April 27th, 1912 - American Inquiry Day 9
Day 9: On Saturday morning, the committee jumped right into questioning witnesses. Included would be the captain of the SS Mount Temple (location shown above).
Charles Lightoller, Second Officer, RMS Titanic (recalled again after Moore);
James H. Moore, Captain, SS Mount Temple;
Philip Franklin, Vice President, International Mercantile Marine Co.;
Andrew Cunningham, Bedroom Steward, RMS Titanic;
Frederick D. Ray, Saloon Steward, RMS Titanic;
Henry S. Etches, Bedroom Steward, RMS Titanic;
William Burke, Dining Room Steward, RMS Titanic;
Alfred Crawford, Bedroom Steward, RMS Titanic; (recalled, and again after Bright)
Arthur J. Bright, Quartermaster, RMS Titanic;
Notable Quotes/Lines of Questioning or Summarized Testimony:
As he had in the past few days, Senator Smith inquires into the whereabouts of a one Luis Klein. Lightoller claims to only know a Klein (he did not recall his first name) who was the second class barber, who perished with the ship. It seems that ‘a man here in my [Senator Smith’s] office this week who claimed to be Lewis [sic] Klein, a surviving member of the crew of the Titanic,’ might be believed to be an imposter, or possibly the stowaway in one of the lifeboats that other survivors had mentioned. Lightoller personally saw this man who claimed he was Klein and testified that he had never seen the man before.
The wireless operator on board the SS Mount Temple intercepted the C.Q.D. message from the Titanic, and took the information at once to Captain Moore. Moore hurried into action, using the location given, estimated they were approximately 49 miles from her location at 12:30, and started towards her location.
“Before that I want to say that I met a schooner or some small craft, and I had to get out of the way of that vessel, and the light of that vessel seemed to go out… I should say this light could not have been more than a mile or a mile and a half away... and after I got the light on the starboard bow then the light seemed to suddenly go out.,, I heard the foghorn on this schooner. He blew his foghorn, and we immediately put the helm hard astarboard, and I ordered full speed astern and took the way off the boat. I should say the schooner, from the position of the Titanic, would be, perhaps, 12 1/2 to 13 miles.” – Moore
“I saw nothing; but I saw this tramp steamer, sir… Nothing whatsoever sir, in the way of wreckage… Of course, I reckoned I was somewhere near, if not at, the Titanic's position that he gave me, which afterwards proved correct, when I got observations in the morning, sir. “ – Moore
“We had the gangway ready for lowering, and we had ladders ready to put over the side; we had ropes with riggings in the ends to lower over; we had lifeboats and lifebelts and everybody was on hand and everything was all made ready along the deck.” –Moore
“I don't know, sir. I think it was just about the time he was turning in. He just picked up the instrument just to see if there was anything coming along. It was just purely and simply an accident that he got the ship's message.” – Moore
Moore reads out to the subcommittee all of the notes his wireless operator took once overhearing the C.Q.D from the Titanic. It is confusing, yet interesting side of things, as there show to be different communications between the ill-fated ship and the Frankfurt, to whom Titanic’s operator had called theirs a fool and told to keep out. It is unclear right now as far as I can tell what will become of this new information.
Then Senator Smith inquires about Moore’s opinion on the possibility “to have as part of the equipment of a vessel a permanent buoy made, as far as it could be so made, of indestructible material, fastened to an indestructible chain or wire, so that in the event of a ship sinking at sea that buoy might register on the surface of the water its exact burial spot.” (Smith) Moore agrees, that under certain circumstances that could be a useful tool in locating the wreck, however there are quite a few particulars that would have to be considered. I found this exchange interesting though.
This questioning of Moore allows for a lot more boats to be brought in the mix as far as ice warnings and who communicated etc. Moore also gives his theory on what happened when Titanic “touched one of those large spurs from an iceberg.”
According to the bedroom steward Cunningham, there was not a distress alarm on Titanic it was the duty of the steward assigned to each passenger to go and notify them personally.
“I waited on the ship until all the boats had gone and then I took to the water… I went in the water about 2 o'clock, I should say… I swam clear of the ship, I should say about three-quarters of a mile. I was afraid of the suction… I had a mate with me. We both left the ship together… We saw the ship go down then. Then we struck out to look for a boat.” – Cunningham. He called out to a lifeboat he heard nearby, and then swam towards it. That would be boat no. 4. His mate that was with him died just after he was pulled in.
Ray describes in detail the lowering of the boat he went away in no. 13 boat, and the conditions that almost swamped their boat, as well as the boat that was going to be lowered onto them if they didn’t cut away quick enough. Read this story.
”Yes. I wanted to stand by the ship, but, of course, my voice was not much against the others. We had six oars in the boat, and several times I refused to row, but eventually gave in and pulled with the others.” – Ray
“He was working all the time, sir. He was making notes of improvements; any improvements that could be made... I never saw him anywhere else, but during the day I met him in all parts, with workmen, going about. I mentioned several things to him, and he was with workmen having them attended to. The whole of the day he was working from one part of the ship to the other.” – Etches on Thomas Andrews (whom he was a steward for)
Everything Etches (or anyone for that matter) says about Thomas Andrews would be a notable quote to me, as Thomas Andrews is far and away my favorite person associated with Titanic. For sake of space and interest, I will not put everything here. If you too appreciate Andrews, you can read more about his actions that night as told by Evans, please visit this link.
“I then found No. 78 cabin door shut, and I banged with both hands on the door loudly, and a voice answered, ‘What is it’? Then a lady's voice said, ‘Tell me what the trouble is.’ I said, ‘It is necessary that you should open the door, and I will explain everything, but please put the lifebelts on or bring them in the corridor.’ They said, ‘I want to know what is the matter.’ I said, ‘Kindly open the door,’ and I still kept banging. I passed along, and I found one cabin was empty, and then I came to another cabin and a lady and a gentleman stood at the door. They were swinging a lifebelt in their hands.” – Etches
“I saw, when the ship rose - her stern rose - a thick mass of people on the after-end. I could not discern the faces, of course… She seemed to raise once as though she was going to take a violent dive, but sort of checked, as though she had scooped the water up and had leveled herself. She then seemed to settle very, very quiet, until the last, when she rose up, and she seemed to stand 20 seconds, stern in that position (indicating), and then she went down with an awful grating, like a small boat running off a shingley beach.” – Etches
“We waited a few minutes after she had gone down. There was no inrush of water, or anything. Mr. Pitman then said to pull back to the scene of the wreck. The ladies started calling out. Two ladies sitting in front where I was pulling, said, ‘Appeal to the officer not to go back. Why should we lose all of our lives in a useless attempt to save those from the ship?’ "- Etches
“Yes, Sir; we saw a light that there was quite an argument over. Some said it was a star; others said it was a ship. But we pulled toward it, and we did not seem to approach it an inch nearer. It had every appearance of a masthead light of a ship, but rather a faint light.” – Etches
“I might say that about the last woman that was about to be passed in slipped, and was about to fall between the ship and the boat when I caught her. I just saved her from falling. Her head passed toward the next deck below. A passenger caught her by the shoulders and forced me to leave go. It was my intention to pull her back in the boat. He would not let go of the woman, but pulled her right on the ship.” – Burke (This is a different woman than another who caught her heel, fell to A deck, but came back up to the boat deck and got in successfully.)
“ Mrs. Isidor Straus and her husband were there, and she made an attempt to get into the boat first. She had placed her maid in the boat previous to that. She handed her maid a rug, and she stepped back and clung to her husband and said ‘We have been together all these years. Where you go I go.’ After that Capt. Smith came to the boat and asked how many men were in the boat. There were two sailors. He told me to get into the boat … and to pull for a light. He directed me to a light over there. We were pulling for about six hours, I should say, and there were four men in the boat and a lady [Countess of Rothes] at the tiller all night.” – Crawford
“They were stationary masthead lights, one on the fore and one on the main. Everybody saw them - all the ladies in the boat. They asked if we were drawing nearer to the steamer, but we could not seem to make any headway, and when day broke we saw another steamer coming up which proved to be the Carpathia; and then we turned around and came back. We were the farthest boat away.” – Crawford (He continues for quite some time describing the light and what they did.)
“She broke in two. All at once she seemed to go up on end, you know, and come down about half way, and then the afterpart righted, itself again and the forepart had disappeared. A few seconds the after part did the same thing and went down. I could distinctly see the propellers - everything - out of the water.” – Bright
“There were lots that were asked to get into the boat and they said they would rather stay on board the ship; lots of women said that.” – Bright
SEE American Inquiry Day 8 post here.
