(Testimony taken separately before Senator Smith on behalf of the subcommittee.)
(The witness was sworn by the chairman.)
10579. Give your full name to the stenographer.
- Frank Oliver Evans.
10580. Where do you live?
- In Southampton. St. Michael's House, St. Michael's Square, Southampton.
10581. How old are you?
- Twenty-seven.
10582. What is your business?
- Able seaman, sir.
10583. How long have you been a seaman?
- I was in the Royal Navy, sir.
10584. How long?
- Nine years, sir; nine years and six months.
10585. On what ships?
- Fourteen or fifteen ships; more than that, in fact, sir.
10586. So you have had considerable experience as a mariner?
- Yes; as a sailor.
10587. How long have you been on merchant vessels?
- On merchant vessels, I have been in the Tintagel Castle, of the Union Line, in the Ferneo, an admiralty collier, and in the Olympic, of the White Star Line.
10588. And you came from the Olympic to the Titanic?
- To the Titanic; yes, sir.
10589. Had you ever sailed the north Atlantic Ocean before?
- No, sir; only on that trip in the Olympic, sir.
10590. What position did you fill or hold on the Titanic?
- Able-bodied seaman.
10591. Did you sail in this ship from Belfast?
- No, sir.
10592. From Southampton?
- From Southampton; yes, sir.
10593. I wish you would tell what took place, so far as you know, of your own knowledge, on the Titanic from the time you sailed from Southampton up to the time of the accident and your rescue by the Carpathia, and state in your own way and give me a connected story.
- Well, sir, we went on board; we joined the Titanic on Wednesday morning at 6 o'clock, and at 8 o'clock we had the first muster and had an inspection by the officers and went to boat drill. There were two starboard boats. We went away in one of those boats. The boats were hoisted up again and then I went on shore until half-past 11, sir.
10594. State the number of sailors that went in those two boats - that manned those two boats which were lowered at Southampton?
- There were nine in each, sir. I would not be sure as to the exact number, but I think there were nine in each.
10595. Which side of the ship were they lowered from?
- The starboard side.
10596. The port side being against the wharf?
- Yes; up against the quay. On the way out we did the usual routine of scrubbing the decks, working four hours on and four hours off. On Sunday we do not do anything in regard to scrubbing and the like of that. Sunday night was my watch on deck, and I was sitting at the table reading a book, and all of a sudden I felt a slight jar. I did not take any notice of it for a few minutes, until one of the other able seamen came down with a big lump of ice in his hands, and he said "Look what I found on the fore-well deck," and he chucked it down on the deck; and I went up the ladder there and I met one officer.
10597. Which officer?
- The fifth officer, I think.
10598. The fifth officer? Was it Lowe or Moody?
- I think it was the fifth officer; the fifth or sixth officer. He told me to go down and find the carpenter and sound all the wells forward, and report to the bridge. I went down the engineer's alleyway to find him, and I met the boatswain [Alfred Nichols] there, and he said, "Who are you looking for, Evans?" I said "The carpenter." He said "He has gone up." He said "What is the matter?" I said "I do not know. I think we have struck an iceberg." The boatswain went up, then. We went up and we looked down the forward hatch, where the tarpaulin was raising up with the wind, and I seen the boatswain again, and he told me to go down and tell the seamen to come up and uncover the boats, and make them ready for going out. I went up there with the remainder of the crew and uncovered all of the port boats. I then went over to the starboard side and lowered the boats there, with the assistance of the boatswain.
10599. What was the boatswain's name?
- I forget his name, now, sir.
10600. Can you not think of it?
- I forget the boatswain's name. We used to call him Mick; we used to give him that nickname.
10601. Is he here?
- No, sir; he was drowned, sir. He was the boatswain of the ship.
10602. Go ahead.
- We then lowered the starboard boats. After they had been lowered I went over to the port side and seen my own boat with the women and children being passed into it.
10603. What was the number of your boat?
- No. 12 was my proper boat, on the port side.
10604. Was No. 12 filled with women and children?
- Yes, sir.
10605. How many were put into it?
- I should say, on a rough average, there was about 50, sir. There was one seaman standing in the stern sheets of it.
10606. Were there any other men in it?
- No, sir; I did not notice any other men in the boat. She was swung out on the davits.
10607. And you did not notice any men?
- I could only see a seaman there.
10608. One seaman, or more?
- One seaman; yes, sir.
10609. That boat was lowered. Were there any male passengers in there; any members of the crew, males?
- I did not notice any. After we got them into that, I sung out to the seaman: "How many have you got in that boat?" I said: "Ginger, how many have you got?" He said: "There is only me here." I lowered that boat, sir, and she went away from the ship. I then went next to No. 10, sir, to that boat, and the chief officer, Mr. Murdoch, was standing there, and I lowered the boat with the assistance of a steward. The chief officer said, "What are you, Evans?" I said "A seaman, sir." He said "All right; get into that boat with the other seamen." He said, "Get into that boat," and I got into the bows of this boat, and a young ship's baker was getting the children and chucking them into the boat, and the women were jumping. Mr. Murdoch made them jump across into the boat.
10610. How far?
- It was about two feet and a half, sir. He was making the women jump across, and the children he was chucking across, along with this baker. He throwed them onto the women, and he was catching the children by their dresses and chucking them in.
10611. Were any children thrown overboard or any women?
- One woman slipped and fell. Her heel must have caught on the rail of the deck, and she fell down and some one on the deck below caught her and pulled her up. Her heel caught in the rail, I think, as she was jumping, and they pulled her in onto the next deck. She was a woman in a black dress.
10612. Do you know who she was? Did you ever see her afterwards?
- Yes, sir; she came up onto the boat deck again, and then jumped again, and she came into the boat that time all right.
10613. Into your boat?
- Yes; into No. 10 boat.
10614. Who was she?
- I could not distinguish her at all in the boat, and I never took no more notice of her.
10615. We are talking about the No. 10 boat - the one that you were in.
- Yes.
10616. How many people were put into that boat with you?
- There were about 60 persons, women and children.
10617. How many women?
- I should say about 57, sir. There were only me and another seaman and a steward, and two men besides.
10618. And how many children?
- Seven or eight children, sir.
10619. How many men besides yourself?
- I think there were one or two; there was me and another seaman and a steward, and two men.
10620. Who were these men?
- I do not know, sir. I think one was a foreigner that was up forward.
10621. A passenger?
- Yes; he was a passenger. The chief officer, Murdoch, had cleared all the women and children from that side of the ship, and he asked if there was any more, and there was no reply came, and the boat was packed, sir, and as this boat was being lowered this foreigner must have jumped from A deck into the boat.
10622. Did he catch something and throw himself into the boat?
- No; he just deliberately jumped across into the boat.
10623. And saved himself?
- Yes.
10624. What occurred then; was it lowered?
- It was lowered.
10625. To the water?
- Yes; to the water.
10626. If I understand you correctly, Murdoch, who was chief officer, loaded that boat by having the women jump from the boat deck into the lifeboat?
- Yes.
10627. A distance of how much?
- About 2 1/2 or 3 feet.
10628. In order to get them in there?
- Yes.
10629. Did the women hesitate about getting in?
- One or two women did, sir; but he compelled them to jump. He told them that they must.
10630. Did any women refuse to jump?
- One or two women refused, in the first place, to jump; but after he told them, they finally went.
10631. When you got to the water, what did you do?
- We unhooked the falls, sir. It was impossible to get to the tripper, on account of the women being packed so tightly. It was impossible to get to the tripper underneath the thwart.
10632. What was done then?
- We had to lift the fall up off the hook to release the spring, to get the block and fall away from it.
10633. And then what did you do?
- We unhooked it by hand.
10634. Then what did you do?
- We pushed off from the ship and rowed away.
10635. How far away?
- About 200 yards.
10636. What did you do then?
- We went over to where there were three more boats, and we tied up to them.
10637. Do you know which lifeboats you tied up to?
- There was No. 12.
10638. Your boat?
- I was in No. 10, then.
10639. Yes, I understand; but No. 12 was your own boat?
- Yes, she was my original boat. That was my station.
10640. What were the numbers of the other boats?
- I was in No. 10, and we tied up to No. 12. We gave the man our painter and made fast, and we stopped there.
10641. How long did you stop there?
- We stopped there about an hour, I think it was, sir, when No. 14 boat came over with one officer.
10642. What officer?
- The fifth officer. I think it was.
10643. Mr. Lowe; No. 14 boat?
- No. 14 boat. He came over in No. 14 boat, and he says, "Are there any seamen there?" We said, "Yes, sir." He said, "All right; you will have to distribute these passengers among these boats. Tie them all together and come into my boat," he said, "to go over into the wreckage and pick up anyone that is alive there." So we got into his boat and went straight over toward the wreckage. We picked up four men there, sir; alive.
10644. When you went over toward the wreckage, how many people were in your boat?
- Eight or nine, sir.
10645. And you picked up how many?
- We picked up four persons alive.
10646. Any dead?
- One died on the way back, sir. There were plenty of dead bodies about us.
10647. How many? Scores of them?
- You couldn't hardly count them, sir. I was afraid to look over the sides because it might break my nerves down.
10648. Did these bodies have life preservers on?
- Yes, sir; from here upward (indicating) they were clear of the water. They were like that (indicating). They simply had perished, sir.
10649. The boat that came to you was under sail?
- After we left the wreckage we made sail to another boat that was in distress, farther over.
10650. That was Lowe's boat, was it not?
- Yes.
10651. When you picked up these four men, that left you 13 people in your boat?
- Thirteen; yes, sir.
10652. Did you see other people in the water, or hear their cries?
- No, sir; none whatsoever, sir, other than these four persons we picked up.
10653. Did you not hear the cries of anyone in distress?
- No, sir.
10654. For help?
- In the first place, when the ship sank I was in No. 10 boat, then, sir.
10655. When the ship sank you heard these cries?
- We heard these cries, but we took them to be the boats that went away from the starboard side of the ship; that they were cheering one another, sir.
10656. Giving them encouragement?
- Giving them encouragement, sir.
10657. When you went back toward the wreckage the Titanic had been sunk how long?
- It must have been about an hour and a half, I should think.
10658. And you laid by, about 200 yards off, for an hour and a half?
- Yes.
10659. And then pulled over toward the place where she sank?
- Yes; that was in No. 14 boat, sir, with the officer.
10660. And you picked up four people?
- Four people, sir.
10661. One of whom died?
- One died; yes, sir.
10662. On the way to the Carpathia?
- He died in the boat, sir.
10663. One of whom died in the boat?
- Yes.
10664. Was that Mr. Hoyt?
- I could not say. He was a very stout man.
10665. A large man?
- A large, fleshy man.
10666. He was a large, fleshy man, and you had great trouble in getting him into the boat?
- We had great trouble in getting him into the boat.
10667. And you had to unfasten his collar to give him a chance to breathe?
- Yes.
10668. Why did you not go over toward the wreck quicker?
- In No. 14 boat or in No. 10 boat, sir?
10669. In No. 14 boat.
- The officer was in command of that boat then, sir.
10670. And he did not care to go over?
- That I could not say, sir.
10671. He did not order you to go over?
- He wanted as full a crew as he could get, to go over there quicker.
10672. He got the crew as soon as he got alongside of you?
- Yes; he got alongside of these boats and got rid of his passengers. We never saw him before that, so that I do not know what he did.
10673. How many men did he have in his crew?
- In his crew in No. 14 boat, sir?
10674. Yes.
- Eight or nine, sir. There were stewards and firemen.
10675. He had eight or nine when you went back to the wreck?
- Yes.
10676. But how many did he have in his crew when you first saw No. 14 boat?
- I could not say, sir. I could not tell you that, sir. I never took the trouble to count them.
10677. Did he use his revolver any, going over there?
- The fifth officer used one, sir.
10678. Where?
- He fired four shots when we went to this boat that was in distress. She was half full of water, and they were up to their ankles in water. There was one collapsible boat that we had in tow, and we went over to this one that was swamped, sir. Three dead persons were left there, besides our taking two other people into our boat, and one woman.
10679. I did not understand you to say that any women were taken off of this boat - the collapsible boat.
- The second officer was on the collapsible boat. He was a collapsible boat in tow, sir. Then we went over to this other collapsible that was swamped. There was one woman in it, and I should say there were about 10 or a dozen men, and 3 dead bodies were lying across the thwarts in the stern sheets.
10680. As I understand you, that boat was taking in water?
- The collapsible boat?
10681. Yes.
- No, sir.
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