Page 199 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

was less than the boating accommodation apparently required by the Rules. Then, of course, the discrepancy to which your Lordship called attention between the apparent requirements of the Board of Trade Rules and the German Rules, and the percentage worked out by my friend Mr. Maurice Hill, which was based upon the actual boating of the “Titanic,” and these two vessels - that disappears. The Attorney-General: That explains what I could not follow in the percentages which my friend Mr. Hill was giving. Sir Robert Finlay: I daresay we shall be able to get possibly some information of whether there is any ground for supposing that in practice the German requirements are not always insisted upon. The Attorney-General: It is rather difficult to get that. The Commissioner: I daresay it is. According to the statement of the Attorney-General, whether they are insisted upon or not, they are not complied with. The Attorney-General: That is what I find by reference to the “President Grant” and the “President Lincoln,” which are the two instances we have before us. The Commissioner: According to his statement, the requirements are one thing and the compliance with them quite a different thing. 22528. (The Attorney-General.) It may be - we shall have to look into it and see - that there is some dispensing power in regard to the German Regulations and that possibly that is the explanation of it - that although it does not comply with the scale, nevertheless it may be in compliance with the German law as administered. (To the Witness.) I would like to ask you this. With reference both to the American and the German Rules which you have put before us, am I right in this, that neither the American nor the German Rules provide that there should be boating accommodation for all on board? - That is quite right. 22529. And, further, that both of them are based on gross tonnage? - Quite right. 22530. Can you tell me - I am asking this question because I think it will save your Lordship going through so many documents - what is the case with reference to other countries? Take, for example, France. How do the Rules of France compare with our own requirements of boats? - I think they are reasonably approximate to our own. I think I may say that of most of the other countries. Some are a little more and some a little less, but they are reasonably approximate to our own. The Attorney-General: It does not seem to me, subject to anything that your Lordship may desire, that it is useful to compare them unless there is a real substantial difference between them. 22531. (The Commissioner.) As far as I am concerned, I do not want to trouble you with the German Rules. The Witness: I have a half-sheet of paper here containing a few particulars which, I think, really crystallise the matter. It will show you all the facts. 22532. (The Attorney-General.) May I see it. (The document was handed to the Attorney- General.) I think this is quite useful, it gives the information in a very compendious form, and unless your Lordship thinks it will not assist you I will have it put on the Notes, so that it will be available to everybody. (The document was handed to the Commissioner.) It is a Table showing the minimum requirements of the Life-saving Appliances Rules of certain foreign countries for a vessel of just over 10,000 tons. (To the Witness.) That, if I understand it correctly, only shows the minimum requirements for a vessel of just over 10,000 tons? - Quite so. 22533. It does not help us as to the requirements for a vessel, say, of 46,000 tons? - Quite so. The Commissioner: I do not see that it is of much value. 22534. (The Attorney-General.) It does not seem to me to be of much value if that is all it shows - a vessel of just over 10,000 tons? - My point is that we have accepted that as reasonably