Page 128 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 23 - 26

the “Titanic” submitted to you? - Yes. 24272. Were any plans submitted to you of the “Titanic”? - Oh, yes. 24273. But none of them dealt with the equipment? - Not so far as I remember. 24274. There is just one other point I want to clear up. You stated that your opinion has been modified since you made this Report in view of the “Titanic” disaster, and you think now that the lifeboat accommodation should be in proportion to the passengers carried? - In a certain proportion. 24275. Do you mean the passengers for which a ship is certified? - Excuse me, not passengers, but passengers and crew - the total persons on board, yes. 24276. (The Commissioner.) Do you mean the number certified? - Yes, my Lord. 24277. That is to say, the number the ship may carry? - Yes, my Lord. 24278. (Mr. Scanlan.) For a ship of the size of the “Titanic,” on her certificate, what lifeboat accommodation, in your view, should be provided? - I have formed no opinion on that matter. As I said, I think a conclusion on that point should be preceded by an Enquiry as to a better method of putting boats into the water. 24279. I think you want another Advisory Committee? - Yes. 24280. Have you not formed some opinion as to the proportion between passengers and crew and lifeboat accommodation? - No definite opinion. The Commissioner: You know, if other matters had not to be taken into consideration there ought to be no proportion at all, but the whole number ought to be provided for. But, then, other matters have to be taken into consideration, and they must be taken into consideration. What this Witness means, as I understand, is this: He has not the material to enable him to say, if less boat accommodation should be carried than sufficient for the whole number certified for the ship - he has not sufficient information to enable him to say for what number, less the boat accommodation ought to be provided. Mr. Scanlan: I quite agree, my Lord. That is what he means. The Commissioner: I understand that is what he means. At present, if you are going to contend, as I daresay you are, that sufficient boats should be carried to accommodate every person that can by law be on board the ship, you will have to satisfy me as to that. The Attorney-General: That is 3,500. The Commissioner: Before I could think of making any such recommendation - I do not know that I should in any case make such a recommendation - I think it is a matter that has to be much more carefully considered than we can consider it. Mr. Scanlan: Yes, my Lord. I have brought out from all the Witnesses what their opinions are. The Commissioner: You are quite right on that. Mr. Scanlan: Leading to this, my Lord - and that is my submission - that there should be accommodation for all carried on board, at all events. The Commissioner: That may be a very different thing, you know. There is a distinction between that and the other. The Attorney-General: And a very material one in this case. The Commissioner: It is very material, of course. I do not know, Mr. Scanlan, that on the German boats the accommodation is not regulated in accordance with the number of people actually carried - I am not sure about that. I doubt whether the German boats - in fact, I am satisfied that they do not carry sufficient boats to accommodate all the people that they can carry. Mr. Scanlan: I would have to concede that it would be an unreasonable proposition to ask that there may be boats for more than the people that were being actually carried. The Commissioner: I have never contemplated that, although I can contemplate that being argued. The Attorney-General: I thought by the way it stood in the German Regulations that the limitation is that in no event need the vessels carry more boats than were required for the full number of persons on board, but it does not follow at all that they carry sufficient boats for the full number on