Page 149 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

Yes. 22187. Showing that the vessel has complied with the requirements which he makes for the purpose of the survey? - Yes. The Attorney-General: Your Lordship has already had the particular one relating to the “Titanic” put in evidence. The Commissioner: Yes. 22188. (The Attorney-General - To the Witness.) I do not think I need trouble you to go further in detail with regard to that; I only want to get the practice. On receipt of the Surveyor’s Declaration is a passenger’s certificate issued by the Marine Department under Section 274 of the Act? - Yes, that is exactly the procedure. 22189. Do you give that certificate? - I give that certificate and sign it. 22190. I do not want to go into it in detail - it can be given if necessary, but it does not seem to me that it would help - but substantially did the “Titanic” in complying with the requirements of the British Merchant Shipping Acts and the Statutory Regulations and Requirements of the Board of Trade generally, comply with the Requirements of the United States law? - That is so. 22191. That is the substance of it; they are not identical, but they are certainly substantially similar for these purposes. Now I want to take you to emigrant ships. Besides the passenger certificate to which I have referred the “Titanic” was also required to comply with the requirements as an emigrant ship? - Exactly. 22192. (The Attorney-General.) An “emigrant ship,” your Lordship will find defined by Section 268, which is on page 5 of the Abstract, and Section 364, which is on page 46 of the Abstract. I do not think really your Lordship need trouble very much about page 46. It extends the voyages to which it is to apply, that is all. Substantially what it amounts to is, that it is a British or foreign ship which carries in any voyage from the British Isles to any port out of Europe, and not within the Mediterranean Sea more than 50 steerage passengers. The Witness: Quite right. 22193. Or, as it is also put, “a greater number of steerage passengers than the proportion of one statute adult for every 20 tons of the registered tonnage of a steamship.” Is that right? - Quite right. 22194. And as my friend, Sir Robert, quite rightly says a “statute adult” is a person of 12 years or upwards. I do not think that is very material to go into. The Board of Trade have issued, relating to emigrant ships, a book called Instructions for the guidance of Emigration Officers appointed to carry into effect the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts relating to Emigrant Ships? - Yes. 22195. That your Lordship also has. It is a document, a yellow book called “Instructions relating to Emigrant Ships.” There is very little in it with which your Lordship need be troubled. (To the Witness.) With regard to emigrant ships, the object is not only to secure their seaworthiness and proper equipment, but also to provide a reasonable minimum of accommodation for emigrant passengers? - That is so. 22196. And also that adequate and sufficient food is given, and so forth? - Yes. 22197. There is a provision which is relevant at any rate to some of the questions which have been put, for the meaning of emigrant ships? - Yes. 22198. That your Lordship will find at page 24 of the Abstract of the Act. It is Section 305 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894. “Every emigrant ship shall be manned with an efficient crew for her intended voyage to the satisfaction of the Emigration Officer from whom a certificate for clearance for such ship is demanded; after the crew have been passed by the Emigration Officer, the strength of the crew shall not be diminished nor any of the men changed without the consent in writing,” and so on. Then Sub-Section (3) gives the right of appeal. “If the Emigration Officer considers the crew inefficient.” The only thing that occurs to me as material at present in the