Page 114 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 6 - 9

him. 7985. Well, do you think you did? - Yes, I think I did do so; it is quite possible. 7986. And were you talking about the ship all the time until she disappeared? - No. 7987. Are you sure? - Yes. 7988. Did you say this to Gibson, “Have a look at her now; it looks queer; she looks to have a big side out of the water”? - No, I did not say she had a big side out of the water; he remarked it to me. 7989. He remarked that to you? - Yes. 7990. Did you say, “Have a look at her now; it looks queer”? - That is at the time when I told him the lights appeared to be altering their position with regard to one another. Yes. 7991. Did you think it looked queer? - I merely thought it was a funny change of her lights, that was all. That was before I had looked at her through the binoculars. 7992. In view of the fact that this vessel had been sending up rockets, and in view of the fact that you said it looks queer, did not you think at the time that that ship was in distress? - No. 7993. Are you sure? - I did not think the ship was in distress at the time. 7994. It never occurred to you? - It did not occur to me because if there had been any grounds for supposing the ship would have been in distress the Captain would have expressed it to me. 7995. (The Commissioner.) Never mind about the Captain. You are being asked about what you thought yourself. Do you mean to tell us that neither you nor Gibson expressed an opinion that there was something wrong with that ship? - No, not wrong with the ship, but merely with this changing of her lights. 7996. Well, about this changing of her lights? - That is when I remarked that the lights looked queer. The lights, I said, not the ship. 7997. The lights are what I call part of the ship. The whole thing, lights and all, make up the ship. You want me to believe, do you, that, notwithstanding these rockets, neither you nor Gibson thought there was anything wrong on board that ship; you want me to understand that? - Yes. 7998. (Mr. Butler Aspinall.) I went back for a moment, but I want now to take you to the later period, when you spoke to the Captain and told him that the steamer had disappeared? - Yes. 7999. Will you tell me whether the Captain made any reply to that, and, if so, what? - He again asked me if I was certain there were no colours in those lights whatsoever. I again assured him that they were all white, just white rockets. 8000. Can you explain why it was that the captain should again ask you if you were sure there were no colours in the lights? - No. 8001. Have you no idea? You are a sailor? - Yes. 8002. You had been taking part in this matter, so to speak? - Yes. 8003. You were an onlooker paying careful attention, keeping those lights under observation, and then this question again comes from the Master. What did you think he meant by such a question? - I did not know, except that he had the thought in his mind that they may have been company signals of some sort. 8004. But do you really mean that? - That thought may have been in his mind; I did not say it was in his mind. 8005. Was it in yours? - That they were company’s signals? 8006. Yes? - No, not that they were. They may possibly have been. The Commissioner: Would there be any significance in the lights if they were coloured as distinct from white, Mr. Aspinall? Mr. Butler Aspinall: As I understand it, white lights are distress signals; company’s lights are very often coloured. The Commissioner: Would distress signals be coloured?