Page 209 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 6 - 9

Mr. Harbinson: I do not think I shall ask him anything more, my Lord. Examined by Mr. HOLMES. 10261. At the time your boat was lowered, was the ship badly down by the head? - Yes. 10262. Had she a list? - Not that I noticed. I noticed she was badly down by the head. 10263. You did not notice any list either way? - No. 10264. Did you see any lights of ships out at sea? - When? 10265. At any time? - Yes. 10266. Before or after you were lowered into the water? - Before and after. 10267. In which direction? - On the starboard side of the ship. 10268. Bearing how from the ship? - I should take it bearing North. 10269. That would be on the starboard bow? - Yes, on the starboard bow. 10270. What were the lights like? - I saw two lights. I took them to be plain, ordinary white lights - two masthead lights. 10271. Masthead lights? - Yes. 10272. It looked like a two-masted ship? - Yes. 10273. Could you judge at what distance? - No. Distance on water is very hard to judge. 10274. Could they have been lamp lights in any of your small boats? - No. They would not be that high. 10275. Did you find a lamp in your boat when it was lowered? - No, there was no place to look for any lamp. 10276. Were there lamps in any of the other boats you saw in the water? - Yes. 10277. How many? - I saw three. 10278. Three other boats with lamps in them? - Yes, three other boats with lamps in them, and there may have been more. Examined by Mr. COTTER. 10279. Is it not a fact that a bugle goes at nine o’clock every night at sea ordering third class women below? - Not to my knowledge. 10280. What time are they ordered below, off the decks? - It is the usual custom for the Master-at-Arms to go round and tell them when it is the proper time to go down - I believe somewhere about nine and ten. 10281. Between nine and ten they are ordered off the decks? - Yes. 10282. When you went below, or when you received the order from the Third class Steward, did not you, as a sensible man, think it was the only sensible order you could receive to go down and tell the women quietly to get out and get their lifebelts on? - Yes. But whether I had been told that by the Third class Steward or not, I would have done it. 10283. You knew that if you went down below and did not do it in that way you might cause a panic - they might be hysterical? - That was the idea in informing the people quietly. 10284. There were no orders given to tell the third class men - the single men living in the bow of her - to come up on the boat deck, were there? - Not to my knowledge. 10285. So that there was no necessity for a Steward to go there and show them the way to the boat deck at the top? - I believe that somebody went forward after the collision to try to see what damage was done after the collision had happened, and there met the passengers coming along. He came along with them. I believe that was the interpreter Mellor. 10286. He was bringing them along E deck? - The main alleyway, E deck. 10287. He would not take them up to the boat deck and mix them with the women? - I do not