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anything definite. 25370. You have just returned? - Yes, I arrived here last night. 25371. Is this your first arrival since the “Titanic” disaster in this country? - Yes. 25372. Will you allow me, Captain, at the earliest opportunity to express to you on behalf of His Majesty’s Government how deeply grateful we are to you for your conduct and for the great number of lives which you were instrumental in saving? - Thank you very much. 25373. I take this opportunity of stating it in Court, because it is the earliest moment at which His Majesty’s Government has been able to get into communication with you. - Thank you very much. Sir Robert Finlay: I desire to make the same acknowledgment on behalf of the White Star Company. The Commissioner: My colleagues and I entirely agree with these observation of the Attorney- General. 25374. (The Attorney-General.) Can you tell us the tonnage of the “Carpathia”? - 13,600. 25375. That is the gross tonnage? - The gross tonnage. I am not going into further detail as to that; your Lordship appreciates why. I thought you would like the facts. The Commissioner: I should like to know the number of the crew. 25376. (The Attorney-General.) Can you tell us the number of the crew? - Well, the number varies from about 300 to 335. It all depends upon the number of passengers we are carrying at the moment. 25377. Do you know at all how many there were on this particular voyage, when you started th this particular voyage on the 11 April? - 325, I think. 25378. That, I think, will give all the particulars your Lordship wants at the moment in this th matter. (To the Witness.) Now you started on the 11 April from New York, and you received wireless messages from the “Titanic”? - Yes. 25379. Would you tell me, before you received any messages from the “Titanic,” had you had any ice reports? - Wireless? 25380. Yes? - None; we had received the ordinary reports on shore from the office, which came through from other ships. 25381. Do you mean the Hydrographic Office at Washington? - No, from our Company’s office in New York. 25382. I hardly expect you to remember in detail the wireless messages that were received from the “Titanic,” but we have got them? - The first message I received was merely a verbal message. As soon as the Marconi operator received the message he left the instrument room and ran up to me at once, so it was merely a verbal message. 25383. Will you just tell us as far as you can, was the first message that you got a distress signal? - Yes, a distress signal. 25384. That was the first message you received? - An urgent distress message. The Marconi operator told me when he called me. 25385. I am going to help you with regard to the time by reference to the evidence which you gave very soon after the disaster, in New York. I am reading the evidence given at the Commission in America: “At 12.35 a.m. on Monday I was informed of the urgent distress signal from the ‘Titanic.’” 12.35 was ship’s time? - Yes. 25386. (The Attorney-General.) If your Lordship has the last procès-verbal which I gave you, the corrected one, you will find at the bottom of page 4 the first one. New York time. 10.35 p.m.; “ ‘Titanic’ time approximate” we have got it, “12.25 a.m. C.Q.D. call received from ‘Titanic’ by ‘Carpathia’” - I cannot say whether it was “C.Q.D.” or “S.O.S.” 25387. It is the urgent distress message? - Yes.