TITANIC A SHELL, EXPERT TESTIFIES
The New York Tribune, Friday, June 25, 1915.
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Not as Well Guarded Against Sinking as Old Great Eastern, Says a Builder.
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Several witnesses gave additional testimony yesterday before Judge Julius M. Mayer, in the United States District Court, in the action of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited (the White Star line), to limit to about $97,922 the company’s liability growing out of the sinking of the Titanic, on April 14, 1912. Evidence taken at Lord Mersey’s inquiry in London and the Senatorial hearing in Washington was read.
Richard H. Robinson, managing director of the Lake Torpedo Boat Company, who was a witness, said that for a small outlay of money longitudinal bulkheads could have been placed in the Titanic, and that they would have kept her afloat.
“It is surprising to me that a ship of the speed and passenger capacity of the Titanic had not a longitudinal bulkhead and transverse bulkheads, as the old Great Eastern had,” Mr. Robinson said. He said the Great Eastern had an inner skin which extended far above the water line, while the Titanic merely had a double bottom.
John B. Thayer, of Haverford, Pa., whose father was lost on the Titanic, while his mother was saved, was a witness. Mr. Thayer and his father were with J. Bruce Ismay on the first few days of the run.
On the day the ship was sunk Mr. Ismay told him and his father that two more boilers were to be started that day.