Page 112 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 32 - 36

attention to in detail. According to the view which I am going to put before you, if you read Lightoller’s evidence it destroys the argument which has been put forward on behalf of the Company by my friend that there were those two unusual conditions, unknown to the officers on board the “Titanic.” The Commissioner: What are the two? The Attorney-General: I am giving them full credit; the two are that the iceberg was of a dark colour, and the other was the flat calm. The Commissioner: The absence of swell. The Attorney-General: That is what is meant by the flat calm. The Commissioner: That is what is meant by the flat calm; yes, those are the two. The Attorney-General: Yes. The Commissioner: And the others they had recognised already. The Attorney-General: Yes, I agree. Those are the two that, according to my view, are the ones that are relied upon. Now the flat calm is relied upon for this reason. One has to consider it closely. It is said by Lightoller, or rather by those who are arguing on behalf of the Company, that if it had not been a flat calm there would have been a ripple. That was the expression used - there would have been a swell, a swell which would have caused a ripple or a break of the water at the base of the berg on the waterline, and that would have indicated to anyone who was on the look-out at a considerable distance that there was an iceberg ahead. That is the whole point, the whole substance of the argument based upon the flat calm. Now, my Lord, the answer which I think must be made to that, or which at any rate I am going to submit for your Lordship’s consideration, is that if it is true that you ought and you could as a reasonably prudent man in such circumstances rely upon this ripple or break of the wave as an indication, Lightoller knew about it, that is to say, he knew it was absent on that night. Lightoller knew - and when I say Lightoller, of course, I include the other officers - already at 9 o’clock in the evening that the weather was so unusually calm, that the water was so flat, that it formed the subject of conversation between him and the Captain of the vessel, so struck were they by it. And why was it they would discuss such a question as that? Because, apparently, they both thought it was a pity that there was not a little wind to make a little sea to create a ripple or wave which would break at the base of the iceberg as they were approaching ice and they wanted that extra indication. That is their own view of it. I will go at once to this passage. The Commissioner: I suppose I am obliged to accept Lightoller’s statement about that conversation? The Attorney-General: Well, I do not know. The Commissioner: I do not like these precise memories; I doubt their existence. However, there it is. The Attorney-General: There it is, and we have to deal with it on the evidence. The reason why I am dealing with Lightoller’s evidence is because Lightoller is the only person who makes this excuse. The Commissioner: Yes, and it sounds to me so like an excuse. The Attorney-General: Well, that is the view I am going to put forward, that it is only an excuse. The Commissioner: Yes, and it sounds to me so like an excuse. The Attorney-General: Well, that is the view I am going to put forward, that it is only an excuse. The Commissioner: Oh no, I do not think it will suit your argument to do that. The Attorney-General: I think it does - at least I do not know what is in your Lordship’s mind - if I have got rid for the purpose of this argument of the view put forward that they did not know on board that the calm was a flat calm - then there is an end of the argument with regard to that