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mean they are stopped. The Commissioner: Until this morning I thought the order to stop and the stopping were fairly simultaneous. Mr. Laing: So they are, my Lord. The Commissioner: Apparently, according to the evidence we have heard this morning, it takes about ten minutes for the engines to stop. The Attorney-General: I do not think he said that, oh no. Mr. Laing: He said some substantial time, but as a matter of fact it only takes a few seconds. The Commissioner: He gave the order “Stop” and it was obeyed. I took down that this took about ten minutes. The Attorney-General: Ten minutes between that and the next order, which was “Slow ahead.” (To the Witness.) Is that right? The Commissioner: I wish you would get it quite clear. The Attorney-General: I think it is right. The Commissioner: Will you allow me to ask so that I understand it myself? The Attorney-General: Certainly, my Lord. The Commissioner: You remember the order to stop? - Yes. 5807. That, I suppose, was obeyed instantaneously by the men in the engine room? - Yes. 5808. The next order was “Slow ahead”? - Yes. 5809. Now, what time elapsed between the order to stop and the order to slow ahead? - About 10 minutes. 5810. And what was happening during that 10 minutes? Had the ship ceased to move and the engines ceased to move? - When they rang down “Stop” they shut the steam off, and then it is bound to go on until the steam is right out of her. 5811. How long does that take? - About 10 minutes. The Commissioner: That is what I understood. Mr. Laing: That is what he said. The Commissioner: That is to say, that although the engineers do all they can to stop the engines they do not in fact stop for 10 minutes. One of my colleagues says that is absurd. The Attorney-General: So I think it is, from our evidence. The Witness: Do you mean from the time they stop till they go again? 5812. (The Commissioner.) Let us get it clear. There comes the order to stop? - Yes. 5813. And that is obeyed by the engineers instantly? - Yes. 5814. But you say there is some steam that has to be exhausted? - Yes. 5815. And while that steam is being exhausted, although the engineer has stopped his engines - that is, say, done what is necessary to stop them - the engines continue to revolve? - Yes. 5816. Now how long after the engineer has put on the stop do the engines revolve? - About five revolutions. The Attorney-General: We must take the 10 minutes to be, what I understood him to say, and what I think is clear now, between the order to stop and the going slow ahead. The Commissioner: That is a very different thing altogether. The Witness: That is what I thought you meant. The Commissioner: The five revolutions are of no account, and therefore my first impression that “Stop” meant what it says was right. The engines had stopped. Mr. Laing: Yes. The Witness: It just turned five times, that is all. 5817. (The Commissioner.) And then they remained in that stopped condition for 10 minutes? - Yes. The Attorney-General: That is the point.