Page 60 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

ask you now, did it crumple up? - No, it did not crumple up. 20846. Did it give? - It was slightly dented. Mr. Harbinson: I thought so. The Commissioner: If you thought it was slightly dented, why did you translate “slightly dented” into “crumpling up like tinder”? Mr. Harbinson: That is Mr. Wilding’s description. The Commissioner: But you told us you thought so. Mr. Harbinson: That is his euphemistic way of describing what I have previously suggested. 20847. (The Commissioner.) It gave under pressure? - Under pretty big pressure. 20848. (Mr. Harbinson.) Did not that suggest to you that this thin skin would give when subjected to pressure? - It depends upon the amount of the pressure. 20849. And would not that have suggested to you as builders the desirability of having a second skin in these boats up to the waterline? - I do not see it follows in any way. We do not build ships to bang into stone walls or come into collision. 20850. But you build them to avert a catastrophe, if possible? - Reasonable precautions against it. 20851. That did not suggest to you the desirability of having a second skin? - Certainly not. I believe the denting was so slight - The Commissioner: Will you answer the questions, and do not dilate upon them. 20852. (Mr. Harbinson.) Do you think it would be possible to install in these boats some kind of mechanism for giving a general alarm in cases of supreme danger? - It is quite possible to install such a mechanism. 20853. Was that mechanism installed in the cases of the “Olympic” and the “Titanic”? - No, and it would be most unwise to put it there. 20854. (The Commissioner.) Have you ever known of such an installation in other boats? - I do not remember one, my Lord. 20855. (Mr. Harbinson.) In answer to a question of mine, Question 19519: “Would it not be possible, in consequence of what you have just said, to place a number of boats for third class women somewhere about the well deck?” Mr. Sanderson said: “It would be a very inconvenient place to carry a boat, and almost an impossible place to launch a boat from, because of the overhang.” Do you agree that it would be an inconvenient place to carry boats? - It would, very. 20856. That is an inconvenient place to carry boats to swing out. Would it be an inconvenient place to carry collapsible boats? - Yes. 20857. Why? - Because the deck is part of the accommodation clear deck space which we are required by law to provide for third class passengers. 20858. I suggest it would be possible to provide it further forward? - But you were asking a moment ago about the well. 20859. Yes, but I mean at the afterpart of the ship? - Certainly. 20860. Would it be possible to carry boats, if not open boats, collapsible boats and rafts? - Quite; there are a large number on the boat deck of the “Olympic” now. 20861. Mr. Sanderson expressed the opinion with reference to the third class passengers at Question 19517, “I think that the position in which the boats are placed on the ship necessarily being the position which is the best for launching them, happens to be abreast of that portion of the ship in which the first- and second-class passengers are carried, and, therefore, when the call for women and children came the women and children who were handiest came to the boats first, and that is the reason.” He means for the large number who were drowned. Do not you think it would be desirable to make provision for third class passengers by providing boats of some kind at the aft of the ship? - That was one thing in Mr. Sanderson’s evidence that I did not altogether agree with.