Page 196 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

Sir Robert Finlay: I beg your pardon. The Attorney-General: What I am dealing with is what my Lord said, because I was doing this in consequence of a statement which I made earlier in the case, when your Lordship said you would like evidence about it, and I said we would give it. In consequence of that somebody at the Board of Trade has prepared a memorandum giving the history with regard to various countries. Your Lordship says you do not require that particularly if it is right to say that the requirements according to the German scale are sufficiently large to provide boat accommodation to carry all the passengers and crew on the “Titanic.” The Commissioner: I did not quite say that. What I meant was this. I want to know what are the German requirements with reference to the number carried in the ship, the requirements as to lifeboat accommodation: I want to compare them with the English requirements, and see what the difference in percentage is. I understand Mr. Maurice Hill to tell me that the percentage in the “Titanic” would be 33 percent., the percentage in one of the two German boats 36 percent, and in the other 38 percent. The Attorney-General: Does my friend mean by that that according to the requirements of the German law the boats would have accommodated 36 percent. and 38 percent of the human life on board the vessel? The Commissioner: No. Mr. Maurice Hill: The maximum human life which according to the German law could be carried on the vessel. The Commissioner: That is what I understand. It may be the figures are wrong, but, if the figures are right, then I think I have sufficient information. Mr. Maurice Hill: I am going to check my arithmetic, because I did it somewhat hurriedly, and it may be wrong. Sir Robert Finlay: I think it would be convenient that this general statement with regard to the laws of foreign countries and requirements should be handed in. It is not necessary to read it, but it may be convenient to refer to it, and it is highly desirable that when a memorandum of this kind has been drawn up giving information it should be available for future use. 22496. (The Attorney-General.) There is no difficulty about it; it can be done. (To the Witness.) I do not know whether you have made a calculation or whether anybody at the Board of Trade has made this calculation of the number of boats which would have been required according to German requirements for the “Titanic”? - No, I have not had a comparison of that made, but I have the particulars about the large German ships. Sir Robert Finlay: At page 538 of the Notes your Lordship will find a statement with regard to the “President Lincoln” and the “President Grant,” and a Note with regard to the British Board of Trade requirements, the American law requirements, and the German law requirements. The Note is what is most immediately in point in regard to your Lordship’s question. “The British Board of Trade require 9,625 cubic feet; the American law requires 11,520 cubic feet; and the German law requires 13,343 cubic feet” of boat accommodation in each vessel. The Commissioner: There is a difference there of 50 percent. The Attorney-General: Yes; I cannot understand my friend’s figures. However, we shall not get any further by discussing it now, but what we must do is to calculate them and agree upon them, and then we will give your Lordship a tabulated statement which has been agreed between us with regard to it. Sir Robert Finlay: Yes. The Commissioner: Who was it who produced those statistics? Sir Robert Finlay: Mr. Wilding, my Lord. It was a statement handed in while Mr. Wilding was in the box. Mr. Laing says at Question 20887: “It is the particulars of the ‘President Lincoln’ and the ‘President Grant’ which Mr. Wilding told us about; and he has tabulated on a piece of paper