Page 73 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 32 - 36

a column for the variation, which is recorded. The Commissioner: Is it not as a Rule put in the remarks column? Mr. Dunlop: Sometimes it is, my Lord. I do not know whether it is done on board the “Californian.” The logbook will show that. The Commissioner: Apparently it is not done on board the “Californian.” Mr. Dunlop: Apparently not. The Commissioner: It was not done on this occasion. Mr. Dunlop: Your Lordship has the logbook, is it recorded on any other occasion? The Commissioner: I am sure I do not know. This logbook, I presume, only refers to this voyage; that is so, is it not? Mr. Dunlop: My Lord, I have not seen the original. I think if any question was to be raised about the course - The Commissioner: I am sorry I have to interrupt you again for a moment, but are you going to say that you saw the signals or did not see them? Mr. Dunlop: We saw certain signals. The Commissioner: Are you going to say that they were or were not distress signals? Mr. Dunlop: I am going to say that they were not distress signals; if they were distress signals they were not signals from a vessel herself in distress; or if they were distress signals from a vessel in distress that vessel was not the “Titanic.” The Commissioner: That may be. Were they, according to you, distress signals? Mr. Dunlop: No, my Lord. The Commissioner: What were they? Mr. Dunlop: They were supposed to be private night signals. The Attorney-General: The evidence is all against that. Mr. Dunlop: I will deal with the evidence. The Commissioner: You will have a great deal of difficulty in persuading me of that. If they were distress signals, whether they came from the “Titanic” or not, you ought to have made for them. Mr. Dunlop: It does not concern me whether they were distress signals or whether they were not, for the moment. What concerns me is, were they the signals of the “Titanic”? If they were not the signals of the “Titanic,” we do not know what signals they were, or why they were fired, until we have the vessel which fired them. The Commissioner: I know that; if they were distress signals - you say they were not, but that they were some sort of ship’s signals, whatever that means - if they were distress signals, you know, you ought to have made for the lights. Mr. Dunlop: I will deal later, my Lord, with the circumstances under which these lights were seen, and I hope to satisfy your Lordship, when the time comes, that assuming the signals were what these men believe them to be, they did nothing wrong in remaining where they were until daylight. The Commissioner: Where is the deviation table? Mr. Dunlop: It ought to be on board the ship. The Commissioner: I know where it ought to be - but I am asking where it is. Have you not thought it worthwhile to ask for it? Mr. Dunlop: No, my Lord, because I asked the Master - The Commissioner: Because I am told that you cannot get the course accurately unless you have it. Mr. Dunlop: I asked the Master to translate his compass course into his true course. He did so, and I have no reason to doubt that he did so accurately. If there is any doubt about it, we will send for the deviation book and ascertain.