Page 259 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 14 - 18

does not in any way interfere with the watertight bulkhead which you have just explained? - It was with the object of making it watertight, my Lord. Mr. Rowlatt: May I ask, my Lord, one or two questions as from this model? The Commissioner: Certainly. 20013. (Mr. Rowlatt.) Is that the firemen’s passage represented here in the model standing back from the side of the ship but running down the middle of the ship? - Quite right. The Commissioner: I cannot see it, but I can follow it. Mr. Rowlatt: It is that piece of wood which is standing back (referring to the model). The Witness: That is the firemen’s passage, my Lord. The Commissioner: It is like a watertight tube. Mr. Rowlatt: Yes. The Commissioner: Put through a watertight bulkhead. Mr. Rowlatt: And going through the middle of another watertight compartment. The Witness: Certainly. The Commissioner: It goes through two, I think. Mr. Rowlatt: Yes, it goes through two. The Witness: That is so. 20014. It is in communication as soon as you get halfway up the spiral staircase with the second watertight compartment in the ship right forward there? - Quite, and in that way this pipe, this firemen’s tunnel becomes a part for flooding purposes of No. 1 hold. 20015. That is what I wanted to get? - And it was because it was recognised that it became that that it was made watertight. 20016. Now, just as we are upon that, I think I had better ask you a question with regard to the evidence. You know there has been evidence that water was flowing into that firemen’s passage at the bottom of the spiral staircase? - There was. 20017. Was the firemen’s passage at any such point in contact with the outside skin of the ship? - No, it was 3 feet 6 inches - I have a plan showing it. The Commissioner: 3 feet 6 inches what - away from the skin of the ship? - I should have thought it was much further than that. Mr. Rowlatt: I should have thought so too, my Lord. The Witness: I have a plan showing it. (Producing the same.) The Commissioner: Now I understand it. 20018. (Mr. Rowlatt.) Would you look at this blueprint for a moment, Mr. Wilding? - I have a copy. 20019. You show here the two spiral staircases? - Yes, two spiral staircases, one port and one starboard. 20020. Now, on either side of those there is an upright white line representing a division, is there not? - A watertight wall. 20021. Is that a watertight wall? - Yes, it is a watertight wall to the trunk containing the stair, the side wall. 20022. And the 3 feet 6 inches that you mention is that from the corner at the bottom of that watertight wall to the skin of the ship? - I think it scales a little less, about 3 feet 3 inches from the corner horizontally to the shell of the ship. 20023. Is that the nearest point at which that cavity in which the spiral staircases are approaches to the skin of the ship? - That is right. 20024. So that is it a fair deduction to say that if water from the sea was running into that spiral staircase space something must have penetrated the ship through the skin for 3 feet 3 inches, and then through iron, the thickness of which you will tell us by and bye, of the watertight compartment again? - That it must have come far enough in through the side of the ship to