Page 82 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 14 - 18

Lightoller. The Commissioner: I know that; I have heard that already. 17416. (Mr. Scanlan - To the Witness.) Were you told when this report was made on the absence of glasses that there were none intended for the look-out? - Yes, they told us that, or told Symons that, and he told us. 17417. Was that what was conveyed to you? - Yes. 17418. Then you had to accept that as the provision of the ship? - That is it. 17419. If you had complained would you have got yourself into trouble with your superior officers? - No, I should have been told the same, I suppose. 17420. Have your eyes been tested? - I got tested at Washington in the Marine Hospital lately, while I have been at Washington. 17421. That is since the accident? - Yes. 17422. (The Commissioner.) Were your eyes all right? - Yes. The Attorney-General: I think they were tested before. 17423. (The Commissioner.) But you have had your eyes tested since the accident? - Yes. 17424. And they have been found all right? - Yes. 17425. (Mr. Scanlan.) When were your eyes tested before the accident? - I do not know; it may have been a couple of years or a year. 17426. When were they tested, and where? - Southampton, by the Board of Trade. 17427. When this test was made by the Board of Trade, was it made by a doctor? - Oh, I do not know; it got done by the Board of Trade; I do not know who it was through. The Commissioner: I should have thought that any person who knew how to do it could easily test eyesight. I daresay you know how it is done? Mr. Scanlan: There is some importance attaching to this, because there is a rule of the Board of Trade about this. The Commissioner: What is it? Mr. Scanlan: I understand that a test is supposed to be made, but I am told it is not invariably carried out, and I am instructed to direct your Lordship’s attention to it in connection with the rules, and I thought it would be a convenient part of the examination to do so. The Commissioner: Quite. 17428. (Mr. Scanlan - To the Witness.) Now I want to ask you this question. Before you left the “Titanic” did you observe the lights of any ship in your neighbourhood? - Well, there was a light on the port bow. 17429. Did you see this light on the port bow before you left the crow’s-nest? - No, it must have been about 1 o’clock. Did you observe it before you left the “Titanic”? 17430. (The Commissioner.) He says he saw it at 1 o’clock. (To the Witness.) When did you leave the “Titanic” - at what time? - I think I got into the water in the boat about 1 o’clock. 17431. And it was about that time that you saw this light? - Or just a little before it - about that time. 17432. (Mr. Scanlan.) Will you describe to my Lord the kind of light it was? - A white light. 17433. (The Commissioner.) What did you think it was? - I had no idea; I just saw a light, that is all. 17434. You did not know whether it was a masthead light or a stern light, or what it was? - No. 17435. Did you know it was the light of some ship? - Yes. 17436. (Mr. Scanlan.) During this last watch of yours on the “Titanic” from 10 to 12, did you hear at any time from the bridge, or get any advice from the bridge about the look-out you were to keep? - No. 17437. Or about ice being expected? - No. The only order we got was from Symons, to keep a