Page 236 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 6 - 9

not? - Yes. 11010. The passage way which runs across? - Yes. 11011. And then fall down those stairs? - Yes. 11012. When you got up to E deck was there a continuous stream of water doing that? - Yes, but it was not very much. 11013. (The Commissioner.) Give me an idea of the quantity, because I do not know what “very much” means? - Well, it would cover the stairs; just enough to cover them. 11014. Do you mean to say half of an inch or something like that? - Yes, something like that. 11015. And was it going down the stairs quickly, or merely trickling down? - No, it was running rather quickly. 11016. (The Solicitor-General.) You came up those stairs? - Yes. 11017. Give us an idea in this way; you must have met something? - Yes. 11018. Did it go over the tops of your boots? - Not over the tops of my boots; over my instep. The Commissioner: Where was he when the water came over his boots? The Solicitor-General: He mounts up the stairs down which the water is coming. The Commissioner: Yes. 11019. (The Solicitor-General - To the Witness.) Is that where the water reached up to your instep? - Yes. 11020. (The Commissioner.) Not up the stairs? - Coming up the stairs, yes. 11021. That is a good deal more than 1/2 of an inch; do you mean to say that the water on the stairs trickling down or coming down the stairs was so deep that it reached up to the top of your boots? - No, I did not say that. 11022. I thought you said it came over your instep? - It had run from the top of the stairs over the tops of my boots. 11023. (The Solicitor-General.) Do not use that word instep, because different people mean different things by it. Take the ordinary heel of an ordinary boot. You were probably wearing heels? - Yes. 11024. Would it come to the top of the heel? - About the top of the heel of my boot. The Commissioner: I am sorry to trouble you, but when you have finished asking questions, will you explain to me what you understand his evidence to mean, with a pointer on that plan. The Solicitor-General: Yes, my Lord; I will do my best. I think I can do it up to this point now, if your Lordship desires. The Commissioner: Well, it will assist me if you will do that, if you will take the pointer and point me out on the plan the locality of the watertight doors that were closed, and then show me in what direction he means to indicate the water was coming. The Solicitor-General: I see here marked on the plan “Squash Racquet,” and your Lordship sees there is a stair (pointing to the plan on the wall). The Commissioner: Tell me what deck you are pointing to. 11025. (The Solicitor-General.) I will. Your Lordship sees there is a stairway indicated by a number of ticks. I am now putting the end of this pointer on the level of the Orlop deck. As I follow the witness, that is the lowest deck to which he went in his description. He says he saw water rising in this compartment at that point up those stairs. (To the Witness.) Is that right? - Yes. The Commissioner: Climbing up those stairs? 11026. (The Solicitor-General.) Mounting up those stairs. He had came to it, so he says, from his room, by coming down a couple of flights of stairs down here. He says the water was rising as he stood there, and that it reached as far as G deck. (To the Witness.) Is that right? - Yes. The Solicitor-General: That is to say it ran up to that point while he was standing there? The Commissioner: What deck is that?