Page 136 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 23 - 26

gentleman at present. Mr. Edwards: As your Lordship pleases. There were certain matters which are incidental to the other which I was trying to get at, because your Lordship will bear in mind that the question of the bulkheads arises here - not qua bulkheads for the purpose of Rule 12, but merely as part and parcel of the structural strength of the ship. What I was getting from this Witness preliminary to the other was exactly what was done to test the structural strength of the ship by the Marine Department of the Board of Trade. The Commissioner: He has told you what was done. You will have, I suppose, at the proper time to tell me why it is not right. I tell you candidly at present I do not understand it. I daresay you do, but I don’t. Mr. Edwards: I think that as soon as ever we return to the bulkhead question this correspondence will disclose what I understand is the case. The Commissioner: There are two gentlemen beside you to whom you have entrusted this correspondence, I suppose, with the object of their examining it. Is that so? Mr. Edwards: That is so, my Lord. The Commissioner: I have not seen them doing their work. Mr. Edwards: I take the responsibility for it. I do not propose putting them in the witness-box. The Attorney-General: I would like to know where we are upon one point. My friend has raised a point again about the bulkhead between 5 and 6 boiler section. I am speaking from recollection. I have not looked at it for some time but I understood my friend had definitely given that up on the last occasion. The Commissioner: So did I. Mr. Edwards: I think that probably what the learned Attorney-General has in his mind is the reference which I made two or three days ago as to the suggestion that a hole had been made. The Attorney-General: Yes. Mr. Edwards: What I then said was that, from my information, this had not affected the strength of the bulkhead as affected by the fire; and that, therefore, I deemed it immaterial in any event; but I have not abandoned, and I do not abandon, the suggestion that this bulkhead was seriously damaged by fire on the evidence exactly as it stands before the Court. The Commissioner: I do not understand that. You seem to be blowing hot and cold. 24345. (Mr. Edwards.) That may be due to the fire, my Lord. This is what I said on Friday, my Lord; you will find it at page 649 of the Notes: “(Mr. Edwards.) There is one point I ought to clear up. I inadvertently, I am afraid, rather misled the Court the other day. In the mass of evidence it is a little difficult to tell what has come formally before the Court and what has come before me in another form, and I did say that Barrett, in his evidence, as far as I remember, had spoken about a hole being bored in a watertight compartment between sections 5 and 6. That was not given in evidence. I have caused very careful enquiries to be made, and even supposing the statement to be correct, I am given to understand it would not in the least degree interfere with or detract from the strength of that bulkhead as affected by the fire. (The Commissioner.) Very well, then, in any event, it becomes immaterial.” (To the Witness.) Have you those measurements? - Yes, I have some measurements here. 24346. It is not a question of having some. Have you the measurements or not on which you based your calculations as to the strength of the “Titanic”? - Yes. Mr. Edwards: And do those figures show what ought to be the measurements in different parts of a ship of the size of the “Titanic”? 24347. (The Commissioner.) Have these measurements any reference to the strength of the bulkheads? - No, my Lord. 24348. (Mr. Edwards.) Have these measurements any reference to the strength of the hull of the “Titanic”? - Yes.