Page 128 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 14 - 18

have got it now. Of course, there is the message, and, as you will appreciate, we attribute very great importance to that particular message; we think it is of very great importance. (To the Witness.) Now what I want to understand from you is this - that message was handed to you by Captain Smith, you say? - Yes. 18328. Handed to you because you were the managing director of the company? - I do not know; it was a matter of information. 18329. Information which he would not give to everybody, but which he gave to you. There is not the least doubt about it, is there? - No, I do not think so. 18330. He handed it to you, and you read it, I suppose? - Yes. 18331. Did he say anything to you about it? - Not a word. 18332. He merely handed it to you, and you put it in your pocket after you had read it? - Yes, I glanced at it very casually. I was on deck at the time. 18333. Had he handed any message to you before this one? - No. 18334. So that this was the first message he had handed to you on this voyage? - Yes. 18335. And when he handed this message to you, when the Captain of the ship came to you, the managing director, and put into your hands the Marconigram, it was for you to read? - Yes, and I read it. 18336. Because it was likely to be of some importance, was it not? - I have crossed with Captain Smith before, and he has handed me messages which have been of no importance at all. 18337. Surely he had had other reports which, as far as I follow from your evidence, he had not said anything about? - Not a word. 18338. He had had other Marconigrams during this voyage, at any rate? - I daresay he had, and I had no knowledge of them. 18339. So I understand. Therefore he singled out this one apparently to give to you for you to read it? - Yes. 18340. And, as I understand you, you took it from him and read it? - Yes. 18341. And you kept it for the time being? - Yes, I put it in my pocket. 18342. Where was the message handed to you by Captain Smith? - On deck. 18343. Were you alone? - No, I was not. 18344. Were there other passengers present? - There were. 18345. Did you read the message to them? - I did not. 18346. Did you say anything to the passengers about it? - I spoke to two passengers in the afternoon. At that time I did not speak to anybody. 18347. (The Commissioner.) When you say the afternoon, what time was it that the Captain handed you this message? - I think it was just before lunch. 18348. (The Attorney-General.) That would be somewhere near 2 o’clock? - I should think it would be somewhere about 20 minutes past one. No, I am wrong; I think it would be about 10 minutes to one. 18349. I rather think you must be making a mistake about that. When you were examined in America you said, “It is very difficult to place the time. I do not know whether it was in the afternoon or immediately before lunch. I am not certain.” - I think I was rather trying to place the time by the time we had lunch. I know it was immediately before we had lunch, and now when I come to think of it, when we go west, we have lunch at 1 o’clock, and coming east we have lunch at half-past one, so that it must have been half-past one when he handed me the Marconigram. That is to the best of my knowledge and belief. 18350. I suggest to you that probably what you said in America was accurate, that you were not certain whether it was in the afternoon or immediately before lunch? - I am practically certain it was before lunch. The Commissioner: Now, just think. The information that we have at present is that this