May 25th, 1912 - American Inquiry Day 18
Day 18: The last day. You would think that it being the last day and being off of work, I could get this one done on time. But life gets in the way. SO, here we are, to cover the final day of witness testimony, submitted affidavits, letters and āprocess-verbalā entered into record. Are you tired of these posts? Did you read or like them or find them interesting? Well if you are tired of them, it is just this and a Final Report summary post left to go. Jury is out on whether I will be back next year to do the British inquiry, day by day. (Maybe I should just do it now so each day will be on the correct day, protect me from my own laziness, personal issues and procrastination.) Enough about me, letās dive in.
Today, testimony was taken on board the RMS Olympic, in the New York Harbor.
Herbert James Haddock, Captain, RMS Olympic;
E.J. Moore, Wireless Operator, RMS Olympic;
Frederick Barrett, Leading Fireman, RMS Titanic;
Submitted: (All submissions are linked)
Proces-Verbal ā E.J. Moore, Wireless Operator, RMS Olympic;Ā
Affidavit ā James McGough, First Class Passenger, RMS Titanic;Ā
Affidavit ā Catherine Crosby, First Class Passenger, RMS Titanic;Ā
Affidavit ā Imanita Shelley, Second Class Passenger, RMS Titanic;Ā
Affidavit ā Eleanor Widener, First Class Passenger, RMS Titanic;Ā
Correspondence ā Letter from Stanley Lord, Captain, SS Californian;
Correspondence ā C.C. Adams, Vice President, Postal Telegraph-Cable Company;
Correspondence ā H.C. Wolfe, New York World;Ā
Correspondence ā P.A.S. Franklin, Vice President, IMM;Ā
Correspondence ā B. Brooks, GM, Western Union Telegraph Co.;Ā
Statement ā Mrs. Lucian P. Smith, First Class Passenger, RMS Titanic;Ā
Notable Quotes/Lines of Questioning or Summarized Testimony:
Smith starts by questioning Captain Haddock, about where they were, when and how he heard of the Titanic situation, and what his actions were. He is also questioned about any notifications of ice sightings they received, of which the first they heard was from the Asian on Saturday morning.
āFear absolutely no hope searching Titanic's position. Left Leyland S. S. Californian searching around. All boats accounted for. About 675 souls saved, crew and passengers, latter nearly all women and children. Titanic foundered about 2.20 a. m., 5.47. GMT in 41.16 north. 50.14 west; not certain of having got through. Please forward to White Star - also to Cunard. Liverpool and New York - that I am returning to New York. Consider this most advisable for many considerations.ā ā Rostron (read from the record by Haddock)
Haddock then reads for the record, the exchange of messages between himself and Captain Rostron of Carpathia. They discuss location, ice, particulars of letting the appropriate channels know what has happened, Ismay and that they believe it best that survivors do not see Olympic, that no transfer take place.
Haddock continues to read from Mooreās report, detailing how the names of passengers were passed on by a āhalf-asleepā Cottam, who asked to be excused for his sending. Moore wrote in his report, āduring the transmission of names it was evident the operator on Carpathia was tired outā. Cottam had testified earlier in the inquiry that once he heard Titanicās distress call on the night of the 14th, he got about a handful hours of sleep over the next few days until they reached New York. He was working the wireless non-stop, with and without assistance from an immobile, frost bitten Bride.
Moore relates to Smith that he received seven or eight messages to the effect of a request for compensation for the story of Titanic. Moore makes note of these in his report, however did not reply to any requests from papers such as the New York Herald, the Sun and the World. He also indicates that he was never told not to give out any information, however he and the captain held information back in a desire that it be more accurate.
In addition to answering Smithās questions, Moore submitted his wireless report (listed above as process-verbal) that both he and Haddock referred to during their testimony.
The correspondence from Stanley Lord that was submitted into record is a letter to Smith in which Captain Lord corrected a statement he made while testifying, which ultimately is inconsequential in my opinion, and probably more of a formality correction than anything.
As you all know, I love a passenger story or affidavit. So instead of pulling a whole bunch of quotes, as I am so wont to do, I now have just linked all submissions above, for you to peruse at your leisure. Is it being lazy? Maybe a bit, but I wanted to end this day, with a sprinkling of quotes, (of which I hope to have not included any similar before) a few thoughts in regards to any submissions or quotes, and my conclusions prior to the final report.
McGough asked a dining-room steward whether there was any danger, shortly after he left his stateroom. At that time the steward told him ānot in the leastā and suggested he return to bed. Fortunately for McGough, he did not. This seems a theme throughout this inquiry, where immediately after or even some time after, Titanic crew members, such as stewards, were not totally sure of what was going on or, if they were aware, the severity of it. Personally, I believe part of this to be due to the inability to inform due to technology limitations of the time, solved by walkie-talkies and earpieces today. Additionally, if a steward were on watch, and had not heard anything yet, he or she would have no reason to say anything other than everything is fine. I would also consider the desire to not cause panic had some impact as well. Clearly, it would have been helpful if some sort of light or alarm or notification had been in place, for passengers and crew alike, but word of mouth, on an incredibly large ship, with over 900 crew members, some of whom are sleeping, would be time consuming. Time, unfortunately the Titanic and the souls on board did not have. This does not even take into account the time that would have been necessary to figure out the extent of the damage. So while I personally feel, there should have been some better systems in place, criticism of stewards who only passed on what they knew at the time, or what a higher up told them, should be discouraged. (As you might know, I am currently learning more about crew hierarchy and things of this nature in my new book)
āIt was reported on theĀ CarpathiaĀ by passengers, whose names I do not recollect, that the lookout who was on duty at the time theĀ TitanicĀ struck the iceberg had said: āI know they will blame me for it, because I was on duty, but it was not my fault; I had warned the officers three or four times before striking the iceberg that we were in the vicinity of icebergs, but the officer on the bridge paid no attention to my signals.ā I can not give the name of any passenger who made that statement, but it was common talk on theĀ CarpathiaĀ that that is what the lookout said.ā ā Crosby (hearsay)
Imanita Shelley has an interesting story about her accommodations and slight mishap of rooms that happened upon the start of her journey. See above for a link to her affidavit. I would be interested to see the rooms which were referred to. It does not seem in her affidavit that she makes any mention of actual room numbers. This is also the first, I have read, mention of issues with the heat onboard Titanic.
āAfterwards, on board theĀ Carpathia, a first-cabin passenger aĀ Mme. Baxter, of Montreal, Canada, told Mrs. Shelley that she had sent herĀ sonĀ to the captain at the time of the collision to find out what to do. That her son had found the captain in a card game, and he had laughingly assured him that there was no danger and to advise his mother to go back to bed.ā- Shelley (a very strong accusation that if true is concerning, however others have testified that this was not the case)
Ā āI borrowed money from a gentleman and took this Marconigram myself and asked the operator to send it for meā¦ it was not receivedā¦ This is the only complaint I have to make against theĀ Carpathiaā¦ He also said it was not necessary to pay him, because the White Star Line was responsible. I insisted, however, because I thought that probably the money might have some weight with them, as the whole thing seemed to have been a monied accident.ā ā Mrs. Smith
āOn the night of Sunday, the 14th of April, 1912, my husband and I gave a dinner at whichĀ Capt. SmithĀ was present. Capt. Smith drank absolutely no wine or intoxicating liquor of any kind whatever at the dinner.ā - Widener
Ā Conclusions prior to the Final Report:Ā
You could really get into the weeds with the last 18 days of testimony, what people/boats had drinking water, saw her go down and thought she broke in half vs. went down in one piece, who was afraid of suction, who heard explosions, I could go on. Part of me wants to do this, I think it would be quite interesting, especially diving into the distant light/boat testimonies. However, I do not have the time for that these days, and you probably donāt either (if you do please share what you find). What I will say, on my last day-by-day summary post is this: If you are a Titanic crazed person like I am, and love the history, the nuances of what went wrong, what went right, specific passenger experiences directly from their hand or mouth, do yourself a favor, and dive into this. The Titanic Inquiry Project is the most complete, well organized, and informative Titanic site I may have ever had the pleasure of using. They link out to passenger and crew and witness bios, they have the particulars on every ship mentioned, and it continues to add more and more. I am not done with this site now that I am done with this inquiry, I still have the British, and if you remember my post about liability, they now have those hearings. I cannot sing the praises of this enough. So if you have a rainy day, and an inquisitive mind, check out titanicinquiry.org . You will not be disappointed. And, if you like, you can use my American Inquiry posts, all under one linkĀ on my page, to help navigate, or pick and choose what you want to read.
SEE American Inquiry Day 17 post HERE.
