Page 93 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 23 - 26

23702. Then you got through the ice across the lanes in the way you have described? - Yes 23703. Now, will you just explain to me about this ice-blink. That is not always seen? - No, not always. 23704. What is it; how is it produced? - By a reflection of the light. I suppose it is the reflection of the light on the ice. 23705. The reflection of what light? - It might be a star. 23706. Is it a sort of shimmer? - Yes, a kind of a flicker. 23707. Is the lowering of the temperature, in your experience, a sign of icebergs or produced by them? - It is no guide to the vicinity of icebergs, none whatever. 23708. Where you have ice about, in your experience, are you liable to have fogs? - Very liable. 23709. Does that, in your judgment, afford any reason for the practice you have always pursued as to speed? - Yes, we always make what speed we can. 23710. Just tell us, in your own way, what effect that fact has on your practice as to speed? - Well, we always try to get through the ice track as quickly as possible in clear weather. 23711. If fog came on while you were there? - It would increase the danger very much. We have to slow down or stop. 23712. With regard to this question about glasses for the look-out men, the binoculars, do you think it is desirable to have them? - No, I do not. 23713. What is your reason for that? - In the first place, it is very difficult to focus the glasses, and if the glasses are not properly focused the man might as well have a blank tube to look through. (The Witness withdrew.) EDWIN GALTON CANNONS, Sworn. Examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 23714. You have been a Master Mariner for over twenty years? - Yes. 23715. Holding a Master’s Certificate, and have been thirty-six years going to sea? - Yes. 23716. You have been in the service of the Atlantic Transport Company for nearly twenty-five years? - Yes. 23717. And in command for about twenty years? - Over twenty. 23718. And during the whole of that time have you been sailing in the North Atlantic? - The whole of the time. 23719. London and New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore? - Yes. 23720. And before that at times you were sailing in the North Atlantic? - Yes, quite a time. 23721. In the course of your experience have you met icebergs and also field ice? - Yes. 23722. Have you ever met ice-fields on the southern outward and homeward tracks which were agreed in 1898? - No, I have never seen field ice on the southern track. 23723. You have never seen field ice? - No. 23724. Have you ever seen icebergs? - Yes, several. 23725. On the outward track or the homeward track? - On both tracks. 23726. At this time of year, we are speaking of in April? - Yes. 23727. Often? - No, not often, they do not get down as early as that as a Rule. 23728. I only want to understand. Do you mean you have met them now and again. Give us an idea how often it is that you have come across icebergs on the track, either the outward or the homeward track? - Well, you may run three or four years clear; then again you get an exceptional