Page 84 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 32 - 36

three or four vessels which were seen next morning by those on board the “Californian.” As I say, we do not know their names, because they were not mentioned in the Marconi messages. They either had not themselves or were not using the wireless telegraphy. I have looked through Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index for the months of April and May. They mostly contain the reports of vessels that were bound to America. The reports of vessels bound to Europe would not be received at Lloyd’s till probably a good deal later. I have only seen those five numbers of Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index, but the Index, so far as it goes, does mention certain vessels and states the position in which they were, and if I may just refer to one or two of these vessels and describe what their movements were as recorded by themselves, then your Lordship will see that there were vessels in this neighbourhood between the “Californian” and the “Titanic.” Has your Lordship the chart before you. The Commissioner: Yes. Mr. Dunlop: When I read through this Shipping Index, I did so with that chart, and I plotted at the time on that chart the positions in order that I might follow the significance of what I was reading. I first take the “Trautenfels.” The Commissioner: What is the “Trautenfels”? Mr. Dunlop: She is a two-masted black funnel steamer with red stripes, belonging to the Hansa Line at Bremen, and she is mentioned in Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index of Thursday, the 2nd May, 1912. The Commissioner: Has she any Marconi apparatus? Mr. Dunlop: No, my Lord, she has not. The Commissioner: What is her size? Mr. Dunlop: My Lord, I do not know that; she is not in Lloyd’s book. The Commissioner: Is she a passenger ship? Mr. Dunlop: I do not think so, my Lord; she carries petroleum, I think. The Commissioner: Then I should think she is not a passenger ship. Mr. Dunlop: I am told she is not the petroleum one; she belongs to the Hansa Line. She may or may not be a passenger steamer. It does not say in the Shipping Index. The Commissioner: What is her size, and where is she registered? Mr. Dunlop: Two thousand nine hundred and thirty-two tons is her tonnage. The Commissioner: She is a big ship. Mr. Dunlop: She was from Hamburg bound to New York. The Commissioner: What was she carrying; she was not carrying petroleum then you know. Mr. Dunlop: I am told she is not the petroleum steamer; that is the next one. The Commissioner: Well what is she? Mr. Dunlop: I do not know what she is. I only know what I am told here, and I will tell your Lordship what I am told here: “Trautenfels,” Hansa, tonnage 2,932, left Hamburg 31st March, bound for New York, spoken on the 7th of April, and then she sends a report which I am going to read to your Lordship. The Commissioner: How do you find out she was at this particular spot? Mr. Dunlop: May I come to that now? The Commissioner: Yes. Mr. Dunlop: I will hand up to your Lordship the Index. Will your Lordship look at page 8 of Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index under date 2nd May, 1912. The Commissioner: Now let us see that (The same was handed to the Commissioner.) Mr. Dunlop: The F is a mistake for T, because in the same number she is described as the “Frautenfels.” There is no such vessel as the “Frautenfels”; there is one “Trautenfels.” “Reports April 14th in latitude 42.1, longitude 49.53; sighted two icebergs fully 200 feet long and 50 feet high; soon after heavy field ice was encountered which extended for a distance of 30 miles and