Page 189 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

The Commissioner: Now, what was done after that? 22451. (The Attorney-General - To the Witness.) After the receipt of this Report was the Report first of all examined and considered by the Board of Trade? - Yes. 22452. Is it the practice to examine and consider it before it is laid before Parliament? - Yes, always. 22453. (The Commissioner.) I should like to know, as a matter of curiosity, what you mean by the “Board of Trade” in that connection? Who are the gentlemen? - The Marine Department. 22454. Who are the gentlemen? - The gentleman who would examine it at once would be the chief professional officer. 22455. What is his name? - The chief was at that time Captain Young. He was the professional member of the Marine Department. 22456. Would anyone else examine this Report? - He would call into counsel any other of his officers he thought necessary. 22457. Do you know whether he did call in anybody? - I am not sure; I think he did. The Attorney-General: I am going to call him. The Commissioner: Very well. 22458. (The Attorney-General.) Was this question as to the relative proportion of the depth and breadth of the lifeboats considered an important one? - An extremely important one, I know, because he told me so himself. 22459. I do not want to go into it in any detail, but the point was this, that unless you had some restriction or some Rule with regard to the relative proportion, a vessel could say it was complying with your Rules as to cubic capacity although the depth would be so great that the boats would not be able to carry the number of passengers intended? - Not properly carry them. 22460. So that it was thought necessary to have some fixed proportion between the depth and breadth so as to really make your Rule operative, so that the cubic capacity required should in boat accommodation be sufficient to carry a certain number of passengers according to your scale? - Yes, that the boat should be of a good type. 22461. We need not go further into that at the moment. Were some experiments undertaken at your chief ports? - Yes, they were; very exhaustive experiments, I believe. 22462. By local principal officers? - By local officers under Captain Young’s directions. 22463. That is one of the matters dealt with in that Report, as we see from reading it. The Commissioner: I thought the experiments were subsequent. 22464. (The Attorney-General.) So they were, but the question of the relative preparations were of importance because, in consequence of them, some new Regulations would have had to be made by the Board of Trade to carry the recommendations into effect. (To the Witness.) Before the Rules were made and in order that you should once for all make a regulation which was to apply to all future boats, you were making experiments so that you might be quite sure of your ground before you demanded that boats should have a certain proportion of depth to breadth? - That is precisely the position. 22465. When were those experiments concluded? - I think, speaking from memory, towards the end of the year. 22466. Were Rules drafted? - No. 22467. Was there an amendment of the general Rules submitted to the Department? When you had got to the end of your experiments and you had got your reports by November, 1911, in the ordinary course of things then the Board of Trade would have to give effect to those views? - Yes. 22468. If they meant to change anything they would have to amend the general Rules then in existence. That is right, is it not? - Quite. 22469. Did they draft an amendment of those general Rules? - No.