Page 38 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 14 - 18

you can have one, but by the time you have rung for him to come up, and he has come up, you could have taken it yourself and be back again. 16632. (The Commissioner.) You are close to him? - We are close to the Captain on the “Titanic.” 16633. (The Solicitor-General.) And would it be part of the duty of you or Phillips, as the case may be, to get such messages delivered? - Yes. 16634. If the message is addressed to the Captain, is it your duty to give it to him personally, or where do you put it, or what do you do with it? - It is our duty to ascertain somehow or other, that the message is delivered to the Captain to give it to a responsible man - the Captain’s steward - or take it ourselves. 16635. I think you told the Attorney-General that there had been a number of messages during the voyage, of different sorts, for the Captain? Is that so? - Yes. 16636. As far as you know, were those messages delivered? - Yes. 16637. As far as they came, when you were on duty, did you deliver them? - I delivered them myself. I delivered several that came when Phillips was on duty. 16638. Are these messages that came to the ship for the Captain paid for message by message, or are they included in some rate? - Some of them may be paid for; they may be messages from passengers on other ships; they may be Master’s service messages, or they may be franked messages from the office, or from the Captain of another ship to our Captain. 16639. Let us take the Master’s service messages - we have heard of them? - They deal with the navigation of the ship, and anything relating to the shipping company. 16640. Are those paid for message by message? - No, they are free between ship and ship. 16641. And supposing it was the other way about - supposing Captain Smith was sending a message which was a Master’s service message to another ship, would that be paid for, or does that go free? - That is likewise free. 16642. Now let us take the messages for passengers? - If Captain Smith was sending a message to passenger it would go free of charge, because the Marconi Company allow the Captain and the officers of the ship a grant of so many words free of charge. 16643. It is my fault; I did not quite mean that. You had passengers on board, I suppose who wanted to send messages? - Yes. 16644. Now, when they want to send a message what is done? Is it written down, or how does it happen? - The passenger goes to the purser’s office, is handed a form, and writes down his telegram, and the purser charges him for it, and, incidentally, it works back to the Marconi Company. 16645. (The Commissioner.) And the money is paid how? - To the purser on the majority of ships. 16646. And does the purser account to the Marconi Company for the amount of money at the end of the voyage? - Yes. In the case of the “Titanic” the message was sent up by a pneumatic tube to our office. 16647. (The Solicitor-General.) Sent up by pneumatic tube from the purser’s office to you? - Yes. Here was a ship going to America with a number of people on board, some of them Americans; can you tell us by the time you got into touch with the mainland, with Cape Race, had you got an accumulation of messages waiting to be sent to America? 16648. (The Commissioner.) He told us that, you know? The Witness: I had a very large accumulation. 16649. (The Commissioner - To the Witness.) Phillips worked them off. How are you paid? - I am paid by the Marconi Company. 16650. Yes. I did not mean that, but are you paid a fixed salary or according to the number of messages? - We are paid a fixed salary.