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

out No. 4. If you remember, we have had evidence that they took pipes along. The Commissioner: Wait a moment. Could you, Mr. Laing, read to me the evidence with regards to the water coming into No. 4? Mr. Laing: Yes, my Lord, I have got the references to it, and it begins at page 99. The Commissioner: Well, just read it to me. Mr. Laing: I will. The Attorney-General: Before you read it let me just remind your Lordship that he is the man who went right aft when the doors were closed. I am giving you a description which will recall it. Then he comes forward to No. 4, and between No. 4 and 5 stops, and then my learned friend is going to read what happens after. The Commissioner: Who is this man? Mr. Laing: Dillon, my Lord, a trimmer. “(Q.) Did you see any water before you went up in any of the boiler rooms or the engine room? - (A.) Yes, there was water coming in forward. (Q.) The furthest point forward you reached was No. 4 boiler section? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) Was it coming in there? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) Where was it coming in? - (A.) Coming from underneath. (Q.) From underneath the floor? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) And from what part of the floor, the forward part or the afterpart? - (A.) The forward part. (Q.) Did it come in large quantities, or only in small quantities? - (A.) Small quantities. (Q.) Was there any depth of water standing on the floor? - (A.) No. (Q.) Do you mean the floor was just damp? - (A.) That is all. (Q.) And it seemed to be coming through the floor? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) Did you see any coming through the side of the ship at all? - (A.) I never noticed.” The Commissioner: That seems to me to be very unsatisfactory evidence. Mr. Laing: My Lord, there is another Witness, Cavell, at page 107. My Lord, Cavell, who was a trimmer, says this. The Commissioner: What was the other man? Mr. Laing: He was a trimmer. The Commissioner: Then this is the evidence of two trimmers? Mr. Laing: Yes, my Lord. “(Q.) What happened then,” he is being asked, “(A.) The water started coming up over her stokehold plates. (Q.) In No. 4? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) Did that happen gradually, or did it happen suddenly? - (A.) It came gradually. (Q.) The water - you moved your hand - you raised it; did it seem to come up from below? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) As far as you saw in No. 4, did any water come in from the side of the ship? - (A.) Not so far as I saw. (Q.) When the water came up through the plates, what was done then? - (A.) We stopped as long as we could. (Q.) That is right? - (A.) And then I thought to myself it was time I went for the escape ladder. (Q.) They were still drawing the fires, these men were they? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) How high did the water get above the plates they were standing on? How much water were they standing in before they left? - (A.) About a foot.” The Commissioner: Oh! Well, if that evidence merely relates to No. 4, as he says it does, it shows that water was coming in in considerable quantities. Mr. Laing: Yes, my Lord, I think that is all the evidence that there is. The Commissioner: Very well, that is sufficient. 20345. (Mr. Rowlatt.) Now, may I ask Mr. Wilding a question or two about that? (To the Witness.) With regard to the evidence of the wound to the side of the ship, which you remember Barrett said was above the foot plate, apparently it terminated in No. 5? - It terminated in the bunker at the forward end of No. 5. 20346. Have you got any theory as to the extent to which the outside of the ship was damaged in No. 4? - There is a space between the stokehold plate on which the men stand and the tanktop, and the inference that I drew from the evidence that was given by Dillon was that an attempt was being made to pump out this water which the engineers found coming in, and that that was the