Page 19 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 23 - 26

The Commissioner: That is the best examination I have heard. Now, Mr. Attorney, do you want to ask anything? The Attorney-General: No. (The Witness withdrew.) The Attorney-General: Your Lordship will remember that yesterday we had a discussion about the requirements of the German law for a vessel the size of the “Titanic.” We have agreed upon the result of applying the German scale to a vessel of the size of the “Titanic,” and upon the assumption that she had applied and received the exemption on the ground of efficient bulkheads, because there is the same Rule in Germany. The Commissioner: There is. The Attorney-General: Yes, just the same as ours. Half of what they call a supplementary accommodation is excused if the compartments are certified or passed as efficient. Therefore, it is exactly on the same footing as ours. The result of it will be this, that the cubic capacity of the boat accommodation to be provided would be 31,992 cubic feet. That is made up of the 21,328 which would have to be boating accommodation proper - that is to say, lifeboats and boats within the regulations, and the supplementary, which would be one-half which would be 10,664, which may consist of collapsibles, rafts and boats of other description, making altogether 31,992. The 21,328 cubic capacity would require 34 boats, that is to say, there would have to be 34 boats carried in davits - I think, in davits, according to their Rules. And there would be, besides that, an accommodation which it is not easy to put into figures, because it depends upon the particular kind of craft which is permissible for the supplementary accommodation; you may have collapsibles or rafts, and so forth. The effect of that is - I think I was right in what I told your Lordship yesterday - that it is clear that their demand is very much greater than the demands which we make, because the effect would be that you would have an accommodation altogether for 3,198 people. The Commissioner: And the boat is calculated to carry how many? The Attorney-General: Your Lordship means the 34 boats? The Commissioner: No, I mean how many is the ship supposed to carry, or is capable of carrying, crew and passengers? The Attorney-General: I do not think I have that. Of course, I have it for the “Titanic.” The Commissioner: Oh, yes. The Attorney-General: I cannot answer the question. The Commissioner: I will hand you down this. The Attorney-General: I think I know what your Lordship is referring to. The Commissioner: It was sent to me this morning. (Handing a paper to the Attorney- General.) The Attorney-General: Yes, and it was sent to me. It is rather difficult to tell. You cannot tell by this. The question is answered to some extent by this, that the German requirements take no note of the number of passengers. Your Lordship had that in evidence yesterday. The Commissioner: Do you mean to say that if there were a cargo boat of the size of one of these boats, it would require the same number? The Attorney-General: No, that was not the point at all. We are dealing with passenger steamers and emigrant steamers. The point I am making is with reference to the evidence we had yesterday, that their standard is tonnage and not number of persons carried. That is the point I am on. The Commissioner: But so ours is. The Attorney-General: I agree. That is the point we are making upon it.