HELP NEAR AT HAND, IGNORED DISTRESS CALL AND ISMAY’S ATTEMPTS TO GET BACK TO ENGLAND SHOWN
In the Senate investigating committee, April 22, Fourth Officer Boxhall made a startling revelation in regard to a ship close at hand at the time of the wreck which ignored all the Titanic’s signals. Also, in response to Senator Smith’s questions he gave some evidence about the lifeboats. Boxhall said they had had a lifeboat drill before sailing in the presence of inspectors from the board of trade, in which only two boats on the same side of the ship were lowered. He declared that under the weather conditions at the time of the collision, the lifeboats were supposed to carry sixty-five persons. He said, too, that in accordance with the British board of trade regulations, the boats contained water breakers, water dippers, bread, bailers, masts, sails, lights and supplies of oil when the Titanic left Belfast, though he did not know if these things were in when the ship left Southampton.
Boxhall testified to the sobriety and good habits of his superior and brother officers.
“Lightoller was on the bridge when I came on at 8 o’clock. He was relieved at 10 o’clock by Mr. Murdock, who remained until the accident happened. Moody, the sixth officer, was on deck also. Fleland Leigh and the bridge officer, Mr. Murdock, were on the lookout,” said Boxhall.
Under questioning Boxhall said Captain Smith had told him of the position of certain icebergs which he had marked on the chart.
Senator Smith then asked the witness:
“Do you know whether the temperature of the water taken from the sea was tested?”
“Yes, sir; I saw the quartermaster doing it. He reported to the junior officer, Mr. Moody.”
“Did you see the captain frequently Sunday night?” asked Senator Smith.
“Yes, sir; sometimes on the upper deck, sometimes in the chart room; sometimes on the bridge, and sometimes in the wheelhouse.”
“Was the captain on the bridge or at any of the other places when you went on watch at 8 o’clock?”
“No, I first saw the captain about 9 o’clock.”
“Did you see Mr. Ismay with the captain on the bridge or in the wheelhouse?”
“No, sir; not until after the accident.”
Boxhall said he did not believe the captain had been away from the vicinity of the bridge at any time during the watch.
“When did you see the captain last?” asked Senator Smith.
“When he ordered me to go away in the boat.”
“Where were you at the time of the collision?”
“Just approaching the bridge.”
“Did you see what occurred?”
“No, I could not see.”
“Did you hear?”
“Yes; the senior officer said ‘We have struck an iceberg.’”
“Was there any ice on the deck?”
“Just a little on the lower deck. I heard the report of the crash.”
“Did you see the iceberg?”
“No, sir.”
Boxhall then went to the bridge, where he found the first officer, Mr. Murdock; the sixth officer, Mr. Moody, and Captain Smith.
Boxhall said the captain asked what was the trouble, and the first officer replied they had struck an iceberg, and added that he had borne to starboard and reversed his engines full speed after ordering the closing of the water-tight doors.
“Did you see the iceberg then?”
“Yes, sir. I could see it dimly. It lay low in the water and was above as high as the lower rail of the ship, or about thirty feet out of the water.”
Boxhall said he went down to the steerage, inspected all the decks in the vicinity of where the ship had struck, found no traces of any damage, and went directly to the bridge and so reported.
“The captain ordered me to send a carpenter to sound the ship,” he said, “but I found a carpenter coming up with the announcement that the ship was taking water. In the mail room I found mail sacks floating about while the clerks were at work. I went to the bridge and reported, and the captain ordered the lifeboats to be made ready.”
Boxhall testified that at Captain Smith’s orders he took word of the ship’s position to the wireless operators.
“What position was that?”
“41:46 north, 50.14 west.”
“Was that the last position taken?”
“Yes, the Titanic stood not far from there when it sank.”
After that Boxhall went back to the lifeboats, where there were many men and women. He said they had life belts.
“After that I was on the bridge most of the time, sending out distress signals, trying to attract the attention of boats ahead,” he said. “I sent up distress rockets until I left the ship, to try to attract the attention of a ship directly ahead. I had seen its lights. It seemed to be meeting us, and was not far away. It got close enough, it seemed to me, to read our electric Morse signals. I told the captain. He stood with me much of the time trying to signal this vessel. He told me to tell it in Morse rocket signals, ‘Come at once—we are sinking.’”
“Did any answer come?” asked the senator.
“I did not see them, but two men say they saw signals from that ship.”
“How far away do you think that ship was?”
“Approximately five miles.”
Boxhall said he did not know what ship it was.
“What did you see on the ship?”
“First we saw its masthead lights, and a few minutes later its red side lights. It was standing closer.”
“Suppose you had had a powerful searchlight on the
Titanic, could you not have thrown a beam on the vessel and have compelled its attention?”
“We might.”
Boxhall said he had rowed in the seaboat three-quarters of a mile when the Titanic went down. Before that he had rowed around the ship’s stern to see if he could not take off three more persons for whom there was room. He abandoned that attempt, however, because he had with him only one man who knew how to handle an oar and he feared an accident. His boat, he said, was the first picked up by the Carpathia. That was about 4:10 in the morning.
“Did you have any conversation with Mr. Ismay that night?”
“Yes, sir, before I left the ship. On the bridge just before the captain ordered me below to take an emergency boat.”
“When you boarded the Carpathia, did you see any lights on any other lifeboats?”
“No. It was nearly daylight. It was daylight by the time I got my passengers aboard the Carpathia.”
“Could you say any other lifeboats had lights besides yours?”
“I saw several with lanterns. These lanterns were beside the helmsman in each case and on the bottom of the lifeboats. I would not say all the boats had lights.”
Boxhall said he knew none of the American passengers personally, but he knew the identity of Colonel John Jacob Astor.
“Did you see Ismay when you got into the lifeboat?”
“No.”
“When did you next see Ismay after you left the ship?”
“I saw him in a collapsible boat afterward.”
“Any women in it?”
“Yes, it was full of them—well, not exactly full, but there were many women—most of them foreigners.”
“How long after you reached the Carpathia did Ismay’s boat arrive?”
“I cannot say exactly, but it was before daylight.”
Boxhall heard persons on the Titanic say some people refused to enter the lifeboats, but he saw no one ejected from the boats, nor prevented from entering.
“Did you see any who got in from the water or see any in the water?”
“No, sir,” said Boxhall. “If I had seen any in the water I should have taken them in the boat.”
Boxhall said the sea was calm and that in his opinion each of the lifeboats could have taken its full capacity. How many he had in his small seaboat he never knew.
Senator Newlands returned to the subject of the icebergs.
“You say you could not see these giant icebergs when in the seaboat, but you could hear the water lapping against them?”
“Yes, sir. It was an oily calm and we could see nothing in the small boats.”
“If the sea is smooth, then, it is difficult to discern these icebergs?”
“Yes, sir. I believe if there had been a little ripple on the water the Titanic would have seen it in time to avoid it.”
P.A.S. Franklin was the next witness called. Mr. Franklin described the business operations and extent of the International Mercantile Marine.
“What is its capitalization?” asked Senator Smith.
“One hundred million in common and preferred shares, $52,000,000 in 4½ percent bonds, $19,000,000 in 5 percent bonds and about $7,000,000 of underlying bonds.”
After Mr. Franklin had read a list of the officials and directors of the International, Senator Smith said:
“Did you know Captain Smith of the Titanic?”
“Ever since 1898,” said the witness, adding that Capt. Smith had commanded the Majestic, Adriatic, Baltic, Olympic and the Titanic.
“So far as you know, did you or any of your subordinate officers have any communication with Captain Smith on his last voyage?”
“None at all.”
Mr. Franklin said he had received no communication from Mr. Ismay except one by cable from Southampton. This, he said, was merely a cablegram announcing the complete success of the Titanic’s trial trip and favorable prospect for a successful voyage.
Senator Smith then showed Mr. Franklin the telegram received by Congressman Hughes of W. Va. from the White Star line, dated New York, April 15, and addressed to J. A. Hughes, Huntington, W. Va., as follows:
“Titanic proceeding to Halifax. Passengers probably land on Wednesday. All safe.
The White Star Line”
“I ask you,” continued the senator, “whether you know about the sending of that telegram, by whom it was authorized and from whom it was sent?”
“I do not, sir,” said Franklin. “Since it was mentioned on Saturday we have had the entire passenger staff examined and we cannot find out.”
Asked when he first knew the Titanic had sunk, Franklin said he first knew it at 6:27 P.M. Monday. He then produced a thick package of telegrams which he had received Monday in relation to the disaster.
“How did you ascertain the location of the Olympic, Baltic, and others?” asked the senator.
“We worked them out on our charts. We had no direct communication from any of the ships. Our first endeavor to communicate with our big ships was a message sent April 15 at 3 o’clock A.M. This message read as follows:
“‘Haddock, Olympic: Make every endeavor to communicate Titanic and advise position and time. Reply within the hour.’”
Franklin said the Olympic was dispatched this message:
“Haddock, Olympic: Rumored here Titanic sunk. Cannot confirm here. Expect Virginia alongside. Franklin.”
“At 6:20 or 6:30 Monday evening,” Mr. Franklin continued, “a message was received telling the fateful news that the Carpathia reached the Titanic and found nothing but boats and wreckage; that the Titanic had foundered at 2:20 A.M. in 41.16 north, 50.14 west; that the Carpathia picked up all the boats and had on board about 675 of the Titanic’s survivors, passengers and crew. This message was from Haddock also.
“After that we got another message from Haddock stating that ‘Yamsi,’ meaning Ismay, was on the Carpathia.”
One by one Mr. Franklin read telegrams that had been hurled through the air from shore to the ships and from them back to the shore. All hope that some other vessels besides the Carpathia had picked up some of the Titanic’s survivors was dissipated when the Olympic flashed word that neither the Baltic nor the Tunisian had any of the Titanic’s people aboard.
Senator Smith sought to discover who had been “tampering with the wireless operators or had been responsible for the failure of the wireless to get the news to shore earlier.” Mr. Smith repeatedly asked the witness whether he had not had a conference Monday morning with Mr. Marconi or Mr. Sammis, chief engineer for the Marconi company.
“No, most emphatically,” said the witness. “In no way did I attempt or cause to be attempted any censorship of the wireless.”
“Did you receive at any time from any one or any officer of your company a request that the steamship Cedric be held at New York until the arrival of the Carpathia?” Senator Smith asked.
“Yes, sir,” said the witness, and began to read a telegram from the Carpathia.
“What time was it received?”
“At 5:19,” said the witness, who said the telegram asked that the Cedric be held because the sender considered it “most desirable” that the members of the crew be sent back on the Cedric and declaring his intention of sailing on that ship himself. The sender also asked that clothing and shoes be brought to the dock for him when the Carpathia got in.
“By whom was that signed?” asked Senator Smith.
“Yamsi.”
“Do you know who Yamsi is?”
“Yes, sir. It is cipher for Mr. Ismay’s signature. I sent in reply the following:
“‘Yamsi, Carpathia: Have arranged forward crew Lapland, sailing Saturday, calling at Plymouth. We all consider most unwise to delay Cedric considering circumstances.’”
Senator Smith then had Franklin read all the messages that passed between himself and Ismay on the Carpathia April 18. At 5:30 A.M. of that day Franklin received from Ismay this message: “Send responsible White Star ship officer and fourteen men to two boats to take charge of thirteen Titanic lifeboats at quarantine.”
Franklin testified that he received a message from Ismay on the Carpathia a little later on the morning of the 18th to join the Carpathia at quarantine and that several other messages came from him urging that the Cedric be held. After all these had come in Franklin cabled Ismay:
“Think it most unwise to retain Cedric in New York.” This was followed by a reply from Ismay which included: “Unless you have good and sufficient reason to hold the Cedric, kindly do so.”
In an effort to connect the attempted departure of Mr. Ismay and the Titanic crew with the Senate’s investigation, Senator Smith asked the witness when he had learned the Senate had decided to investigate the disaster.
“I think about 2 o’clock Thursday.”
“Did you communicate the information to your company?”
“I did, that night, by cable, I think.”
“When did you advise Mr. Ismay?”
“I told him of it when I got aboard the Carpathia,” said the witness.
Senator Perkins took Mr. Franklin in hand and questioned him at some length as to the safety equipment of the Titanic.
The Titanic’s equipment was in excess of the law,” said the witness. “It carried its clearance in the shape of a certificate from the British board of trade.”
Senator Bourne took up the same line of questioning.
“Has anything been done with the equipment of other ships as a result of the disaster?” he asked.
“Most emphatically,” answered Mr. Franklin. “On last Friday Mr. Ismay ordered that all our vessels be equipped with boats and rafts sufficient to take off every passenger and every member of the crew in case of accident.”
“Do you know of any one, any officer or man, or any official who you deem could be held responsible for the accident and its attendant loss of life?”
“Positively not. No one thought such an accident could happen. It was undreamed of.”
Mr. Franklin volunteered a statement relating to criticisms of the White Star Company for attempting to return the crew of the Titanic to Europe immediately.
“I think there has been an awful mistake made about that matter,” said Franklin. “I would like to clear it up. The criticisms have been made that we were trying to keep those men from testifying. That is not so. It was not the reason at all. As far as the crew are concerned it was our duty to return them to their homes. We assured you that we would hold any officers or men that you wanted for this committee.”
Senator Newlands brought out that the speed of the Titanic at the time of the accident was about four miles an hour below that of the Mauretania and Lusitania.
“Do you have rules governing the running of a ship in fog or when ice is in a ship’s vicinity?”
“We have stringent rules. None of the commanders that I have ever had communication with ever got the idea from me that our company wanted records broken.”