Page 135 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 14 - 18

18446. That means that your view is not only would he be justified in going the 75 revolutions, but he would be justified in going the 78? - If the weather conditions had been satisfactory. 18447. And, according to your view, what do you say as to the weather conditions? - So far as I could judge, it was a perfectly fine, clear night. 18448. So that on a perfectly fine, clear night, with the expectation that you are coming within the region of ice, your view is that the Captain would be justified in increasing his speed? - I do not see any reason why he should not, so long as he could see sufficiently far to clear the ice. The Commissioner: I suppose if you had a perfectly good and reliable look-out and could see the ice at a sufficient distance to enable you to steer clear of it that would be sufficient. The Attorney-General: Assuming the “ifs” which your Lordship has put, yes. The Commissioner: Yes, that is what I mean. Those are the “ifs” he assumes. The Attorney-General: Quite so. Assuming that you can see far enough to get out of the way at whatever speed you are going you can go at whatever speed you like. That is what it comes to. The Witness: Assuming you can see far enough to clear the ice. 18449. I want to get at what your view was with regard to it; whether it is right or wrong is a question, of course, which the Court will decide. But it seems to me that what you have just told us in your answer is not very different from what I put to you, or not substantially different from what I put to you, from the conversation you had with Mrs. Ryerson? - I did not have any such conversation with Mrs. Ryerson. 18450. I will not argue it further, so long as you have admitted the view that it would be best to go as fast as you could to get out of the region of ice? - I say he was justified in going fast to get out of it if the conditions were suitable and right, and the weather clear. 18451. I think we understand. Now, did you have any conversation with Captain Smith at all, between the time of his giving you the wireless message and the impact with the iceberg, about ice? - The only conversation I had with Captain Smith was in the smoking room that night. As he walked out of the smoking room he asked me if I had the Marconi message, and I said, Yes, I had, and I gave it to him. 18452. What time would that be? - I think it was 10 minutes or a quarter-past seven. 18453. (The Commissioner.) You had not been on the bridge? - I had never been on the bridge during the whole trip. 18454. (The Attorney-General.) Did he say why he wanted you to give him back the message? - He said he wished to put it up in the officers’ chartroom. 18455. (The Commissioner.) What would be the object of putting the Marconigram up in the chart room if good navigation dictated going on at full speed? - I presume he put it up for the officers’ information, my Lord. 18456. According to you, it did not matter? - Not if the weather was clear. 18457. As it was? - As it was. 18458. (The Attorney-General.) Then, when the Captain asked you for the message and you gave it back to him, did you have any conversation with him then? - No further conversation at all. 18459. Did you not ask him whether your vessel would come at all within that latitude and longitude indicated in the “Baltic” Marconigram? - I did not. 18460. And he said nothing to you about it? - He did not. 18461. But you understood that you would be there during that night? - Yes, I understood that we would get up to the ice that night. 18462. Now, the thing that is not clear to me is why it was that you understood that you would get to the ice that night if it was not from the Marconigram, and that you understood what the latitude and longitude there indicated meant? - The doctor told me we had turned the corner, and I knew, when we had turned the corner, we must be getting towards the ice region.