British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry
Day 33
Final Arguments
Mr. Dunlop:
He wrote it up from the scrap log, in which was entered at the time the various entries which were subsequently copied into the log before your Lordship. The first observation that day appears to have been taken at 9.40 a.m., latitude 42 North, longitude 47 West. Your Lordship will see that at that time is also recorded a reading of the patent log. The log showed 47 1/2 miles. It does not appear on this day when the log was set. At 9.55 the course is altered, and at noon observations are taken by the Officers on the bridge, verified by the Master, and her position fixed at 42.5 and 47.25, as recorded in the log. From there a course of South 89 true is set, practically true West.
The Commissioner:
Where do you get that from?
Mr. Dunlop:
That is from the evidence of the Officer as to the deviation on the steering compass North 59. 9.55, altered course at noon North 61 degrees West, equivalent to South 89 degrees true, practically true West.
The Commissioner:
Where is the variation?
Mr. Dunlop:
The variation you will find in the log, 24 3/4 West.
The Commissioner:
Where is the deviation?
Mr. Dunlop:
That is given in the evidence of the Officer on page 158.
The Commissioner:
Read it.
Mr. Dunlop:
It is Question 6782. "(The Attorney-General.) What variation? - (A.) The variation that day at noon was 24 3/4. She was about 24 when we were stopped."
The Commissioner:
Where is the deviation?
Mr. Dunlop:
The deviation would be about 2 E., making an error of 22 W."
The Commissioner:
Is there no book in which the deviation would be recorded?
Mr. Dunlop:
Yes, I think there would be.
The Commissioner:
Where is it?
Mr. Dunlop:
I have not got it. I believe it is kept on board the ship. I can get it, no doubt. This point was not challenged.
The Commissioner:
I daresay it was not. It is only that I want the gentlemen who advise me to follow what you are saying.
Mr. Dunlop:
The Master has translated his compass course into the true course, enabling me to lay it down upon that chart. North 61 degrees West by compass corresponds to South 89 degrees true. No doubt he had the information before him which enabled him to translate it. And that is the course which you would expect it to be. It is about the course the "Titanic" herself was on - a course of about true West. That was the course in fact made good. Whatever the course steered was is made clear by the observation taken at 7.30 that evening. According to the evidence of the Chief Officer, at Question 8798, he took, at 7.30 in the evening, an observation of the Pole Star, which gave him his latitude. That latitude is shown on the chart before your Lordship, and it was as a result of the observation which he then got that he corrected in his logbook the 6.30 position, which he had already communicated to the "Antillian" and to the "Titanic." At 6.30, if your Lordship will be good enough to look at the log, it is recorded that they passed two large icebergs in latitude 40.5 North and longitude 49.9 West. I have to give the deviation on a South-South-East heading because it is to that heading that the question of the Attorney-General is directed. The deviation would probably be entirely different upon a westerly course. I am on the question of the course now.
The Attorney-General:
It is for the purpose of distance.
Mr. Dunlop:
I must get both.
The Commissioner:
You have not at present satisfied the gentlemen who are with me that the course that you have marked on this plan is the course that you were making.
The Attorney-General:
May I see that plan? I have not had a look at it yet - because we have some evidence from the Captain himself who drew this course. (The plan was handed to the Attorney-General.)
The Commissioner:
You will see what it leads to. There is a straight red line, and if you take the straight red line along to your left you will see it is just over the spot where the "Titanic" is supposed to have sunk, and it is said that is a distance of 20 miles.
Mr. Dunlop:
At least 20 miles.
The Commissioner:
But then, you know, the Admiral, who sits on my right, tells me that the information to be obtained from the log does not enable anyone to lay down that track.
Mr. Dunlop:
That is quite obvious.
The Commissioner:
And the deviation does not give the course.
Mr. Dunlop:
The reason for that is that the course which was mentioned in the log is the course by compass, and until your Lordship has the deviation book you cannot obtain the magnetic course.
The Commissioner:
I am told that there ought not to be a log of this kind without the error of deviation being put down.
Mr. Dunlop:
There is no column in it, that I can see, for entering the deviation, I think. There is a column for the variation, which is recorded.
The Commissioner:
Is it not as a Rule put in the remarks column?
Mr. Dunlop:
Sometimes it is, my Lord. I do not know whether it is done on board the "Californian." The logbook will show that.
The Commissioner:
Apparently it is not done on board the "Californian."
Mr. Dunlop:
Apparently not.
The Commissioner:
It was not done on this occasion.
Mr. Dunlop:
Your Lordship has the logbook, is it recorded on any other occasion?
The Commissioner:
I am sure I do not know. This logbook, I presume, only refers to this voyage; that is so, is it not?
Mr. Dunlop:
My Lord, I have not seen the original. I think if any question was to be raised about the course -
The Commissioner:
I am sorry I have to interrupt you again for a moment, but are you going to say that you saw the signals or did not see them?
Mr. Dunlop:
We saw certain signals.
The Commissioner:
Are you going to say that they were or were not distress signals?
Mr. Dunlop:
I am going to say that they were not distress signals; if they were distress signals they were not signals from a vessel herself in distress; or if they were distress signals from a vessel in distress that vessel that vessel was not the "Titanic."
The Commissioner:
That may be. Were they, according to you, distress signals?
Mr. Dunlop:
No, my Lord.
The Commissioner:
What were they?
Mr. Dunlop:
They were supposed to be private night signals.
The Attorney-General:
The evidence is all against that.
Mr. Dunlop:
I will deal with the evidence.
The Commissioner:
You will have a great deal of difficulty in persuading me of that. If they were distress signals, whether they came from the "Titanic" or not, you ought to have made for them.
Mr. Dunlop:
It does not concern me whether they were distress signals or whether they were not, for the moment. What concerns me is, were they the signals of the "Titanic"? If they were not the signals of the "Titanic," we do not know what signals they were, or why they were fired, until we have the vessel which fired them.
The Commissioner:
I know that; if they were distress signals - you say they were not, but that they were some sort of ship's signals, whatever that means - if they were distress signals, you know, you ought to have made for the lights.
Mr. Dunlop:
I will deal later, my Lord, with the circumstances under which these lights were seen, and I hope to satisfy your Lordship, when the time comes, that assuming the signals were what these men believe them to be, they did nothing wrong in remaining where they were until daylight.
The Commissioner:
Where is the deviation table?
Mr. Dunlop:
It ought to be on board the ship.
The Commissioner:
I know where it ought to be - but I am asking where it is. Have you not thought it worthwhile to ask for it?
Mr. Dunlop:
No, my Lord, because I asked the Master -
The Commissioner:
Because I am told that you cannot get the course accurately unless you have it.
Mr. Dunlop:
I asked the Master to translate his compass course into his true course. He did so, and I have no reason to doubt that he did so accurately. If there is any doubt about it, we will send for the deviation book and ascertain.
The Commissioner:
But you know it is as necessary it seems to me, to have that table, as it is to have the log.
Mr. Dunlop:
Yes, my Lord, but the log was put in and the deviation book was not.
The Commissioner:
Why did not he come provided with the other book?
Mr. Dunlop:
My Lord, I will deal with that later. He did not come provided with anything. He did not even come with his logbook - the logbook had to be sent for - he came as a Witness to give evidence on other matters, entirely.
The Commissioner:
Where is this table at present?
Mr. Dunlop:
My Lord, we will communicate with Liverpool and ascertain where the table is.
The Commissioner:
You had better telegraph for it.
Mr. Dunlop:
We will telegraph for it, my Lord.
The Commissioner:
So that we may have it here tomorrow morning.
Mr. Dunlop:
If it can be got, my Lord, it will be got. If I may continue, your Lordship has the noon position, your Lordship also has the latitude communicated to the "Antillian" and the "Titanic" by wireless telegraphy at 6.30 in the evening. Your Lordship also has the observation, taken by the Chief Officer, of the Pole Star, at 7.30, all agreeing in the latitude 42.5 North, which is only consistent with a course of about West true; and the vessel at that time is steaming full speed, making something between 11 and 12 knots, and from the 7.30 position she runs until 10.21, when she stops owing to the ice.
There is no record in the log of any alteration of course between 7.30 and the time when she stopped, nor is there any suggestion that she did alter her course, between these times. My Lord, these were recorded at the time in the scrap log according to the evidence and copied into the log from the scrap log. They appeared in the scrap log long before the "Titanic" was lost - several hours before the "Titanic" was lost and, therefore, before there was any inducement whatever to those on board the "Californian" to make their log appear as if their vessel was further North than she in fact was. It was not suggested to the Master or the Officers of the "Californian," nor are there any grounds for the suggestion, that the log before your Lordship has been "cooked." The log on the face of it appears to be a perfectly genuine log.
The Attorney-General:
I think you are putting that too high - you say there is no suggestion.
Mr. Dunlop:
No question was put, my Lord, to the Master.
The Commissioner:
Just a moment, please. The scrap log is gone.
Mr. Dunlop:
The scrap log is gone, and the explanation of that was given by the Witnesses when they were asked about it.
The Commissioner:
And as far as I remember it was given in a way that satisfied me that it had gone.
Mr. Dunlop:
Yes, your Lordship was satisfied at the time.
The Commissioner:
Yes, I thought so. The log places the latitude when the bergs were passed two miles further North, and therefore two miles further away from the "Titanic" than the message places them.
Mr. Dunlop:
That is so, and the explanation of that is this -
The Commissioner:
Why should you make your log show a position two miles further North?
Mr. Dunlop:
The explanation, my Lord, of that is this, that the bergs were passed at 6.30. At 7.30 the observation was taken which enabled them to check their latitude. At 7.30 they found their latitude to be 42.5 North.
The Commissioner:
That was the Pole Star observation.
Mr. Dunlop:
That was the Pole Star observation at 7.30. 6.30, an hour before, was the time when they passed the icebergs and when they communicated the position of these icebergs to the "Titanic" and the "Antillian" they communicated 42.3 North.
The Commissioner:
They did.
Mr. Dunlop:
The explanation of the Chief Officer was that his 7.30 observation enabled him to ascertain that the 6.30 position was wrong by two miles.
The Commissioner:
So that you say he entered up the log later on and entered it up as he thought correctly.
Mr. Dunlop:
Yes, he entered it up correctly. From the 7.30 position, running as they say they were running at nearly full speed takes them at 10.21 to the place where they stopped - into the position which is recorded in the log as 42.5 North and 50.7 West. My Lord, I submit that the Master of the "Californian," if he is to be judged at all, must get the benefit of his logbook, which, after all, is not his log. It is the log kept by the Chief Officer, a person whose conduct is not in any way the object of this Enquiry and who is not concerned in the result of what your Lordship's views may be. We are dealing now with the Master, and I submit the Master is entitled to have his conduct judged, amongst other things, in the light of what is recorded in the Chief Officer's log. But that is further confirmed by what appears in the entries on the following morning. If you test it, my Lord, by the distance which he ran from 6 o'clock in the morning, when he heard of the "Titanic's" loss, until 8.30, when he came up to the "Titanic's" position, your Lordship will see that he must have run a distance very considerably over 20 miles.
The Commissioner:
Can you tell us what course he was making?
Mr. Dunlop:
He told us, my Lord, in his evidence. He steered various courses to the South-West, and then he carried down along the edge of the ice-field, turned round and steered West.
The Commissioner:
But the number of miles that he made in a bee-line towards the "Titanic" cannot be ascertained from that.
Mr. Dunlop:
My Lord, he steamed, in fact, something over 30 miles the next morning, making allowance for the fact that he did not go by the direct route.
The Commissioner:
Where is the evidence of that?
Mr. Dunlop:
That is the evidence of the Master, Captain Lord.
The Commissioner:
Yes, I daresay; he said so, but I would like you to refer me to it, and then tell me why it is not to be found in the log.
Mr. Dunlop:
Because you would not expect to find it there.
The Commissioner:
Would not you expect to find the course that he was making, and would not you expect to find the speed?
Mr. Dunlop:
My Lord, he tells us what he was doing; he tells us in the log what he is doing. He is proceeding slowly to a position given, latitude 41.46 North, "proceeding slow, pushing through thick field ice, cleared the thickest ice, proceeding full speed, pushing ice." He is steering various courses.
The Commissioner:
I daresay he is, but would not you expect to find in the log some information as to the courses that he was steering, and some information as to the speed at which he was going?
Mr. Dunlop:
I would not expect to find any record of his speed. If he was going various courses I would expect to find that recorded, and we do find that, because we find under the column "Course" - "Course various," which is in accordance with the evidence which he gave, and it is not until 11.20, when he proceeds on his real course, that he states what that course was. My Lord, according to the log, he is running for 30 minutes slow through ice, and for 2 hours at full speed, which he said was about 13 knots, his engineer reported to him that it was 13 1/2 knots. Making allowance for the fact that he was not able to proceed direct to the "Titanic's" position, but had to go round the edge of the ice-field, it confirms the statement in my submission that he was at least 20 miles to the northward of the "Titanic's" position. Your Lordship asked me if he had stated in his evidence the distance which he ran the next morning. I see that is at Question 7378: "How many miles had you, in fact, to steam to get to the place where the wreckage was found? - (A.) I should think 30 miles at the least." But apart altogether from the question of speed, judging it from the record of the interval of time that there was between his position and that of the "Titanic," that is 2 1/2 hours' steaming from the "Titanic's" position - if there is one point on which all the evidence agrees it is this, that as soon as they did hear of the "Titanic's" loss they with all speed went to her assistance. They went in the direction reported by the "Carpathia," and did so at full speed. If you allow for 2 hours at full speed and 30 minutes at slow, and her full speed is something like 13 knots or 13 1/2 knots, I submit, my Lord, it follows that the position recorded in the log as the place where the "Californian" was stopped must be approximately accurate.
The Commissioner:
That is about 20 miles North of the place of the disaster.
Mr. Dunlop:
North by east of the place where the "Titanic" struck. I invite those who assist your Lordship to check the logbook. We will send for and get if we can the deviation-book, and I submit that the logbook will bear that investigation and will establish that the "Californian" was, in fact, in the position which her log records. That also, my Lord, is corroborated by the distance which you would ordinarily expect to find between vessels bound respectively to New York, as the "Titanic" was, and to Boston, as the "Californian" was, at the 50th Meridian of longitude. You would expect to find them at about 20 to 30 miles apart, if they were both steering the course to the port to which each was respectively bound. If the log is approximately right, it follows that neither vessel could possibly have been at any time in sight of the other. They were separated by so great a distance and so great an interval of time that the "Californian" could not possibly have been of any assistance had she steamed to the "Titanic" as soon as the "Titanic" struck the iceberg. So much, my Lord, for the log.
I further submit to your Lordship that the fact the vessel seen was not the "Titanic" is borne out by what the Witnesses from the "Californian" have themselves described as what they saw. And in this connection I think it is important to remember that the Witnesses from the "Californian," when they were watching this steamer, had in their minds the "Titanic," because they had shortly before been in wireless communication with the "Titanic." Now, my Lord, what did the Witnesses see? First, with regard to the class of vessel which they saw, the Master had her under observation for at least an hour. He said in his evidence that he remarked to the Third Officer, who was standing beside him at the time: "She is not the 'Titanic'; she is not even a passenger steamer." It was impossible to mistake the "Titanic" for the steamer he was seeing. My Lord, that is his evidence at Questions 6724, 6755, and 8197. Stone, the Second Officer, and Gibson, the Apprentice, were the two who were on watch from midnight till 4 a.m. Those were the two Witnesses who had this steamer longest under observation, and the better opportunity of judging what she was. They both said in their evidence, and both agreed at the time, when they were watching this steamer, that she had no appearance at all of being a passenger boat. They both agreed to this, my Lord, when they were discussing her, that she was a tramp, and they were looking at her through glasses. My Lord, that is not only their evidence, the views they expressed here, but it is what both say that they expressed to each other at the time they were looking at her, and when, as I say, they had the "Titanic" present to their minds. Stone's evidence you will find at Questions 7863 and 8088; and Gibson's, the Apprentice, at 7545, 7706, 7728, and 7792. Gill, the donkeyman, who your Lordship may remember went forward at the end of his watch to call his mate at about midnight, had a momentary and passing glimpse of a steamer which he associated with the "Titanic," of whose loss he heard next morning. But even Gill, the donkeyman, with his imagination stimulated by what had taken place in New York, could not and did not say that she was the "Titanic." He judged her to be a passenger steamer because of the glare of lights - her saloon lights and her port lights.
The Commissioner:
What did Gill say about the vessel that he saw being a tramp?
Mr. Dunlop:
Gill did not say so, my Lord.
The Commissioner:
What did he say?
Mr. Dunlop:
Gill thought she was a passenger steamer.
The Commissioner:
What did Groves say?
Mr. Dunlop:
I am coming to Groves, the Third Officer. He thought she was a passenger steamer too. I will deal with that in a moment. I have dealt with Stone, the Second Officer; I am now dealing with Gill; Gill thought she was a passenger steamer. He thought so because of her row of deck lights and port lights. And it is important, my Lord, to remember that he says he saw her shortly after 12 o'clock, which was the end of his watch, as he was going forward to call his mate. According to Groves, the Third Officer, whose evidence was the more dramatic of the two, he said he saw the deck lights and this glare of lights go out at 11.40. That is when they disappeared, according to him. Groves, my Lord, at Question 8203, says the lights disappeared at 11.40. Gill, nevertheless, sees them all ablaze, at Question 18136, a few minutes after 12. If Groves is right Gill must be wrong, and if Gill is right Groves cannot be right. So much, my Lord, for Gill. Groves, the Third Officer, was the gentleman who was on watch from 8 till midnight. When he was pressed at the end of his evidence - I will not say by whom - to say he thought it was the "Titanic," my Lord, he answered this.
The Commissioner:
Did I press him?
Mr. Dunlop:
Your Lordship asked the question.
The Commissioner:
I thought so.
Mr. Dunlop:
Up to that moment, my Lord, he had not the courage to say that she was the "Titanic," but, thus stimulated, he said this: "From what I have heard subsequently I do, but I do not put myself forward as an experienced man." That was the best answer, my Lord, he was able to give. Question 8442. My Lord, it is perfectly clear, I submit, that Groves did not think so at the time, because at the end of his watch he went to have his usual chat with the Marconi operator, who was a kind of "Evening News" to him. He went there to find what vessels there were and what news there was, and, according to the operator's version of the conversation which took place at the end of Groves' watch, not a word was said about the steamer which Groves described in the witness-box. He did not mention her - nothing about seeing a large passenger steamer and her lights going out at 11.40. He did not ask: "Is this vessel the 'Titanic'"? or anything of the kind. My Lord, that appears in the Marconi operator's evidence at Questions 9034 to 9050, where the Marconi operator told your Lordship that there was no reference at all by Groves to the steamer which he had seen, and both went off to bed. Groves attached no importance at the time to the vessel which he had seen, and he attached no importance at all to any of the incidents which he described when here in the witness-box; and I submit that his evidence was largely the result of imagination stimulated by vanity. So much with regard to the class of vessels seen.
After a short adjournment.
Mr. Dunlop:
My Lord, the next point I wanted to deal with was what navigation lights the Witnesses from the "Californian" saw. They only saw one masthead light; the "Titanic" had two. The evidence on that point is the Master's evidence, Q. 6805; the Second Officer, Q. 8079; Gibson, Q. 7791; Gill did not notice any masthead lights; the Third Officer said he thought he saw two, no doubt, because he thought that the vessel he was seeing was a passenger steamer; but the Second Officer, Gibson, and the Master were all very emphatic that the vessel which they saw was only exhibiting one masthead light, and they said that if she in fact had been carrying two masthead lights they could not have failed to pick up the second light.
That it was not the "Titanic" is, I submit, also clear from the description which the Witnesses gave and the direction in which the steamer they saw was moving. Before 11.40 that night the "Titanic" was steering about due west, and to every vessel to the northward of her she would be showing her green light. The sidelight which the Witnesses from the "Californian" in fact saw, or said they saw, was the red light. That is the Third Officer, Question 8228; the Second Officer, 7814; and Gibson, 7425. It may be said that the "Titanic" may have opened her red light after 11.40, when she struck the iceberg, but that is not borne out by the evidence. According to the evidence, she starboarded about two points before she struck the berg, and after her engines were stopped, according to the evidence of her Officers, her head did not alter its position at all. The effect of starboarding would not be to open the red light to any vessel to the northward of the "Titanic's" position. Therefore, both before the "Titanic" struck the berg and after, if she had been within sight of the "Californian," it is the green light and not the red light which the Witnesses from the "Californian" would have seen.
The Commissioner:
Have you this in your mind. Question 6759: "By this time had you been able to detect her sidelights at all? - (A.) I could see her green light then."
Mr. Dunlop:
Yes; that is the evidence of the Master.
The Commissioner:
Yes, Captain Lord.
Mr. Dunlop:
Yes, Captain Lord; but the Third Officer who saw her up till 12; the Second Officer, and Gibson, who saw her from 12 till about 2, described the red light; they never saw a green light.
Continued >
