Page 31 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 14 - 18

16457. In talking to him, was communication established, can you tell me, with Cape Race? - No. 16458. Was it established during that evening? - Yes. 16459. Do you remember about what time? - Just before I turned in. 16460. What time would that be? - Between half-past 8 and 9 o’clock. 16461. Who established that communication? - Mr. Phillips. 16462. When did you relieve Mr. Phillips? - I was due to relieve him at 12 o’clock. 16463. At 12 o’clock that night? - Yes. 16464 Why was that? - He had had a very busy night the night before. 16465. If I understood aright, what you said to my Lord at the beginning your duty would be from 2 o’clock in the morning to 8 o’clock in the morning? - Yes. 16466. But on this particular occasion you relieved him at 12 at night? - At 12. 16467. (The Commissioner.) You came on duty then or intended to come on duty two hours before your ordinary time? - Yes. 16468. (The Attorney-General.) That was, as I understand from what you said just now, because he had had a very busy time; was that it? - Yes. The Commissioner: You said, Mr. Attorney, that he knew that Phillips had got into communication with Cape Race. I want to know how he knew that. 16469. (The Attorney-General - To the Witness.) How did you know that Phillips had got into communication with Cape Race? - I heard him sending the preliminaries as I was turning in. 16470. What do you call the “preliminaries”? - He was sending to Cape Race when I turned in the time that - 16471. (The Commissioner.) Tell me what he was saying; let me hear it, and how do you know he was sending it. He did not speak it? - I was reading what Mr. Phillips was sending, Sir, from his apparatus. 16472. I want to understand it. Phillips was sending a message by means of the machine? - Yes. 16473. Were you looking at him while he was doing it, or looking at the machine? - No. 16474. How do you know what it was that he was sending? - I could hear the make and break of his key. 16475. Do you mean to say that you listened, and by that means knew what the message was? - Yes. 16476. Why were you listening to the message? - You know, I tell you at once, Mr. Bride, your memory is of such an extraordinarily accurate kind that I wonder whether you are really giving us - I do not mean for a moment to say you are not telling us the truth, but I doubt whether you can remember such things with accuracy; I could not, but my memory is not nearly as good as yours. Do you mean to tell me that at this distance of time or from the Sunday when you landed at New York you recall having listened to a message which did not concern you, and remember what it was? - It was not a message which concerned you? - The message did concern me indirectly. 16477. In what way? - Because I had refused it in the first place when it was offered to me; I did not answer it. 16478. You have not told us that: What was that? - It was the message of the “Californian” - the ice report of the “Californian” which he had offered to me, and which was explained a minute or two ago. 16479. I thought you were talking about Cape Race? - We are talking about Cape Race now. I remember these things, because they constitute my work, and they are big things, as far as I am concerned. It was one of the biggest - 16480. If I were to ask you to give me particulars of all the messages that you had taken on the