Page 154 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

dealing with bulkheads. It is Clause 16 page 8 of the book. It is in another book, to which reference has not been made, at any rate, not today. That is why I was going to read it, so that your Lordship will have it on the note. I wanted to avoid having to refer to the book. Your Lordship will find it on this separate paper, but I will read it. Mr. Edwards: May I ask through your Lordship the learned Attorney-General to allow my friends and myself to have a look at those instructions. Application has been made to purchase at the Board of Trade these particular instructions, and we have been unable to get them. The Attorney-General: That shows the advantage of applying to this Court, because my friend shall have them without purchasing them. The Commissioner: Certainly you shall see them. Mr. Edwards: Thank you very much. The Attorney-General: If my friend had applied to me he should have had them at once. “An efficient and watertight engine room and stokehold bulkhead, as well as a collision watertight bulkhead, and an after watertight compartment, to enclose the stern tube in each screw-shaft, should be fitted in all sea-going steamers, both new and old, and in the absence of any of these the case must be specially referred to the Board of Trade before a declaration is given. As regards other bulkheads, although a thorough subdivision of the ship is desirable, the Surveyors should not for the present refuse to grant a declaration because these are not fitted. The distance of the collision bulkhead from the after side of the stem measured at the level of the lower deck should not be less than one-twentieth of the vessel’s length, measured from the afterpart of the stem to the fore part of the stern post, on the range of the upper deck beams in one, two, and three decked and spar decked vessels, but on the range of the main deck beams in awning decked vessels.” In the book the next two paragraphs are struck out because they are altered by another circular. It goes on as it now is: “The collision bulkhead.” The Commissioner: No, the next paragraph I have is: “In all sea-going steamers coming under survey for passenger certificate for the first time, the following requirements regarding the height of the bulkheads should be complied with”; and then “the collision bulkhead,” etc. The Attorney-General: Then your Lordship has the modern edition, which is right. The Commissioner: What is the date of this? The Attorney-General: February, 1907; the amendment of Clause 16. The Commissioner: Apparently that is the date of the amendment. The Attorney-General: That is right. The Commissioner: But it is not the date of the original rule? The Attorney-General: No, I thought your Lordship wanted the date of the amendment. 22241. (The Commissioner.) I did, but I wanted the date of the original rule as well. I think it is 1905. The Witness: That is quite right my Lord. The Attorney-General: I am not sure whether I can give you that information. We have it as far as this, that Clause 16, at any rate, is incorporated in a book which is issued in 1905, but I am not at all satisfied that it was not in existence before, and that is what I am enquiring into. At present we will take it 1905 and we will see whether that is right. 1905 as amended in February, 1907. The Commissioner: That is the way I have taken it. You are quite right in saying it is not certain, that is the right description. The Attorney-General: No, but at any rate it is how we have got it at present. The amendment is “In all sea-going steamers coming under survey for passengers certificate for the first time, the following requirements regarding the height of the bulkheads should be complied with. The collision bulkhead is in all cases to extend to the upper deck. If an iron or steel watertight deck or flat is fitted below the upper deck at the afterend of the vessel, and forms the top of the after