Page 101 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 23 - 26

23846. Can you account for it in any other way - a bad look-out and going at the rate of 22 knots an hour? - They should have seen the berg in time to have cleared it. 23847. You think they should? - Yes. 23848. That means to say, taking you as a skilled man in navigation, you think there must have been bad navigation somewhere? - No, I do not think that, my Lord. The Commissioner: Perhaps I ought not to have asked that question. 23849. (The Attorney-General.) There is one question on what your Lordship has said. (To the Witness.) Before this accident to the “Titanic” had it ever occurred to you that on a specially calm night and a specially clear night it would be more difficult to detect an iceberg? - Oh, yes. 23850. So that a skilled navigator would expect that it would be more difficult on a specially calm night and on a specially clear night? - Yes, it would be more difficult in the calm. You see the sea causes an extra warning, breaking against the berg. The Commissioner: “Specially clear” does not add to the difficulty; specially calm does. The Attorney-General: Yes, but you have to take into account also that it is specially clear. The Commissioner: It is easier to see then. The Attorney-General: Yes. You must take the two into account. If you say it was not a specially clear night - The Commissioner: Oh no, the evidence was it was specially clear. The Attorney-General: That is why I am putting to him the particular conditions with which we have to deal. As I understand, your Lordship’s view of the evidence is, at any rate at present, that you discard the evidence with regard to haze. The Commissioner: That is right. The Attorney-General: That therefore eliminates that from consideration; and then what you have to deal with is the specially calm night and also the evidence that it was a specially clear night. You have those two things. The Commissioner: Yes. I thought you were putting to the Witness the suggestion that the clearness of the night detracted from the power of detecting an iceberg. The Attorney-General: No, I was putting the circumstances we are dealing with in the particular case. That is what I wanted to do. (The Witness withdrew.) FRANCIS CARRUTHERS, Sworn. Examined by Mr. BUTLER ASPINALL. 23851. (Mr. Butler Aspinall.) We are now going to Belfast, for a very short time I hope. The two following Witnesses have supervised the building of the ship at Belfast. (To the Witness.) Are you a member of the Institute of Naval Architects? - I am. 23852. And are you an engineer and ship Surveyor to the Board of Trade at Belfast? - Yes. 23853. I believe you were for 13 years a sea-going engineer, and you have been for some 16 years in the service of the Board of Trade? - Yes. 23854. I think your experience with the Board of Trade has mainly consisted of superintending the construction of new steamers? - Yes. 23855. And you were engaged upon that work during the time the “Titanic” was being constructed at Belfast? - I was. 23856. That extended over a space of what time? - About two and a half years. 23857. Did you give her careful attention? - I did. 23858. I believe the practice is that as she is being built you make yourself informed of