Page 67 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

engine room floor you will notice, your Lordship, is missing there; the plating has been taken off showing the box of the float underneath the plating. I believe when my friend, the Attorney- General, visited the “Olympic” a compartment was flooded for demonstration purposes to see whether it worked? - Yes, the turbine engine room. 20951. Did it work? - Yes. 20952. (The Commissioner.) Were you astonished? - No, I expected it. 20953. (Mr. Laing.) Now I want to sum up, to see if I understand properly the flooding plan. If No. 6 boiler room and the compartments forward of it are flooded, am I right that the vessel, as she is designed, is lost - she must sink? - If No. 6 boiler room and the three holds forward of it, and the forepeak are flooded, the ship is undoubtedly lost as built. 20954. If No. 5 boiler room is flooded in addition, supposing the bulkheads had been carried up to D, would that have saved her? - It would not. There is a plan which I have put in which is marked E. The Commissioner: Will you repeat that question? 20955. (Mr. Laing.) If No. 5 boiler section is flooded carrying the bulkheads up to D would not save the vessel? - No. There is another plan which shows it better than the one your Lordship has. Yes, that is the one. (indicating). 20956. And the last question is: With No. 4 section added on, no possible arrangement could save the ship? - No possible vertical extension of the existing bulkheads. Mr. Laing: That is what I meant. The Commissioner: What is the evidence, Mr. Laing, as to the place from which the water came into No. 4 boiler room? Mr. Laing: I do not think there is any evidence as to where it came in. All the evidence is that it came up from under the floor. The Commissioner: Is it possible that it came over the top of the bulkhead between No. 4 boiler room and No. 5 boiler room? Mr. Laing: I do not think so - not on the evidence. The Witness: It would be visible coming down the bulkhead if it did. He would not get the impression it came up from below, but he would see it falling down. 20957. (Mr. Laing.) He would hear it probably too? - He would hear it also. He would certainly see it, because it would be coming in like a sheet in front of him - like a waterfall. Mr. Laing: Mr. Wilding has added, my Lord, that not only would one have seen the water coming over, but would have heard it falling down, if it had come over the top of the bulkhead. The Commissioner: Thank you. The evidence on this point is very small. Mr. Laing: It is; there are about two men only, as far as I know, who speak to it. I read them to your Lordship on the last occasion. Sir Robert Finlay: I think your Lordship put this point to one of the witnesses within the last two or three days, I forget to which - I am looking for the passage. It is showing that there must have been some external lesion in this compartment. The Commissioner: What is suggested to me is that possibly there was no external lesion in this No. 4 boiler room. The evidence seems to point to the fact that there was an external lesion. Sir Robert Finlay: Yes; I think your Lordship put the point specifically. I will find the passage presently. The Commissioner: Very well. 20958. (Mr. Laing.) So far as the height of the watertight bulkhead is concerned upon the “Titanic,” as designed, how does that comply with the Board of Trade requirements, as indicated by their Bulkhead Committee Report? - The margin was about twice the margin suggested by the Bulkhead Committee. 20959. The “Titanic” was twice the margin suggested? - About twice.