Senator SMITH.
What did The Carpathia say in response to the C.Q.D. call?
Mr. BRIDE.
Phillips told her we were sinking fast, and to report it.
Senator SMITH.
When the Carpathia replied to this, what did she do? Did she give you her position?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Anything further?
Mr. BRIDE.
She said she was coming to our assistance full speed, or words to that effect.
Senator SMITH.
After that did you have any communication with any other ship?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Except the Carpathia?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir; with the Olympic and the Baltic.
Senator SMITH.
I believe you said they gave you their positions?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
I have forgotten whether you recalled them or not.
Mr. BRIDE.
I do not recall them.
Senator SMITH.
At that time did you know, or did you have any means of knowing, or were you advised by the captain or anyone else, which one of these ships was in closest proximity to the Titanic?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir. We were told that the Carpathia was the nearer; but the captain did not express any opinion on the Frankfurt, because he had not got their position. It was Mr. Phillips who expressed the opinion that the Frankfurt was nearer, and he was judging by the relative strength of the signals.
Senator SMITH.
How do you account the fact that the Titanic was not in communication with the Californian after about 5 o'clock Sunday afternoon?
Mr. BRIDE.
The Titanic had not been in communication with the Californian because there was no necessity for it.
Senator SMITH.
How do you account for the fact that the Californian did not receive the C.Q.D. call?
Mr. BRIDE.
The operator might not have been on watch.
Senator SMITH.
If the operator had been on watch on the Californian and the Californian was only 19 miles away, and your C.Q.D. call had been received, the entire situation might have been different?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Mr. Bride, did you receive, or did Mr. Phillips to your knowledge receive, a wireless message from the Californian at 11.15, ship's time or about 10 o'clock New York time, Sunday evening, saying, "Engines stopped. We are surrounded by ice"? Now, think hard on that, because I want to know whether you took that message.
Mr. BRIDE.
Mr. Phillips was on watch at the time.
Senator SMITH.
Do you know whether he received a message of that kind?
Mr. BRIDE.
He did not say so, sir.
Senator SMITH.
And you have no means of knowing?
(The witness did not answer.)
Senator FLETCHER.
What do you mean by saying there was no necessity for keeping in communication with the Californian?
Mr. BRIDE.
If the Californian had anything for us he would call us, or if we had anything for the Californian we would call him; and there was no necessity for us to call the Californian unless we had business with him, or vice versa, because it would then interrupt other traffic.
Senator FLETCHER.
The Californian said he was endeavoring to communicate with you and you stopped him and said he was jamming . Do you know about that?
Mr. BRIDE.
No; the chances are he might have been jamming during the evening, when the senior operator was working Cape Race.
Senator FLETCHER.
But you can not say that you on the Titanic knew of all that he was endeavoring to communicate?
Mr. BRIDE.
No, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Do you know whether when this message or communication was attempted at 10 o'clock, New York time, Sunday night, saying that the engines had stopped and they were surrounded by ice, the Californian operator was told "Keep out; am working Cape Race"?
Mr. BRIDE.
I heard nothing about it at all, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Would Mr. Phillips have made a memorandum of such a message if he had received it?
Mr. BRIDE.
He would have if the Californian had persisted in sending it.
Senator SMITH.
Did you ever see any record of that kind?
Mr. BRIDE.
No, sir.
Senator SMITH.
The records of the Titanic are all lost?
Mr. BRIDE.
I had a glance at the log for that evening as I was writing it up at the time of the disaster.
Senator SMITH.
At the time of the disaster?
Mr. BRIDE.
But I can not recollect any communication with the Californian having been noted down.
Senator SMITH.
After 5 o'clock?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
The Californian's log shows, that they sent that message to the Titanic at 11.15 ship's time, or 10 o'clock New York time.
Mr. BRIDE.
I may have overlooked it.
Senator SMITH.
If you had heard such a message as that you would have regarded it as important, would you not?
Mr. BRIDE.
I should have taken it myself; yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Were you working with Cape Race, or was Phillips, to your knowledge, just before the collision with the iceberg?
Mr. BRIDE.
As far as I recollect Phillips had finished working with Cape Race about 10 minutes before the collision with the iceberg. He made no mention of the fact when I turned out.
Senator SMITH.
I think you told me the other day in New York the time that elapsed after the collision or impact before you sent the C.Q.D. call out. I want to be sure I have it, so I am asking it again.
Mr. BRIDE.
I could not call it to mind now, sir.
Senator SMITH.
What is your best recollection?
Mr. BRIDE.
My best recollection would be somewhere in the vicinity of 10 minutes, sir, because Mr. Phillips and I were discussing one or two things before the captain came and told us to call for assistance.
Senator SMITH.
What were you discussing?
Mr. BRIDE.
We were discussing what Mr. Phillips thought had happened to the ship and the working of Cape Race.
Senator SMITH.
Did the captain come personally?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
To the operating room?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
And he told you or told Phillips to send this call out?
Mr. BRIDE.
He told Phillips to send the call out.
Senator SMITH.
And he came frequently to your operating room after that and urged you to send out the C.Q.D. again?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Do you recollect the captain of the Carpathia testifying the other day that he got your C.Q.D. call at 10.45, New York time?
Mr. BRIDE.
I did not hear that, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Assuming that you got into immediate communication with the Carpathia when you sent out your C.Q.D. call, the message would have been completed in an instant, would it not?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
If this collision occurred at 9.50, New York time, and the Carpathia received your C.Q.D. call at 10.25, New York time, considerable time had elapsed between the time you sent out your call and the time it was received?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
How do you account for that?
Mr. BRIDE.
Maybe it was a difference between the clocks of the two ships.
Senator SMITH.
You mean that the time may have been set back on one and not on the other?
Mr. BRIDE.
That is New York time you are talking about?
Senator SMITH.
I am talking about New York time.
Mr. BRIDE.
You see, on these ships each operator has a clock for the purpose of keeping New York time and Greenwich time on the way across.
Senator SMITH.
I will read what the captain says, and see if we can work this out. [Link to testimony]
At 12.35 a. m. on Monday I was informed of the urgent distress signal from the Titanic.
Question. By whom?
Capt. ROSTRON. By our wireless operator, and also by the first officer. The wireless operator had taken the message and run with it up to the bridge and gave it to the first officer, who was in charge, with a junior officer with him, and both ran down the ladder to my door and called me. I had only just turned in. It was an urgent distress signal from the Titanic, requiring immediate assistance, and giving me his position. The position of the Titanic at the time was 41º 46' north, 50º 14' west. I can not give you our correct position.
Question. Did you give the hour?
Capt. ROSTRON. Yes, 12.35. That was our apparent time. I can give you the New York time, if you would rather have it?
Question. Yes; please do so.
Capt. ROSTRON. The New York time at 12.35 was 10.45 p. m., Sunday night. Immediately on getting the message I gave the order to turn the ship around, and immediately I had given that order I asked the operator if he was absolutely sure it was a distress signal from the Titanic. I asked him twice.
Assuming that the message was received a few moments before it was handed to the captain - and they seem to have responded very promptly - they did not get your message until 10.45 New York time, or 12.35 ship's time. Fifty-five minutes elapsed between the time you say you gave the signal and the time Capt. Rostron says he received it.
Mr. BRIDE.
There must be a mistake in the time somewhere.
Senator SMITH.
I wish you would think hard and if you can straighten that out in some way. I do not like to leave that discrepancy.
Mr. BRIDE.
I have no recollection of the time these various incidents took place, but I can give you a fairly good estimate of the times between the incidents.
Senator SMITH.
No; but you have fixed as best you could the interval between the time of the collision and the time the captain came to your room and told you to send out the C. Q. D. call?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
You have fixed that, to the best of your recollection, as 10 minutes?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
But there is a wide discrepancy. We are all agreed as to the hour when the collision took place, but there is a discrepancy of 55 minutes between the time of the collision and the time the wireless was received on the Carpathia.
Mr. BRIDE.
That may be due simply to difference in the times kept by the two ships.
Senator SMITH.
When it was 12 o'clock and 35 minutes on board the Carpathia, it should have been the same time on board the Titanic, which was only 53 miles away.
Let me refresh your recollection a little. The captain of the Mount Temple, who brought his wireless records here, says that the Mount Temple received the C. Q. D. call at 10.25, New York time, and the Mount Temple was further away from the Titanic than the Carpathia. Then I think Cape Race received the C. Q. D. call about the same time the Mount Temple received it. I do not want, if it is possible to avoid it, to leave this discrepancy of 55 minutes between the time this call was sent out and the time the Carpathia received it.
Mr. BRIDE.
This discrepancy is in ship's time, I assume. The difference is between the time of the two ships and because the New York time was not taken.
Senator SMITH.
Let us take the ship's time. By ship's time the Titanic struck the iceberg at what hour?
Mr. BRIDE.
Twenty minutes to 12.
Senator SMITH.
At 11.40; everybody seems to be agreed on that. The captain of the Carpathia received the wireless message from the Titanic at 12.35, ship's time.
Officer Boxhall, you were astir that night, as I recollect it?
Mr. BOXHALL.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
And I have an impression that you said in your testimony that the C. Q. D. call was sent out about 35 minutes after the ship struck?
Mr. BOXHALL.
Approximately about that time, sir, as near as I can tell. The Carpathia's time you mentioned there a few moments ago as 12.35. That was the apparent time, and his clocks have been altered at midnight. That ship was bound east, and his clocks had been altered.
Senator SMITH.
Twenty-five minutes?
Mr. BOXHALL.
No; it would be more than 25.
Senator SMITH.
The first time they were changed?
Mr. BOXHALL.
His clocks were altered probably about thirty-odd minutes at midnight that night.
Senator SMITH.
That may account for this one message. But your testimony shows that the first C.Q.D. call went out about 35 minutes after the collision.
Mr. BOXHALL.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Mr. Bride, did you or did Phillips do any business between the time of the collision and the time when the C.Q.D. call went out?
Mr. BRIDE.
No, sir.
Senator SMITH.
You just talked between yourselves?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Did you attempt to do any business with the wireless?
Mr. BRIDE.
No, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Did you take the exact time from a watch or clock when the collision occurred?
Mr. BRIDE.
No, sir.
Senator SMITH.
You did not?
Mr. BRIDE.
No, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Did you have a watch or clock in your room?
Mr. BRIDE.
We had two clocks, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Were they both running?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes, sir; one was keeping New York time and the other was keeping ship's time.
Senator FLETCHER.
The difference was about 1 hour and 55 minutes?
Mr. BRIDE.
There was about 2 hours difference between the two.
Senator SMITH.
Mr. Franklin, in his testimony, says (reading from a memorandum):
"Received from Associated Press from Cape Race 3.05 a. m., Monday, April 15. 10.25 p. m., E. S. T."
That is ship's time.
"Titanic called C.Q.D.; reported having struck iceberg and required immediate assistance. Half an hour afterwards reported that they were sinking by the head."
This time, 10.25, corresponds with the time given by Capt. Rostron, and by Capt. Moore, of the Mount Temple, they having intercepted this message to Cape Race. In view of all this I would like to know whether you care to modify or elaborate or change your statement that the captain came to the operating room 10 minutes after the accident, or about that, and told you to put out the C.Q.D. call? Think it over.
Mr. BRIDE.
I said the captain came to the cabin 10 minutes after the accident. The captain came to the cabin after I had turned out 10 minutes, and I turned out after the collision had occurred.
Senator SMITH.
I assume you were in bed?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes sir.
Senator SMITH.
Between the time you turned out and the captain gave the order to send this message -
Mr. BRIDE.
It was just about 10 minutes.
Senator SMITH.
I do not know that I care to press that matter any further. Your statement stands that it was about 10 minutes. It might have been a little more.
Mr. BRIDE.
As far as I recollect; Mr. Phillips did not tell me when it was that he felt the ship striking; but to the best of my recollection it was 10 minutes after I had turned out that the captain came in and told us to get assistance.
Senator SMITH.
I think that is all, Mr. Bride. You may be excused. Do you want to return to New York?
Mr. BRIDE.
Yes; I should like to, very much.
Senator SMITH.
I do not think we have any objection.
Mr. BRIDE.
I would like to say, sir, that there is a rumor being circulated that Mr. Cottam and I were taking the baseball scores when we were returning to New York.
Senator SMITH.
It does not appear in the record.
Mr. BRIDE.
It does not appear in the record, but it is unfounded, and there is no truth in it at all.
Senator SMITH.
If you would like to have that appear, we should be glad to put it in.
Mr. BRIDE.
I should certainly like to have it in.
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