Page 237 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 14 - 18

19639. Have you any knowledge at all which would enable you to express an opinion as to the advantage or disadvantage of the use of boat badges? - I do not think there is much in it. If we had thought there was much in it we would have made it compulsory. 19640. Do you think, after the experience of this disaster, that it might be advisable, so as to avoid confusion, to have boat badges? - I believe that our people are now using boat badges, but I know of nothing that happened in connection with the “Titanic” which would have been bettered by boat badges if they had been in existence. Mr. Edwards: I do not think I need pursue that point any further. Examined by Mr. LEWIS. 19641. I have one or two questions I should like to ask. Are you acquainted with the methods of boat drill adopted by the Cunard Company? - No, I cannot say that I am. 19642. Do you know whether their boat drills take place, for instance, the day before sailing instead of on the day of sailing? - No, I do not know what their practice is. 19643. Do you think you would be more likely to get the men to drill effectively if the boat drills did take place on some other day than the day of sailing? - I do not think so. We have tried to get the men to come the day before sailing, and they have refused. 19644. At Southampton? - Yes, at Southampton. 19645. Is it not a fact that some two years ago the men made a request that, instead of their attending at eight o’clock in the morning and leaving and then returning just about the time of the ship leaving, they should attend boat muster at 10 o’clock and remain on board and serve the ship? - We made that change because the firemen came on board when the other men did, early in the morning, and they refused, like the other men, to stay by the ship, and insisted upon going on shore. In order to keep them on board the ship after they once joined, we allowed the firemen to join at 10.30, expecting them to stay on board the ship, but we found, in practice, that they refused to stay on board the ship. 19646. That has been adopted quite recently, has it not? - A year or two ago that was established. 19647. I understand that the system of starting at 10 or half-past 10 has recently been adopted. That suggestion was made by the men themselves as far back as two years ago - and it was refused by your Company - that they should start at that hour and stay on board the whole time? - I think the regulation was altered at the request of the men. It must be all a year ago or more. I am speaking of the firemen, and they have sometimes only come on board at 10.30. 19648. Is it not a fact that a good many of your firemen are naval-trained men used to discipline? - I believe so. 19649. Is it not also a fact that they are most anxious that they should have proper boat drill? - You say so, but the circumstances do not seem to justify it. The Commissioner: He has answered that question, and he has been examined about it over and over again? Mr. Lewis: The point, my Lord, is this: that a great many men do not consider the boat drills which are adopted to be proper boat drills. They desire proper and efficient boat drills. The Commissioner: That is another and a different question. You may ask him that question. Mr. Lewis: I used the term “boat-drill.” 19650. (The Commissioner.) Have the men who have been summoned to a boat drill, and have not come, made the excuse that the drill was a useless drill? - Never to us, my Lord. 19651. Or that it may be improved in any way? - Never, my Lord. 19652. (Mr. Lewis.) Do you drill your men separately, the stewards and sailors and firemen separately? - I was going to give you exactly what they are doing in Southampton when I was