Page 170 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 6 - 9

9350. (The Commissioner.) It was 1,600 before? - I have carried over 1,800 passengers. 9351. (Mr. Cotter.) What is the deck you have your bulkhead doors in? - The main deck. 9352. You have them along the main deck? - No, we have no bulkhead doors at all. They are solid. We have bulkheads rising to the main deck. 9353. But you have entrances through them? - No, we have not. 9354. How do the people get along the deck? - They cannot get through there; they have to come up. 9355. (The Commissioner.) They have to climb up over the top of the bulkhead? - We have ladders up there. When we have steerage passengers there they must go up on to the main deck. We have no doors through the bulkhead at all. 9356. (Mr. Cotter.) They have to climb right over the top. As a matter of fact, they have to go upstairs to go downstairs? - They have to live downstairs, and what need is there to go up and then down again? 9357. Take the main deck. She has other decks besides the main deck? - Yes. 9358. But go along the main deck - ? - We have a sheltered deck. We have only three decks, we have not got nine, and the three decks are the ones which have bulkheads, and those bulkheads have no doors in them except down in the engine room in the tunnels. Examined by Mr. LEWIS. 9359. Do you consider that a good plan - a bulkhead of that description? - I do. 9360. Do you know if the look-out men’s eyes are tested in any way? - Yes. 9361. Who by? - The ship’s doctor. 9362. Is that done every voyage? - Yes. 9363. Do you know whether that is a regulation of the Board of Trade? - I am not aware of any. 9364. It is simply for your own satisfaction? - Yes. 9365. On your boats I am not sure whether you have boat drills? - We have boat drills every passage - once every passage. 9366. I understood you to say that you think one officer and four seamen sufficient to man a lifeboat of your size? - That is if you wish to save any passengers. 9367. How many seamen would you say would be required to get the boats ready and lowered? - It just depends how the boats are fixed. With some boats all you have to do is to throw a fender down when your falls are held tight and your boats are shoved right out; it will not take more than two or four men; two men could lower them. 9368. How many A. B.’s have you on your boat? - We have 25 hands on deck. 9369. In a case of emergency how long do you think it would take to lower your 20 boats? - In the case of going back to the “Titanic” we took about an hour to put them all out. That is, the boats that were under the davits. 9370. I did not catch your answer? - We went back to the “Titanic’s” assistance. We put all the boats out, with the exception of two. They were all ready for lowering in less than an hour, as far as I could judge. 9371. All ready for lowering? - Yes. 9372. But there would be the question of lowering? - That is not a very difficult thing. 9373. How long do you say it would take to get your boats absolutely ready and put down into the water the whole 20, remembering, of course, that you lose your men as you put them in? - You would have to get the men there. If that is the case, you could call up the sailors; you could call up your firemen. 9374. In the case of emergency you would call up your firemen to assist you that could be