Page 30 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 6 - 9

where the third-class go on deck. We had to go by that and up a little alleyway and then turn to our left again. 5882. That is right? 5883. (The Commissioner.) Had you ever been there before? - No. The Attorney-General: That is exactly what he would do to get to the place I am indicating, if your Lordship will look. I will mark it, if I may. The Commissioner: Yes, certainly. The Attorney-General: I put a blue mark round the locker. As the witness has described it, it quite accurately represents what he would do to get to that spot. He would pass a staircase there on the right, then he goes along in a straight line to the left and goes along another alleyway, and there he would get to the locker. That is quite right. 5884. (The Commissioner.) Did you go down any of the small alleyways between the berths of the third-class passengers? - No, Sir. 5885. You passed the mouth of several of them? - Yes, about three or four, I think. 5886. (The Attorney-General.) Do you know the Chief Steward’s room? - Yes. 5887. Was that just opposite the place where you got the lifebelts? - No, that is right in the alleyway, just against the staircase. We had to go round here and up another alleyway and turn round on the left to get to this locker. It is the place we used to go and get the stamps in the “Olympic,” and I think this place was the same. 5888. There would be various offices on your left, as you are walking aft to get these stamps that you told us about and things of that sort? - Yes, the post office is just there on the left. We had to go past the third-class.. The Attorney-General: Now, I want you to tell us about these watertight doors. The Commissioner: Before you leave that, you say that the Chief Third-class Steward’s bunk, or room, or whatever it is is just close to the locker where the lifebelts were? The Attorney-General: I tried to get something about it from him, but I doubt whether he knows it. The Commissioner: He had never been in this part of the ship before in his life. The Attorney-General: It was in answer to a question I put to him about that that he said that was further forward that he passed that to get to the place he used to get the stamps in. Evidently what he means is that there are some offices that he would pass on the left as he walked aft, and he was referring to one of those. The Commissioner: Yes, because he told us he had never been in this part of the ship before in his life. 5889. (The Attorney-General.) In point of fact there is the Second-class Purser’s office, which would be very likely the office he was referring to. (To the Witness.) Now, I want to ask you about these watertight doors in the alleyway. Were they open? - Yes, they were open. 5890. That is to say you walked through these three doors, and, so far as you know, was there any order given to close any water-tight doors? - I cannot say up there. 5891. As far as you know, of course, the watertight doors closed down below would be closed from above, from the bridge, that we know? - Yes, Sir, but them in the alleyway they were open, and they were open at the time that I left the alleyway. The Commissioner: It is obvious they were open. He could not have got along otherwise. The Attorney-General: That is obvious, of course. I think we shall call evidence showing that everything was open there. Mr. Edwards: There is one point, my Lord, in which there seems to be a little disparity between this witness and Grainger [Ranger]. This witness says that he was taken into boat 14. Grainger’s [Ranger’s] evidence was that it was boat 4. It may save confusion hereafter if the point is at once cleared up.