to me, what I fancy I saw, about a ship’s length away from the ship’s bridge. 15500. Now, you were examined in America in regard to the appearance which the iceberg presented at that distance? - Yes. 15501. Would you give your impression of it to my Lord? - Yes, I said I fancied I saw a black mass, a low-lying black mass on the quarter. 15502. Was it difficult to discern what the object was even at that short distance, a ship’s length? - That is only an approximate distance you understand; it might have been more. 15503. It might have been three ship’s lengths? - It might have been three ship’s lengths. 15504. Would that be the outside - three ship’s lengths? - No, I am not sure. You must understand I had just come out of the light into the darkness and my eyes were not accustomed to it.