On April 23, 1912, the Lord Chancellor appointed a wreck commissioner
under the merchant shipping acts, and on April 26 the home secretary
nominated five assessors. On April 30 the board of trade requested that
a formal investigation of the circumstances attending the loss of the
steamship _Titanic_ should be held, and the court accordingly commenced
to sit on May 2. Since that date there have been 37 public sittings, at
which 97 witnesses have been examined, while a large number of
documents, charts, and plans have been produced. The 26 questions
formulated by the board of trade, which are set out in detail below,
appear to cover all the circumstances to be inquired into. Briefly
summarized, they deal with the history of the ship, her design,
construction, size, speed, general equipment, life-saving apparatus,
wireless installation, her orders and course, her passengers, her crew,
their training, organization and discipline; they request an account of
the casualty, its cause and effect, and of the means taken for saving
those on board the ship; and they call for a report on the efficiency of
the rules and regulations made by the board of trade under the merchant
shipping acts and on their administration, and, finally, for any
recommendations to obviate similar disasters which may appear to the
court to be desirable. The 26 questions, as subsequently amended, are
here attached: