Page 42 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

Mr. Edwards: That is so, my Lord. The Commissioner: You suggested that. Mr. Edwards: Yes. The Commissioner: Well now, I have not heard from you - you promised to give me the information, you know, what the requirements of Lloyd’s would be in the case of a ship of this size. Mr. Edwards: What I promised to do was at the right moment, if necessary, by expert witnesses, to supply you with that information. But I may say at once that my next question but one to this witness will disclose on this particular point what is the standard of Lloyd’s in respect of it. The Commissioner: Very well, we will get it from him then, not from you. 20626. (Mr. Clement Edwards.) Now, Mr. Wilding, will you take the bulkhead in front of Boiler Section 6? - Yes. You want the height of this D bulkhead from the tank top? 20627. Yes? - 44 feet. The Commissioner: Mr. Edwards, the Professor on my left points out to me that my question referred to a bunker bulkhead, and not to a watertight bulkhead. Mr. Edwards: I think with respect, my Lord, that in that case the bulkhead between Sections 5 and 6 does not run fair across the ship, but there is for the purpose of allowing for the bunker an angle running back. The Commissioner: There is, that is quite true - a sort of alleyway. Mr. Edwards: Yes, my Lord; that is to say, if I may use it in this way; the ordinary bulkhead runs, of course, fair across the ship. In this particular case, as I understand it, the inner wall - The Commissioner: That is quite right, but what I was pointing out to you - my attention having been drawn to it - was that my question as to the rush of water contained a suggestion that the side of the bunker, not a watertight compartment, had given way. Mr. Edwards: With great respect, my Lord, the question arose in Barrett’s evidence. The Commissioner: Will you read it; just read it, please. I daresay you are right, but I would like you to read it. Mr. Edwards: It is on page 60, my Lord, question 2057. (Q.) “You do not think it did come over the top”? - he is speaking of the water. “(A.) No. (Q.) Now, when it came through this pass between the boilers, did it come with a rush? - (A.) Yes. (The Commissioner.) I suppose he means by that as if something had given way. (The Solicitor-General.) So it came in with a Lord’s question.” That is not usually associated with a rush. “He is asking whether, when you said that, you got the impression that something had given way? - (A.) That was my idea. (The Commissioner.) Something that had been holding the water back gave way? - (A.) That is my idea, my Lord. (The Solicitor-General.) So it came with a rush.” The Commissioner: Go on, please. Mr. Edwards: “How fast did it fall? - (A.) I never stopped to look. I went up the ladder. Mr. Harvey told me to go up. (The Commissioner.) Could it have been a bunker bulkhead that gave way, do you think? - (A.) I have no idea on that, but that is the bunker that was holding the water back. (Q.) It was the bunker that was holding the water back? - (A.) Yes. (The Solicitor- General.) It is entirely my fault, but I have not followed the meaning of that.” Then take Question 2074, at the top of page 61: “You cannot tell what part of the watertight bulkhead it was which gave way? - (A.) No.” The Commissioner: Is that my question? Mr. Edwards: No, my Lord; that is the Solicitor-General’s question. The Commissioner: I was going to say, if it was my question, it was not a well-instructed question. As the Solicitor-General asked it, I will not make that observation. 20628. (Mr. Clement Edwards.) It was not a Lord’s question, my Lord. (To the Witness.) This