Page 206 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

the crew shall consist of. Are you acquainted with this document? - Yes. 22586. Will you please read this and tell me if this printed matter at the top has reference to the manning? (The document was handed to the Witness.) - Yes, it is such minute print that I can hardly read it. That is the agreement between the men and the master of the ship. 22587. That is the agreement which the Board of Trade revise and assent to? - It has to be entered into in the presence of the superintendent. 22588. Have the details given there any relation to what the Board of Trade considers sufficient? - I can only put it to you in this broad way. The Emigration Officer before he clears the vessel has to be satisfied that she is properly and efficiently manned, and the instructions that he is given are only as a sort of guide to him in what his requirements should be. 22589. Those are the only instructions? - I think those are the only instructions. Mr. Scanlan: May I take it from you that there are no instructions issued acting on which an officer of your Board would be in a position to demand that there should be for a ship like the “Titanic” a crew of anything like the proportions of the crew carried. The Commissioner: I do not understand that question. Mr. Scanlan: I mean your requirements, I submit, are not at all up to what the owners evidently consider a proper crew for the “Titanic.” The Commissioner: I do not know what you mean. You talk about “your requirements,” addressing Sir Walter. Mr. Scanlan: I mean the Board of Trade. The Commissioner: I know, but I do not know what their requirements are. 22590. (Mr. Scanlan.) Quite, my Lord. (To the Witness.) You have, I take it, a general power - I think it is under the Act of 1906 - to regard a ship which is insufficiently manned as unseaworthy? - Yes. 22591. But you have not yet drawn up a manning scale expressing the view of the Board as to what is a sufficient and a deficient crew? - That is so. 22592. I was asking you a moment ago if this question had been brought under the notice of the Board, and you stated that it had. I want to ask you this further question. Was it brought under the notice of the Board of Trade, both on behalf of the seamen and on behalf of owners? - I do not quite follow your question. 22593. (The Commissioner.) It is a plain enough question. - I do not know what he means by “on behalf of owners.” The Commissioner: What he means to say is this: Did the owners bring the matter to your notice, and did the Unions bring the matter to your notice? That is what he means by the seamen - the Unions. 22594. (Mr. Scanlan.) Mr. Havelock Wilson, in particular? - The Unions certainly have often desired a manning scale. 22595. Have the shipowners themselves desired a manning scale? - I do not recollect that they have. Mr. Scanlan: I take it that it has been brought forward by the men? The Commissioner: Do not deal with this too long. You must remember that this is a little bit away from our Enquiry, because it has not been suggested that there were not enough men in the engine room. Mr. Scanlan: On the contrary, my Lord. I say I have no fault whatever to find with the number of men in the engine room, but that in the conduct of their department which your Lordship is asked to go into in this Question 26, it is relevant to consider what Rules they had made for the manning in the engine room. The Commissioner: I do not say it is irrelevant, but inasmuch as there is no complaint against the manning of the engine room in the “Titanic,” I point out to you that it is not, in this Enquiry,