DEPOSITION OF CAPTAIN CHARLES JOHNSTON, Contd.
Q. You have served on twin screw ships, have you, Captain?
- Yes, two.
Q. Did you find them handier to maneuver?
- Much handier to maneuver, yes.
Q. If you were on a vessel similar to the Titanic, and ice were sighted ahead, or a little on the starboard bow, would you consider it an improper thing to do to put the helm a starboard?
- No, sir; that would be the proper thing if you are going to hold your way.
Q. With a twin screw vessel the effect in backing is not similar to the backing effect of a single screw, is it?
- Not at all, no.
Q. If you put the helm a starboard in a twin screw vessel and back both engines, what direction will the bow take?
- The bow will pay off to starboard.
Q. With the helm a starboard?
- With the helm astarboard.
Q. The bow will swing off to port?
- The bow will swing off to port until she gathers sternboard, then it will pay off to starboard.
Q. Of course, it might pay off to starboard with a single screw ship, but I am asking you if it would with a twin screw ship?
- I think so; but I am not positive on that point. I think it would.
Q. At all events, there would be no swinging off of the bow to starboard under either circumstance, if the vessel were brought to a stop, and her engines stopped at the time she lost her way?
- I should say not.
Q. The only effect then would be the entire effect of the starboard helm to swing her to port?
- To swing her about to port.
Q. I suppose you would agree that with two officers or three officers on watch on the bridge, presuming that each of them is attending to his duties, a better lookout would be maintained than with a single officer?
- Provided they are attending to the job; unquestionably you would have a better lookout than with a single one.
Q. When you spoke of shifting the helm of a vessel, first putting it a starboard and then shifting it to port, that would be a case where you were actually going by the berg?
- Going by the berg, with the engines stopped and headway on, or with the engines working ahead and headway on.
Q. I suppose you have never actually served on a vessel the size of the Titanic, Captain?
- I never have.
Q. Do you know how the lookouts communicated their reports to the bridge on the Titanic?
- I do not, further than hearsay.
Q. Of course, if an officer on the bridge were charged with the duty of standing by the engine-room annunciators, any orders to the engine-room would be transmitted more promptly than if a single officer had to attend to all the duties himself?
- Yes, indeed.
Q. Where is it, if anywhere, that bergs coming down from the northward tend to take up a northeasterly drift?
- In ordinary conditions, approximately in latitude 43, longitude 49.
Q. Do those conditions continue south of that?
- The conditions will be the same to the southward, provided the ice gets that far south. The position I have given you, 43 north and 49 west, is under ordinary conditions, and that is where the Gulf Stream and the Labrador current meets. Most all ice is governed almost entirely by the northern contour of the Gulf Stream .
Q. And when the berg get into the Gulf Stream , its tendency is to move in what direction under ordinary conditions, quiet conditions of water, ordinary conditions of water?
- East between, longitudes 50 and 49, then rapidly curving to the north.
Q. And in ordinary conditions of weather, good weather, that is, clear weather, without much breeze if ice were in the vicinity of, say, 41 degrees 45 minutes north and 50 degrees west, what would be the direction it might be expected to take?
- About east-southeast true.
Q. Does the temperature of the water afford any indication of the vicinity of ice?
- Not necessarily. Ice is seldom seen in water above 50 degrees of temperature. It is almost always in water below 40, running from 28 to 40. So that if you strike a band of cold water, you want to look out for bergs, because while there need not necessarily be bergs in it, that is the Labrador current --- speaking of the vicinity of east of the Grand Banks --- that is the Labrador current, and that is the current in which the ice occurs.
Q. Do changes of temperature of water afford any indication?
- Not further than I have already said.
Q. Have you observed any particular change of temperature of the air near bergs?
- No, practically no change of temperature of the air near bergs; that is, provided the berg is in water that has about an equal temperature in the vicinity, say, for five miles around it. It is not the effect of the berg. The temperature of the air is governed more by the temperature of the water in its vicinity. Over the Gulf Stream the air is always warm, and over the Labrador current it is always cold.
Q. So that the temperature of the air affords no particular indication of the presence of bergs?
- Absolutely none.
Q. If a vessel is able to maneuver, that is, to pay off from her course, a point within the limit of visibility of ice ahead, when that change if course would be sufficient to avoid it, might she not go any speed that would enable her to do that?
- If you could be sure that you could see any dangerous ice at that distance, I will grant you that it would be all right to go ahead at any speed that it is necessary to do it.
Q. Then, no matter what her speed may be, so long as the vessel can maneuver, pay off a point, sufficient to clear a small berg ahead, she would be justified in proceeding at any speed?
- I do not think she would be justified in doing it, no, but I believe it could be done with a fair degree of safety, provided, as I have said, she would be sure she could see the ice at that distance.
BY MR. KINNICUTT:
Q. What distance have you in mind?
- I have in mind a mile.
BY MR. WELLS:
Q. I think you have already said, under the conditions that I have previously stated, a clear night, that is, air clear, and such that there was no haze, starlight, and the lights of a vessel visible five to seven or eight miles away ---
- Say eight miles away.
Q. Then it would not be imprudent to proceed, provided you could change your course a point within that distance, within a mile?
- I should not say it would be imprudent, but I should say it would be inadvisable.
Q. At the same time, if the vessel could maneuver with that degree of facility, it would be safe, would it not?
- I think it would be safe, if, as I have said before, she could be sure that she could see at that distance.
Q. Of course, with glasses, under those conditions, ice could he seen, I think you said, a mile and a half?
- About a mile and a half. With good glasses, properly focused, you ought to be able to see it a mile and a half.
Q. And of course I suppose it is a fact that shipmasters are much better informed now concerning ice, that is, since they have had the benefit of these special observations, than they were before?
- I think they are. From letters I have received, and radiograms and personal conversations, I think they are very much better informed.
Q. Your observations have helped to inform the seafaring profession generally?
- Yes, particularly in so far as concerns the drift, the direction in which bergs are likely to move.
Q. Also doubtless with reference to these other matters on which you have reported.
- I think so, yes.
Q. You have made special reports to your department?
- I have, yes.
Q. And they have bee published?
- They have been published by the Hydrographic Office almost word for word.
Q. I think you stated you were not familiar with the actual conditions on the Banks that prevailed in April, 1912?
- I know nothing about it of my own knowledge.
Q. If, as a matter of fact, the lookout reported something ahead, and the helm was immediately put over without the interval of time that you have spoken of for the officer to pick up his glasses, of course the vessel would naturally work and move off the course more quickly?
- Yes, that is right.
Mr. Wells:
That is all.
REDIRECT-EXAMINATION.
BY MR. KINNICUTT:
Q. Take an average of the two years that you have observed ice near the Bank, between what degrees of longitude are you apt to find it?
Mr. Wells:
That is objected to as having no particular bearing upon the question at issue. If the Captain had any knowledge as to 1912, I think it would be all right.
This, of course, is direct-examination, also.
- I will say, as a prelude to my answer, that the seasons of 1913 and 1914 were so radically different that it would not be fair to strike an average on that question at all, because in the season of 1913 I saw no ice whatever west of 50, while in 1914 I saw quite considerable ice west of 50, depending upon the direction of the Labrador current as it approaches the tail of the Bank.
By MR. KINNICUTT:
Q. In one of my questions on direct-examination I used the expression "the ice region" when speaking of a vessel going down the 41st parallel?
- Yes.
Q. What did you understand I meant by "the ice region"?
- When you speak of ice being around the 41st parallel, I should figure on the ice region being from 52 west to about 46 west.
Q. Then, if you continued on the great circle beyond the so-called Corner, which is latitude 42 degrees north, longitude 47 degrees west, you would run right into
this region? You have already described the region?
- Yes.
Q. You would run into that region?
- It would take you into that region, yes.
Q. So that you would not avoid the ice region if it extended between the degrees of longitude you just mentioned, if you continued on the great circle?
- No.
Mr. Wells:
That is objected to, because in 1912 the ice region was not between those meridians. The question is irrelevant. The witness has stated where the ice was at a certain time, which was not 1912, and I object to the question because it is absolutely irrelevant, unless it has some bearing upon conditions that existed in 1912.
BY MR. KINNICUTT:
Q. Do you think that since you have been on your ice patrol work, and since certain other officers employed by the United States Government have been employed in the same work, a great deal has been discovered about the currents of the Gulf Stream with reference o the cold and warm streaks?
- Yes.
Q. And with reference to the drift of the ice?
- Yes.
Q. Things that were or were not known before, generally?
- They were not known at all, so far as I have ever been able to find.
Q. Can you say whether it was generally known that icebergs and field ice were dangerous to navigation prior to these last two years?
- I have every reason to believe that it was so known.
Q. Was it known that the icebergs drifted south with the arctic current in the neighborhood of the Banks?
- According to official reports, it was so known.
Mr. Kinnicutt:
That is all.
RECROSS-EXAMINATION.
BY MR. WELLS:
Q. Do you know it to be a fact that the transatlantic lanes or routes, so-called, were changed immediately or shortly after April 15, 1912?
- I saw official notices to that effect.
Q. Do you think that a vessel subsequent to the knowledge gained by your observations would be navigated differently in those waters from what it would have been prior to those observations?
- From personal conversations and messages, written and radiographic, with the commanding officers of various ships, I am informed that such is the case.
Q. Did you get any of that information from commanders of transatlantic liners, as they are called?
- Yes.
Mr. Wells:
That is all.
(Thereupon, at 5:00 o'clock p. m., the taking of this deposition was concluded.)