Page 142 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

paper. 22074. But the two messages that you combined - I suppose you know what they were? - Yes, this is one, the same as I have - the same as I have just shown you. 22075. We have the combination, of course? - Yes. 22076. Were these messages from other ships? - No, they were received from the Captain, to be transmitted to all east-bound ships. 22077. He gave you two messages? - Yes, he gave me two messages. 22078. Have those messages been destroyed; does the paper no longer exist? - The pieces of paper he brought them on no longer exist. 22079. Is there a copy? - No, Sir, only the combination. 22080. Can you tell us what each message by itself was? - It was with reference to the ice we had seen in the morning, and the one I received later was with reference to the ice we saw in the afternoon. 22081. Can you tell us at all how they ran? - They ran something like this: “Latitude so and so, and longitude so and so, passed so many bergs,” and giving the time - the G.M.T. I received another one in the afternoon, or the evening rather, on another piece of paper with a similar report of what we had seen in the afternoon. 22082. (The Commissioner.) Why did not you send the one in the morning? - That was my first communication with the “Titanic.” 22083. I see, you had not got the time rushes? - No. 22084. Until the afternoon? - Until 7.50 p.m. 22085. And then you found there were two messages to be sent, and you made them up into one? - That is right, my Lord. The Attorney-General: And submitted them to the Captain? 22086. (Sir Robert Finlay.) When was the first one? What time in the morning was the first message? - It was in the afternoon about four o’clock, according to my recollection. 22087. (The Commissioner.) And the next one was somewhere about 7.50? - About seven o’clock. 22088. (Sir Robert Finlay.) So that this message combined what had been seen at two different portions of the day; is that it? - That is so. The Commissioner: And that explains, I suppose, the forms in which it is couched - “In latitude 42 North to 41.25, longitude 49 West to longitude 50.30 West”? The Attorney-General: Yes. Sir Robert Finlay: It gives the impression, of course, as it stands of that oblong, as it has been called, being much more packed together with ice than it may have been, because this is compressed. It is not: “We saw much pack ice throughout the whole of the area described by the latitude and longitude,” but “While we were in that area between the longitude given and the latitude given we saw,” and it turns out at different periods of the day “icebergs.” The Commissioner: I do not think from my point of view at present it matters at all, because it never reached the bridge. Sir Robert Finlay: That is so. (The Witness withdrew.) (After a short adjournment.) Mr. Roche: I do not know whether it is an opportune time to make a suggestion to your Lordship. My friend the Attorney-General has made an intimation as to the course of the case. It is drawing to an end with regard to witnesses, which I daresay is as welcome to your Lordship as