13930. (Senator Fletcher.) You informed him of the only one that you received, that you remember?
- I did. The captain told me to ignore the messages altogether.
13931. I mean regarding news of the disaster.
- Yes. When I docked in New York there was one wireless station that had between 150 and 200 messages for me that I had not time to take on the way along.
13932. (Senator Newlands.) You were crowded with the business of receiving and sending messages on official and passengers business?
- Yes.
13933. (Senator Fletcher.) How much time was taken up by passengers' traffic?
- All the time I had to spare when I was not dealing with official traffic.
13934. You really had more than you could do, with both together?
- Oh, yes; I could not cope with the work at all.
13935. Can you tell how many messages you sent off?
- More than 500.
13936. What proportion of those would be of official business and what proportion would be passengers' business.
- I do not know; about half and half, I should say. All the passengers' names had to go and the survivors' names.
13937. The apparatus was in good working condition all the while?
- I can not say it was in good condition, because the weather was not good. The atmosphere at that time was in a static condition. There was rain about all the time. It was wet, foul weather all the time.
13938. Did that interfere with the transmission of messages?
- Oh, yes.
13939. To what extent?
- It caused a leak - it caused a leak through the insulators when they were wet.
13940. That made it necessary to repeat often?
- I did repeat everything; I never send a telegram without repeating it.
13941. Is it customary to repeat every message?
- It all depends on the circumstances. If there is a lot of static about, of course you would.
13942. What do you mean by "static"?
- Atmospheric disturbance; an electrical atmospheric disturbance, when there is stormy weather about.
Senator Fletcher:
That is all.
Senator Smith:
I want to straighten out just a little your replies to -
13943. (Senator Newlands.) Do you know what time the Carpathia passed quarantine?
- I do not.
13944. (Senator Smith.) Do you know what time you passed Sandy Hook?
- No, sir; I do not.
13945. You passed quarantine at 8.10 that night, and at 8.12 you got the message, "Seagate to Carpathia," which was picked up by the naval station, and which the Secretary of the Navy has sent to me. That message says:
Say, old man, Marconi Co. taking good care of you. Keep your mouth shut. Hold your story. It is fixed for you so you will get big money. Now please do your best to clear.
Did you take that message?
- I do not remember anything about it.
13946. Do you remember Bride speaking to you about it?
- No, sir; Bride did not speak to me about it.
13947. You were not at the apparatus when you landed in New York?
- No, sir.
13948. Bride was there?
- Yes, sir.
13949. But you left the ship immediately?
- Yes, sir.
13950. And went to the Strand Hotel to meet Mr. Sammis?
- Yes, sir.
13951. And you went there because you had a message at 8.30 from Mr. Sammis asking you to come there, did you not?
- I got it, but I can not remember the time. It may have been about 8.30.
13952. I will give you the time: 8.30 p. m., one hour before you landed at the Cunard dock, when you got a telegram from Mr. Sammis saying:
Arranged for your exclusive story for dollars in four figures, Mr. Marconi agreeing.
I do not want any doubt about this matter at all. Mr. Sammis says that message was sent to you.
- Yes.
13953. And he says that you went to the Strand Hotel.
- I did.
13954. At 9 o'clock you got a message, from Seagate to Carpathia, saying:
Go to Strand Hotel, 502 West Fourteenth Street, to meet Mr. Marconi.
Is that correct?
- Yes, sir. I did not get three or four messages. There were only two.
13955. You know this one; and you got it, did you not?
- The one we brought in; yes.
13956. The one with the four figures for the story?
- I do not remember that, sir, at all. I do not remember that one. I remember the one with the number in, to call at the Strand Hotel.
13957. That was at 9 o'clock, and then you got another at 9.33. The ship does not seem to have landed quite at that time.
- We were outside the dock an hour or more.
13958. It takes an hour to run from quarantine, does it not, 8 miles, the way they run there?
- Yes.
13959. If you passed quarantine at 8.10, it would take until 9.10 to run down to the Cunard pier; so that before your boat was tied up at the wharf in New York, you did have information from Mr. Sammis, and you did have this information that I have read to you before, saying, "hold your story."
I do not seek to draw any false deductions from what I am asking you, nor do I want to press it too hard upon you; but I want the fact to appear that you received those messages.
- I received two, sir, to my knowledge; the one with "four figures" in it, and the one with the number of the Strand Hotel.
13960. The one with "four figures" in it was sent at 8.30, and the one with the address of the Strand Hotel was sent at 9 p. m., which was 30 minutes before the boat tied up to the wharf?
- Yes.
Senator Smith:
I have an affidavit which I will read at this point:
AFFIDAVIT OF J. W. LEE.
John W. Lee, being duly sworn, deposes and says as follows:
On the evening of April 18, 1912, I was listening at the Brooklyn station of the National Electric Signaling Co., and at 8.59 I heard the operator of the Marconi station at Sea Gate, Long Island, end the following message to the Carpathia.
"M.P.A. Personal Hr. Mge.
"Go to Strand Hotel, 502 West Fourteenth Street, to meet Mr. Marconi."MPAMSE."
M.P.A. is the Carpathia's call signal, M S E is Sea Gate's. "Hr" stands for "Here's another," and is used at the beginning of all messages. "Mge" stands for "message." The Carpathia did not acknowledge receipt of this message, so far as I heard. I am certain that this message was sent by Sea Gate and by no other station, for two reasons (in addition to the fact that the signature of Sea Gate was used), viz: (1) From my experience in receiving messages in this vicinity, I have become familiar with the "tune" or wavelength of the Sea Gate station, and that of the station which sent the above message was the same; (2) the Sea Gate station has a characteristic spark sound; that is, it has a rising tone at the beginning of sending and a falling tone at the end.
No other station around New York has this peculiarity (which is caused by the operator's sending while his spark gap is changing speed), and since the message above was sent in this way, I am certain that it was transmitted from Sea Gate.
JOHN W. LEE.
STATE OF NEW YORK, County of Kings, ss:Subscribed and sworn to before me this 27th day of April, A. D. 1912.
EMIL BIELE,
Notary Public, Kings County
13961. (Senator Newlands.) Are we to understand that you received these two telegrams regarding this story for the newspapers before or after the arrival of the Carpathia at the dock?
- Apparently, by the time, we could not have arrived there. We could not have arrived, by the time of the telegram's time. I do not remember anything at all about it. I did not know anything at all about the time. We were starting to get the boats out before we got near the dock.
13962. You started to get the boats out?
- Yes; the Titanic's boats.
13963. (Senator Bourne.) What is the longest distance you have ever been able to reach with your instrument?
- On the Carpathia?
13964. Yes.
- I never took any particular notice, but about 300 miles, I should say.
13965. You have been able to reach 800 miles at sea at night?
- Not from the Carpathia.
13966. What distance from the Carpathia?
- About 300 miles.
13967. I misunderstood you. What distance have you ever received from?
- I have never taken the exact distance, but you can receive any distance, providing the transmitting station has power to transmit.
13968. It just depends on the purity of the wave, the length of the wave, and the power, does it?
- It depends altogether on the power.
13969. How many messages do you average on a ship on a voyage per day, in handling, official and private?
- On an average, sir, on an ordinary voyage?
13970. Yes; how many a day do you average under ordinary circumstances?
- Sometimes, when there is no communication established, of course there are none.
13971. On days when you have communication, I mean. I presume that most of your business is just after leaving a port, and just before entering another port, is it not?
- Yes.
13972. What is the average business then?
- I do not know what the average was on the Carpathia. I only made the round trip on her.
13973. That is all the experience you have had?
- Oh, no, sir; I have had experience on other ships.
13974. While on other ships, what has been your experience?
- I can not say. Sometimes there would be very, very few and other times there would be a lot, according to the passengers we had.
13975. How long have you been on shift, on duty, continuously?
- I do not know sir. Twelve hours.
13976. Would an eight-hour continuous shift be a great strain? Would eight hours' duty be a great strain on you?
- It is not a great strain, but it is hard work. You have to do it on coast stations. When you are working on coast stations you have to do it.
13977. Would six hours on and six hours off be better or eight hours on and eight hours off? Which would you prefer, if you had the selection?
- I think I would sooner have eight hours on and eight off.
13978. You would rather have eight on and eight off?
- Yes; I think so.
(Witness Excused.)