Page 44 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

intended to be launched for a number of people? - No, I have always seen them kept in them before. 11946. They are kept there? - Yes. 11947. But did they occupy a good deal of what would have been sitting accommodation in the cross-seats? - Yes. 11948. Now with regard to the distance which you got from the “Titanic,” how far away were you according to your judgment when the “Titanic” went down? - About a quarter of a mile; it may have been a little more. 11949. Are you pretty confident as to whether you were a quarter of a mile or not? - Oh yes, I am pretty confident of the distance. 11950. How long would it have taken you to row back? - It would have taken a good twenty- five minutes to half an hour to have got back to that ship, under the conditions, with four oars. There were only four oars there for pulling - four pulling places. 11951. There were four pulling places? - Yes, two each side. 11952. From first to last till the time you had made up your mind, did anybody try in any way to interfere with your judgment? - Nobody whatever. 11953. Now, it is suggested by gentlemen who were not there that you were afraid to go back. What do you say about it? - I was not afraid to go back - not in the least - no fear whatever. The only thing I knew was it was not safe to go back at the time. 11954. Were you clear in your own mind about that? - Yes. 11955. Had Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, or anybody else in the boat, anything to do with your making up your mind about that? - No, nothing whatever. 11956. Did you take the responsibility for it then? - Yes. 11957. And I understand you take it now? - I take it now. 11958. I daresay it is a good deal easier to talk about cowardice here than it is to make up your mind in a position like that? - That is right. Some of those people that talk like that should have been there. 11959. We will not discuss it, because they might not have got back. Now with regard to the money, when was the first time you heard any suggestion that anybody would get anything from Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon? - About the second day before we got into New York. 11960. Even among yourselves, the men who had been in the boat, as far as you were concerned had you heard from them? - Nothing. 11961. That Sir Cosmo had said something? - Nothing. 11962.You had had your name taken by somebody? - Yes. 11963. Who was it? - By one of the firemen. I found out afterwards that Hendrickson was there. 11964. Hendrickson and another fireman, you think, were there together, and one of them took your name? - Yes, Horswill and myself both came together. 11965. That is the other seaman? - Yes; we had to stay in the boat around the bow till some of the other boats came alongside. 11966. Were you in communication with Hendrickson and the other men who formed the crew of the boat while you were on board the “Carpathia”? - Just once or twice. 11967. Were they there? Were they on board the “Carpathia”? - Yes. 11968. Did they come back in the same ship with you to England? - No. 11969. While they were there on board the “Carpathia,” did either Hendrickson or any other man who was there suggest that you did wrong in the decision you came to not to go back at that time? - No. 11970. No one? - No one. 11971. When was the first time you ever heard a suggestion that you had been guilty of