Page 79 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 6 - 9

7044. I do not think you are quite following, or it may be I am not. At 8 o’clock you had a report about ice, had you, from your look-out? - No. 7045. When did you? - At about 22 minutes past 10. 7046. As late as that? - Yes, it was reported then. 7047. When did you double your look-out? - Eight o’clock. 7048. Why did you double the look-out? - Because we had passed bergs during the afternoon and we had had a report of bergs from east-bound steamers. 7049. You had reported to the “Titanic” that you had passed ice at half-past 6 that day? - Yes. 7050. You doubled the look-out. You had one man at the crow’s-nest? - Yes, and one man right in the bows of the ship. 7051. Was that before you doubled the look-out, or is that doubling the look-out? - That is doubling the look-out. 7052. That is what I want you to tell us. What is the addition that you made? Was it the man on the forecastle head? - The man on the forecastle head. 7053. Knowing there was ice about you had one man in the crow’s-nest? - Yes. 7054. And then as an extra precaution you put a man on the forecastle head? - Yes. 7055. That is right, is it? - Yes. 7056. Did you find it better for detecting ice; to have a man right in the bows like that? - Well, I do not know. This is my first experience of field ice. I think I saw the ice myself before they did. 7057. Did you have glasses? - I was not using them at the time. I looked through glasses after I had first seen it and could not make anything of it. 7058. Gill left your ship in Boston, did he not? - He did. 7059. Was he simply a donkey man? - Assistant donkey man? - Assistant donkey man. 7060. And he did not return? - He did not return. 7061. He had not a discharge? - No, he deserted; I entered him as deserted. The Attorney-General: Yes, you gave notice. Examined by Mr. SCANLAN. 7062. When you went down from the bridge to the chart room did you lie down? - No. 7063. But you went to sleep? - When? 7064. (The Commissioner.) When did you lose sight, and how, of the ship the lights of which you had seen? - The second officer reported to me he last saw her at 2 o’clock, and it was then bearing S.W. 1/2 W. by compass. 7065. Is that the last so far as you know that was seen of that vessel from your ship? - As far as I know it was, my Lord. 7066. And was she at this time about 5 miles away? - No, she must have been more by then. 7067. How many miles? - I think 8. 7068. You were both stopped, you know, all that time? - No, she was steaming, my Lord. 7069. I thought you told us that this steamer stopped? - She did at half-past 11. 7070. And when did she begin to go on again? - From the second officer’s report she commenced about 1 o’clock - 10 minutes to 1. 7071. She could not steam very quickly, I suppose? - No, she would not be steaming very quickly. 7072. She was in the middle of the ice? - Yes. 7073. And then at 2 o’clock, the time when we know the “Titanic” went down, the vessel vanished? - He saw her stern light through the glasses faintly. 7074. And that was the end of her? - That was the last he saw of her.