Page 175 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

The Commissioner: Yes, I noticed it. Mr. Edwards pointed it out just now. Sir Robert Finlay: It might, further, involve a good many more men on board than were wanted for the navigation of the ship, to deal with those boats? The Commissioner: Yes. The Attorney-General: Of course, you have to man them all. The Commissioner: By degrees you may reach a state of things which makes it impossible to send these boats to sea, commercially. You may reach such a point. The Attorney-General: I have already indicated to your Lordship that the argument which I shall use will be that it is much more important to make your ship as near as unsinkable as you can than to provide boats? The Commissioner: Of course it is. 22349. (The Attorney-General.) Although no doubt there is value to be attributed to providing boats as well. (To the Witness.) I was coming to this to get it before my Lord historically. In 1890 new Rules were made by the Board of Trade. That is the question I was on? - The first Rules were made on the recommendations of this Committee. 22350. In 1890? - Yes. May I say something? I know the Committee had in mind the commercial considerations referred to by Lord Mersey, and I think they took these words in the section as covering this: “Having regard to the nature of the service on which the ship is employed, and the avoidance of undue encumbrance of the ship’s deck.” They thought that met it sufficiently. The Attorney-General: It is in the Merchant Shipping Act, at any rate. Sir Robert Finlay: Where is that? 22351. (The Attorney-General.) Those words occur in the first Section of the Act of 1888. (To the Witness.) What actually happened was, the Rules which were made by the Board of Trade in consequence of the Committee’s recommendations would in the ordinary course have come into force on the 31st March, 1890? - That is so. 22352. The Committee met again in 1890, and as a result of that they formulated some new Rules which were put before the Board of Trade; they were then presented to Parliament and were to come into force on the 1st November, 1890. That is right, is it not? - Yes, I think that is right. 22353. That brings it to this, that they were to come into force on the 1st November, 1890. And one of those Rules provided that boats, and rafts additional to boats under davits, should provide in the aggregate three-fourths more than the minimum cubic contents of the boats under davits? - Yes. 22354. That is the Rule we have had referred to and which we have discussed. Now, the New Rules that were made subsequent to that after the Life-Saving Appliances Committee had met again in 1893, were Rules which were presented to Parliament and which were to come into effect on the 1st June, 1894? - Yes. 22355. Those are the Rules which are contained, with certain alterations, in this book to which we have just been referring? - Yes. 22356. That is, the Rules made by the Board of Trade under Section 427 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894? - Yes. 22357. And the alterations that are made are not material for the purpose of the point we are considering, are they? - Not in the least; they were quite minor alterations. 22358. I only want to get to the point we are considering. It is useless to give his Lordship all the documents leading up to this. On page 17 of this book we get to the Table which is actually in force at the present moment? - Yes. 22359. That is what we are concerned with, and that is the Table which came into force on the 1st June, 1894? - No, that only went up to 9,000 tons. The present one goes up to 10,000 and