Page 28 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 32 - 36

passages relating to the “Mesaba” message. The first “Californian” message, your Lordship will recollect Bride said - and we do not dispute it - was delivered by him to some officer on the bridge. That officer must be lost. The Commissioner: Bride, I think, said that he never heard of any message except the “Californian’s.” Sir Robert Finlay: That is so, my Lord. In the first column on page 391, at Question 16663, your Lordship will find what he says about the first message: “I think you stated it was about 3 o’clock in the afternoon on this Sunday when you heard the “Californian” message? - (A.) I said five. (Q.) Five, you said? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) I thought you said three, but you say it was 5 o’clock by ship’s time? - (A.) Yes, between 5 and half-past. (Q.) You knew it was an ice message? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) I think you stated to the Attorney-General that you were engaged in adding up your accounts? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) And then you went on adding up your accounts, and paid no attention to this message? - (A.) No. (Q.) Then some time afterwards, I forget whether you gave us the time, you happened to hear it repeated? - (A.) Yes, that is correct. (Q.) Then you had not written it down when you heard it the first time? - (A.) No. (Q.) You knew it was a message to the “Titanic”? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) Reporting ice? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) You did not write it down? - (A.) No. (Q.) You took no notice of it at all, but went on adding up your accounts? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) Then, if you had not happened to hear that message repeated to another ship, nothing would ever have been heard of that message? - (A.) Yes, it would. (Q.) Well, forgive me. It gave the latitude and longitude. You had written nothing down when the message first came? - (A.) No. (Q.) Do you suggest that without writing anything down, and being busy with accounts, you can trust yourself to carry in your head the latitude and longitude which had been given in the message? - (A.) No, I had read the text of the message, which mentioned three large bergs. I had not got the latitude and longitude, and I should have called the “Californian” if she had not transmitted it at a very short period afterwards and asked her for the latitude and longitude. (Q.) The latitude and longitude you could not have carried in your head? - (A.) No. (Q.) The only way of getting that message would have been to call the “Californian” afterwards to get the latitude and longitude? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) You happened to hear it repeated, did you say, a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes afterwards? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) Are you sure about the time? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) Had you finished your accounts by that time? - (A.) No. (Q.) Were you still on your accounts? - (A.) Yes. (The Commissioner.) What are those accounts? (Sir Robert Finlay.) What were you doing? - (A.) I was writing up an abstract of all the telegrams sent the day before. (The Solicitor-General.) That is the procès-verbal. (Sir Robert Finlay - To the Witness.) Is that what has been called the procès-verbal? - (A.) No; the telegrams. It gives the place where the telegram originated from and where it is going to, the station it is sent to, and the cost of the telegram and the costs of the coast station; our charge, and everybody else’s charge, one by one.” The Commissioner: That is referring to private telegrams. Sir Robert Finlay: Yes. “16686: Then when you heard it repeated you recognised it as being the message which had been sent to your ship? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) And wrote it down, and took it on to the bridge? - (A.) Yes.” The Commissioner: That is a very slack way of doing business. He ought, according to the Regulations, to have taken that telegram on to the bridge at once, and not waited for the chance of it being repeated. Sir Robert Finlay: Yes, my Lord. Then, my Lord, with regard to the second “Californian” message, your Lordship will find that in the evidence of Mr. Evans, at page 202, Question 8988, Evans was the Marconi operator on the “Californian,” and this is the message that was sent after the “Californian” was stopped and surrounded by ice: “8988. What did the Captain say when you said that? - (A.) He said, ‘You had better advise the ‘Titanic’ we are stopped and surrounded by ice.’ (Q.) Did you get an answer from the ‘Titanic’? - (A.) Yes. (Q.) Can you give me the time? -