Page 44 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

The Commissioner: Better, not worse. Mr. Edwards: I am using the term “less” not as a standard of conduct, but as a term of measurement. The Commissioner: Do not slip it by. The Witness: In terms of measurement, yes. The Commissioner: It is better than Lloyd’s requirements. It is so little that in my opinion it makes no difference. The Witness: I quite agree, my Lord. Mr. Edwards: I was rather on the arithmetic than the ethics, my Lord. (To the Witness.) Now you have Lloyd’s Regulations? - I have them. 20644. You can take it from me that that is not necessarily to be familiar with them. That is a confession. I suppose you are in the ordinary way quite familiar with Lloyd’s requirements? - Quite fairly so. 20645. And you are also familiar with their practice? - Yes, in general terms; I am not a Lloyd’s Surveyor, but in general terms, yes. 20646. When a ship is being built for classification at Lloyd’s, the practice is for a Lloyd’s Surveyor to be put on to superintend the whole construction of the ship from start to finish? - One Surveyor does not just take one ship. Usually what happens is, one or two Surveyors, according to the size of the yard, and the number of yards, take all the ships being classed for Lloyd’s in that yard. 20647. And from start to finish they exercise superintendence? - In general terms; and if they see anything going wrong they interfere. 20648. I am not suggesting there was anything going wrong, but there was no such check anyhow in the case of the construction of the “Titanic”? - Yes, two checks. 20649. Well, what were they? - In the first place by our own assistant managers watching them for the purpose of informing the office whether their requirements were being carried out. In the next place, the Board of Trade Surveyors are constantly in the ship from the very time the keel is laid. They are checking the thing right through. 20650. The first check is not an independent check in the sense of being independent of the firm constructing the ship? - No, but it is independent of the people who are actually building the ship, because it works in this way, that if the Assistant Manager, outside finds that the plans are not in some instance being complied with, he has to report the matter, and the work is put right at the expense of the workmen who have made the blunder. 20651. That is to say, one department checks another? - Yes. 20652. Now with regard to the Board of Trade Surveyor, how often did he turn up during the construction of the “Titanic”? - I really could not say; probably something in the nature of 2,000 or 3,000 times. 20653. Are there any Rules and Regulations similar to Lloyd’s or either of the other classification societies by which the Surveyor of the Board of Trade is guided? - You must ask the Board of Trade as to how he is guided. I believe the Board of Trade are pretty familiar - quite as familiar as I am - with Lloyd’s and the other classification societies’ rules. 20654. I have no doubt, but I only want to get this. So far, at all events, as you were concerned as one of the responsible officials in the construction of the “Titanic,” you were never referred for any one single particular to any standard or regulation required by the Board of Trade? - Except that, of course, we know what their standard is - their standard, like every other engineer’s, is previous practice. We know what they have been satisfied with in previous practice, and we take care we are not below that standard. 20655. I do not want to be at cross purposes. I am not talking about complying with what, in the experience of the Board of Trade’s Surveyor, is required, but so far as you personally know