Page 237 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 6 - 9

The Solicitor-General: That is G deck. The Commissioner: That is the deck above the Orlop deck? The Solicitor-General: Yes. Then he says he went on his own motion aft in order to shut two watertight doors which are on F deck, that is to say, which shut off this space. The watertight doors, as I follow, are somewhere back here. The Commissioner: Which is the bulkhead in which they are placed? The Solicitor-General: I think it is this bulkhead, and I think it will be found, if my friends are following on this plan, that that is the place. 11027. (The Commissioner - To the Witness.) Can you follow this plan? - I cannot see where the bulkheads are. (The position was indicated to the Witness.)? - Yes, I think it will be there. 11028. (The Solicitor-General.) There is the first class entrance immediately after? - Yes, it is just forward of the first class entrance. 11029. Then he came back along F deck to the point where the pointer is now, and the thing he shuts is a thing which in this diagram is marked with a thick black line. He shuts two of them, and then he says after that there were these orders given. The Commissioner: Where does that bulkhead stop? The Solicitor-General: That is the top of it, so that the floor above him, as your Lordship sees, is E deck, and the floor on which he would be standing when he shuts the doors is F deck. The Commissioner: Yes. The Solicitor-General: Then he says after some orders he returned to his own quarters, which are the other side of the ship; and when he got to his own quarters, which are on F deck, he found that water was falling down the stairway, which led from E deck to F deck. Perhaps the witness will tell me whereabouts the stairway would be. The Commissioner: I do not quite understand where that water came from that was coming down stairs. How did it get up? The Solicitor-General: It was coming from E deck. What I understand the witness to have said is, that he thinks that if the water, which he had observed mounting from the Orlop deck to G deck, continued to mount up that staircase there up to F deck, and then up to E deck, there would be nothing to prevent it running along E deck and falling down the stairway which led to F deck. The Commissioner: I see. Then the forward part of the ship, forward of the bulkhead in which he closed the watertight doors, must have been full of water at that time. Is that so, Sir John? 11030. (The Solicitor-General - To the Witness.) Would that be so, do you think? - There is another partition between the mail room and the bulkheads that I closed. That has no bulkhead doors at all; it is just plain. The Commissioner: Take D bulkhead, marked on the F deck. If you trace that D bulkhead upwards towards the port side of the ship, you come to a watertight door. The Solicitor-General: Yes, my Lord. The Commissioner: Was that shut or open? The Solicitor-General: I do not know at all. I do not know whether the witness can tell. The Commissioner: If that was shut, then, as I understand, water would not get into the space between E and F on that deck; but if it was open, then the water would come into both those spaces. The Solicitor-General: Might I just ask Mr. Wheat to look at the plan? 11031. (The Commissioner.) Then it would come into the space between D and E, and then mount and get on to E deck and begin trickling down the stairs? (To the Witness.) Had she ever a list to starboard, as far as you know? - No, my Lord. The Attorney-General: There has been no evidence of that yet. The Commissioner: Because I do not understand the alleyway on the port side being dry. 11032. (The Solicitor-General.) I might ask him this to clear it up. (To the Witness.) You have