Page 57 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

20808. Will you show it to me? - Certainly, my Lord. (Handing the same to the Commissioner.) Sir Robert Finlay: I am told by Mr. Furniss that he had the German and French regulations on this subject, and has handed them to the Board of Trade. Mr. Butler Aspinall: Yes. The Commissioner: You have got them? Sir Robert Finlay: We have handed them to the Board of Trade, and they have them. The Commissioner: Then I will not pursue this. Mr. Butler Aspinall: We have all the various regulations, my Lord. The Witness: There is one point which I think will interest you, my Lord, before we pass from that. There are other German ships which we have built which are still smaller. 20809-10. (The Commissioner.) You did not build the “Imperator”? - No, she was built by the Vulkan Company, of Stettin, at their Hamburg yard; but we have built some other ships under the German flag which carry an even larger number of passengers than either the “Titanic” or the “Amerika,” and I have particulars here. I got them because they are the ships which carry the largest number of passengers of any ships which have ever been built, and I have particulars here of their boat accommodation. 20811. And what do you find? - I find that the proportion of the total accommodation in the boats provided to the total number of souls on board is much about the same as in the “Titanic.” In one ship, the “President Lincoln,” the number of souls on board in our records is shown to be 4,108, and the boat accommodation provides for 1,465 people. 20812. Did you build that boat? - We did, my Lord. 20813. Is she sailing still? - She is, my Lord. 20814. And under the German flag? - Yes. Examined by Mr. HARBINSON. 20815. All these huge steamers which you have mentioned in your evidence to my Lord were built on the theory that you built the “Olympic” and the “Titanic” on as regards unsinkability? - Yes, I may say that for the very large German ships, the equivalent of our Board of Trade, the “Seeberuffsgenossenschaft,” make it a requirement that a ship shall float with any two compartments flooded. 20816. Therefore, it was on the basis of unsinkability that this number of lifeboats was provided? - Pardon me; “unsinkability” does not describe the thing quite rightly. It is that ships shall remain afloat with any two compartments flooded. 20817. I will say, on the theory of floatability, two compartments being submerged? - Quite right. 20818. It was on this basis that the number of boats were apportioned? - Quite right. 20819. But that now that theory, being more or less destroyed - The Commissioner: What theory? Mr. Harbinson: The theory of floatability with two compartments submerged. The Commissioner: I do not know that it has been destroyed at all. The Witness: The theory or statement is still correct that the ship would float with any two compartments flooded. 20820-1. In your view, if only two compartments of the “Titanic” had been full of water, would she have floated? - She would undoubtedly, and if any three compartments at the forward part had been flooded. 20822. Then I do not see that the theory has been misplaced? - Not at all, my Lord. The Commissioner: Four or perhaps more of the compartments were flooded in this case?