Page 75 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 32 - 36

Mr. Dunlop: The explanation of the Chief Officer was that his 7.30 observation enabled him to ascertain that the 6.30 position was wrong by two miles. The Commissioner: So that you say he entered up the log later on and entered it up as he thought correctly. Mr. Dunlop: Yes, he entered it up correctly. From the 7.30 position, running as they say they were running at nearly full speed takes them at 10.21 to the place where they stopped - into the position which is recorded in the log as 42.5 North and 50.7 West. My Lord, I submit that the Master of the “Californian,” if he is to be judged at all, must get the benefit of his logbook, which, after all, is not his log. It is the log kept by the Chief Officer, a person whose conduct is not in any way the object of this Enquiry and who is not concerned in the result of what your Lordship’s views may be. We are dealing now with the Master, and I submit the Master is entitled to have his conduct judged, amongst other things, in the light of what is recorded in the Chief Officer’s log. But that is further confirmed by what appears in the entries on the following morning. If you test it, my Lord, by the distance which he ran from 6 o’clock in the morning, when he heard of the “Titanic’s” loss, until 8.30, when he came up to the “Titanic’s” position, your Lordship will see that he must have run a distance very considerably over 20 miles. The Commissioner: Can you tell us what course he was making? Mr. Dunlop: He told us, my Lord, in his evidence. He steered various courses to the South- West, and then he carried down along the edge of the ice-field, turned round and steered West. The Commissioner: But the number of miles that he made in a bee-line towards the “Titanic” cannot be ascertained from that. Mr. Dunlop: My Lord, he steamed, in fact, something over 30 miles the next morning, making allowance for the fact that he did not go by the direct route. The Commissioner: Where is the evidence of that? Mr. Dunlop: That is the evidence of the Master, Captain Lord. The Commissioner: Yes, I daresay; he said so, but I would like you to refer me to it, and then tell me why it is not to be found in the log. Mr. Dunlop: Because you would not expect to find it there. The Commissioner: Would not you expect to find the course that he was making, and would not you expect to find the speed? Mr. Dunlop: My Lord, he tells us what he was doing; he tells us in the log what he is doing. He is proceeding slowly to a position given, latitude 41.46 North, “proceeding slow, pushing through thick field ice, cleared the thickest ice, proceeding full speed, pushing ice.” He is steering various courses. The Commissioner: I daresay he is, but would not you expect to find in the log some information as to the courses that he was steering, and some information as to the speed at which he was going? Mr. Dunlop: I would not expect to find any record of his speed. If he was going various courses I would expect to find that recorded, and we do find that, because we find under the column “Course” - “Course various,” which is in accordance with the evidence which he gave, and it is not until 11.20, when he proceeds on his real course, that he states what that course was. My Lord, according to the log, he is running for 30 minutes slow through ice, and for 2 hours at full speed, which he said was about 13 knots, his engineer reported to him that it was 131/2 knots. Making allowance for the fact that he was not able to proceed direct to the “Titanic’s” position, but had to go round the edge of the ice-field, it confirms the statement in my submission that he was at least 20 miles to the northward of the “Titanic’s” position. Your Lordship asked me if he had stated in his evidence the distance which he ran the next morning. I see that is at Question 7378: “How many miles had you, in fact, to steam to get to the place where the wreckage was found? - (A.) I should think 30 miles at the least.” But apart altogether