Page 43 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

11918. The surf boat was inboard? - Yes. 11919. Would she have been swung from the same falls? - Yes. 11920. When she came to be floated? - Yes. 11921. Would that have anything to do with using despatch in getting off this boat or not? - Very likely, to get the falls up again for the other boat. 11922. They would have been wanted for the surf boat if she was wanted? - Yes. 11923. How long were you there during the getting out of that boat, getting her ready and getting her to the sea level and getting her afloat before she was actually afloat? - Do you mean the emergency boat? 11924. The emergency boat? - From the time we were there till she was afloat was about ten minutes. 11925. You think about ten minutes? - Yes. 11926. During the whole of that time was there anybody in communication with Mr. Murdoch, except the members of the crew under his orders? - Nobody except the members that were there that he was giving his orders to. 11927. Were you there for any length of time before that, before this boat was taken in hand? - No, we were working our way down through the line. 11928. Were you under Mr. Murdoch’s orders while that was being done? - Yes, under his sole orders. 11929. Did anybody, so far as you are aware, during the whole of that time interfere at all with Mr. Murdoch’s exercise of his duties? - No, I saw nobody interfere with him all the time he was in my sight. 11930. Now, a suggestion has been made, I do not know on what authority, that Mr. Ismay interfered in some way with regard to the launching of these boats. Did you see any interference by Mr. Ismay? - Nothing whatever. 11931. You knew Mr. Ismay by sight? - Yes. 11932. Was he there at all while these boats were being launched? - I never saw anything of him. 11933. So far as Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon is concerned, did you see anything of him while the lifeboats were being launched? - No. 11934. Did you see what took place, or how it was that Lady Duff-Gordon was not one of the ladies who were put into one of the lifeboats? - I could not say. 11935. You did not see anything of it? - No. 11936. The first you saw was they presented themselves for this boat? - Yes. 11937. Now, with regard to the boat, you were a seaman? - Yes. 11938. Was she the sort of boat which would be adapted for navigating in the Atlantic? - I should not think she was, in any weather. She is there for saving life, being a lifeboat for any accident. 11939. For use in case of accident? - Yes. 11940. How far were you from land at this time? - I could not say; I should think by my own estimation about 1,300 miles from New York. 11941. You say it was dark on board the ship? - It was not very dark on board the ship, it was dark when we were going down the side. 11942. Was it dark, or light in the boat? - It was dark, very dark. 11943. You had no lamp? - No lamp whatever. 11944. Do you know how it was that the oars, and perhaps boat masts, or whatever they were - the tackle that was there - had been stowed in the sides against the thwarts? - They were stowed to the side. 11945. Would they in ordinary circumstances have been cleared out if the boat had been