Page 232 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 14 - 18

19586. You have never seen any such Regulation? - No, I have not. 19587. A Regulation as to plate thickness? - I am quite unfamiliar with these details. I think you had better ask the builders. 19588. I only wanted to see. You stated yesterday you had complied with the Board of Trade Regulations, and I wanted to make it perfectly clear what it was with which you did comply? - I am only repeating information which was given to me. 19589. As I understand, your Company is owned by the International Marine? - They own the shares. The Commissioner: That is not legally true. What the International Mercantile Marine Company does is to hold the great bulk of the shares in the Oceanic Company. Mr. Edwards: I understood from the evidence of Mr. Ismay that they hold all the shares. The Commissioner: I say the great bulk. They do not hold all of them. There must be some left in the Oceanic Company itself which are not held by them. The Witness: To be quite correct they do not hold them in their own name. They are held indirectly. It is a mere detail. 19590. (The Commissioner.) I should like to know, are they held by some Trust Company? - Yes. 19591. Some American Trust? - They are held, in the first place, by the International Navigation Company, of Liverpool, whose shares are again held by a Trust Company in America. 19592. These ramifications are rather a mystery to me? - I know they are rather complicated. 19593. Let us trace them through. There is the Oceanic Company? - Yes, my Lord. 19594. That took over, as I understand, all the ships, as I understand, of the White Star Line? - It always owned them. 19595. No, it did not, because these ships were owned at that time by Ismay, Imrie and Co? - Never, my Lord. 19596. Do you mean to say there never was a firm of Ismay, Imrie and Co.? - They were the managers of the Oceanic Company. 19597. I do not know it, but you may be right. Do you mean to say that from the beginning of the White Star Line the boats have been owned by the Oceanic Company? - Yes, from its very first. 19598. Very well. Some years ago the International Mercantile Marine Company was formed? - It was. 19599. That company was an American Company, I understand? - Yes. 19600. And did that company acquire all the shares, or practically all the shares in the Oceanic Company? - It did. 19601. And then you say that the International Mercantile Marine Company acquired them. They did not have them registered in their own name? - No. 19602. In what company’s name were they registered? - They are held by the International Navigation Company of Liverpool; but it is purely a financial transaction. 19603. So I suppose. I was going to ask you what is the business of the International Navigation Company of Liverpool? - It is one of the subsidiary companies controlled by the International Mercantile Marine Company. 19604. What is their business? - Steamship. 19605. What steamers do they manage? - They run at present the “Marion,” the “Haverford,” and the “Dominion” to Philadelphia. 19606. They do not run any of the White Star Line? - None. 19607. But it is a company that runs steamships? - Yes, it is. 19608. I will not ask you, because it may not be of the least interest, why the shares which the