Page 112 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 6 - 9

which I was not sure about. 7940. You say you saw the steamer altering her bearing with regard to you? - She bore first S.S.E. and she was altering her bearing towards the south towards west. 7941. Under way apparently? - Yes. 7942. During that 20 minutes did you notice anything which you would call funny or odd about her light? - Yes. 7943. What did you notice? - On one occasion I noticed the lights looked rather unnatural, as if some were being shut in and others being opened out; the lights appeared to be changing their position - the deck lights. 7944. Her deck lights? - Yes, and I lost sight of her red sidelight. 7944a. That would be consistent with her altering her heading? - Yes. 7945. What was there funny about it? - Merely that some lights were being shut in and others exposed and I remarked to Gibson that the lights looked peculiar, unnatural, but when I took the glasses and brought her under close observation I took it to be due to the fact that very likely she was porting for some iceberg close at hand and was coming back on her course again, showing her other lights, the original lights. 7946. Is this right, that during this 20 minutes Gibson said this to you: “Look at her red light; is not there something funny about it”? Did anything of that sort happen? - Not her red light that I remember. 7947. Gibson has been here, and he told us that he directed your attention to the red light. If you do not remember it, say so? - I do not remember his saying anything about her red sidelight at all. 7948. At the end of those 20 minutes did you then send Gibson to report to the Captain? - Yes. 7949. What report did you tell Gibson to give to the Captain? - I told Gibson to go down to the Master and be sure and wake him up and tell him that altogether we had seen eight of these white lights like white rockets in the direction of this other steamer; that this steamer was disappearing in the S.W., that we had called her up repeatedly on the Morse lamp and received no information whatsoever. 7950. Did Gibson go away? - He went down. 7951. Did Gibson return? - He returned. 7952. When Gibson returned did he tell you what had passed between him and the Captain? - He told me he had woke the Captain up and given him my report; the Captain asked him the time and asked him if he were sure there were no colours in them, red or green. 7953. You mean the rockets? - Gibson assured him they were white rockets. 7954. Is that all? - Then he told me that as he shut the door he heard the Captain say something - what, he was not quite certain about. 7955. Did Gibson then remain on the bridge with you? - Yes. 7956. And after Gibson had returned did you continue to keep this ship under observation? - Until she disappeared, yes. 7957. What did you see of her which disappeared? - A gradual disappearing of all her lights, which would be perfectly natural with a ship steaming away from us. 7958. (The Commissioner.) What do you mean by all her lights? - The deck lights, which were in view. The masthead light would be shut in except for a slight flickering, the glare of it, and the red sidelight would be shut in altogether. The lights I would see would be the lights at the end of the alleyway or engine room skylight, and the stern light. 7959. (Mr. Butler Aspinall.) Did the stern light that you speak of as disappearing, suddenly become black or gradually fade away as if it was going away? - It gradually faded as if the steamer was steaming away from us. 7960. Did it have the appearance of being a light on a ship which had suddenly foundered? -