Page 91 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

21317. Were you? - Was I? 21318. Yes? - No. 21319. Well, that seems to me to be a grudging “No”? - Not in the very least. 21320. Well, who was? - The owners, in the first place, who would have to pay for them, would be consulted. 21321. We know perfectly well the owners left the whole thing to Harland and Wolff. Now, who was responsible for saying, “So many lifeboats shall be put on this boat and no more”? - The White Star and other friends give us a great deal of liberty, but at the same time we cannot build a ship any bigger than they order, or put anything in her more than they are prepared to pay for. We have a very free hand, and always have had; but I do not think that we could possibly have supplied any more boats to the ship without getting the sanction and the order of the White Star Line. th 21322. Did you try? - You must remember that I retired on the 30 of June, 1910, prior to the ship being launched. 21323. Yes, but I suppose the boats were made, or ordered, before the ship was launched? - Oh, no, they are very often, and in that case they would be left - a great many of them - till after the launch, because it takes so many months to finish a big ship. 21324. Do you suggest that there were not, according to the views which were entertained at that time, a sufficient number of boats on board the “Titanic”? - Personally I consider there were not enough. 21325. You consider what? - There were not enough boats. 21326. Did you ever say so? - I have said so over and over again. 21327. To whom? - I have said it in the works. 21328. To whom? You do not go and talk generally in the works at large. To whom did you say it? - Well, I said it at the Merchant Shipping Advisory Committee on the 19th and 26th of May. 21329. What year? - 1911, before either of the ships went to sea. 21330. To whom did you say it? - I said it to the entire meeting, whoever was present heard me say it. 21331. Who were there? - I could not name their names. 21332. Cannot you name one or two who heard you? - These same plans which were passed round the table - 21333. Answer the question? - I am very bad at names. 21334. Give me the names of one or two who heard you? - Well, I think the Chairman of the Cunard Company was there for one. 21335. Do you mean Mr. Booth? - Mr. Booth. 21336. Well? - And I think a representative of the Underwriters. 21337. Was any representative of the White Star there? - None that I know of. 21338. Now we will leave that body, whoever they were. Will you tell me to which of the representatives of the White Star Line you ever said: “The ‘Olympic’ and the ‘Titanic’ are going away with an insufficient supply of boats”? - To no person, as I was not there. 21339. But did you never say it? Did you never say to them, “If we are to supply only the boats that we have hitherto supplied, she will not have enough”? - I showed them the plans of my proposals; I could not do any more. 21340. I know you did, and you have told us the reason, because it was thought that the Board of Trade would require more? - Yes. 21341. And therefore it was thought advisable to have the davits prepared? - Yes. 21342. Yes, that is a very good reason and quite intelligible, but I want to know from you whether I am to understand that you knew these two ships were going to sea with these boats,