Page 80 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 10 -13

12712. I do not want in the least bit to misrepresent you: I think that is the way in which you put it on Friday? - No; I do not think I put it like that, but I was naturally absorbed as you say. 12713. You were asked, “Did it occur to you that with the room in your boat, if you could get to these people you could save some? - (A.) It is difficult to say what occurred to me. Again, I was minding my wife, and we were rather in an abnormal condition, you know. There were many things to think about.”? - Yes. 12714. Does it occur to you that if it were perfectly natural, as you have said, to think of offering the sailors five pounds to replace their kit, it might have been equally natural, even though you were absorbed in your attentions to your wife, to think that there was some possibility of saving some of those poor people? - As I say, the possibility of being able to help I do not think occurred to anybody. 12715. Why do you suggest that it was more natural to think of offering men five pounds to replace their kit than to think of those screaming people who were drowning? - I do not suggest anything of the sort. 12716. Do you think it was natural then not to think of rescuing those people who were drowning? - It is a difficult question to answer if you put it like that. At the time I saw no possibility - I thought there was no possibility of doing so. 12717. I will put it. Do you still think that it was natural not to think about going back and saving some of those people? - I think it was still natural, but I concede that it would have been a very splendid thing if it could have been done. 12718. If it did not occur to you that you yourselves might go back with the few people in your boat, did it occur to you that you might have gone back to some of the other boats and put your passengers off so as to have had a free boat to do some rescuing? - No, it did not occur to me. 12719. That did not occur to you? - No. 12720. Did you come in sight of any of the other boats? - Not at that time, I think; one could hear them. 12721. What do you mean by that - you could hear them? - You could hear the oars moving all round us. 12722. Did you hail any other boat? - No, with the exception of what I said, that somebody said “Boat ahoy!” on many occasions. 12723. In your boat? - Yes. 12724. Is it not the fact that a man in charge of another boat hailed your boat? - No, not that I know of. 12725. Well, you know we have it here in evidence that the captain of one of the boats, No. 13, hailed your boat because he saw that there were very few people in it. You did not hear that hailing? - No, that is the first I have heard of it. 12726. Now, you have said that the first mention of this money was some 20 minutes or half an hour after the ship went down. Was it made to one or to two members of your boat’s crew? - I made it to the lot of them, of course. Can you explain why the man sitting alongside of you should come here and say that nothing was said about money until you got aboard the “Carpathia”? The Commissioner: I do not think you can ask this gentleman to account for the motives which induced other witnesses to make statements; you cannot inquire into that. 12727. (Mr. Clement Edwards.) Do you think there can be any doubt that the man who sat immediately alongside you heard your offer of £5? Do you think there can be any doubt? - No, none, of course.