SENATORS HEAR STARTLING STORIES.
Senators Hear Startling Stories--Probing Committee Took Prompt
Action--Special Investigation to Forestall Spiriting Away of
Witnesses--Prominent Persons on Stand--Carpathia’s Captain and Head of
White Star Line Chief Witnesses--Inventor of Wireless Telegraphy Also
Testifies.
Managing Director of the White Star Line, J. Bruce Ismay; Captain
Rostrom, of the Carpathia; Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of wireless; the
second officer of the Titanic and others testified before the Senate
committee which was investigating the disaster that caused the loss of
more than 1600 lives when the Titanic hit an iceberg.
Mr. Ismay was visibly nervous when he took the stand to testify in the
Waldorf-Astoria, where the hearings were being held.
Several times he avoided direct answers by saying: “I know nothing
about it.” Little if any light was thrown on the sea tragedy by his
testimony.
That the Titanic’s rate of speed was approximately 26½ land miles was
brought out from his lips.
He was not sure in just what boat he left the Titanic, nor was he sure
how long he remained on the liner after she struck.
He added, however, that before he entered a lifeboat he had been told
that there were no more women on the deck, and he denied that there had
been any censorship of messages from the Carpathia.
The seriousness of the inquiry by the Senate investigating committee
in the Titanic disaster was disclosed when Senator Smith, of Michigan,
the chairman, at first flatly refused to let any of the officers or
the 200 odd members of the crew of the sunken steamship get beyond the
jurisdiction of the United States Government. The men were all to have
sailed on the steamer Lapland.
Later it was settled that the greater part of the crew would be
permitted to sail on this steamer, but that the twelve men and four
officers among the survivors now under subpena, together with Mr.
Ismay, would not be allowed to depart.
Captain Rostrom told a simple, apparently straightforward story,
thrilling from its very simplicity and the sailorman quality of the
narrative.
He answered questions direct and gave the first authoritative tale
of the hearing of the appeal for help, the rush to aid the sinking
liner and the sighting of the ship’s boats and picking them up, the
preparations made, while the Carpathia was being urged along under
every ounce of steam its boilers could make, to provide for the
reception of the survivors on board.
CAPTAIN ROSTROM’S DENIAL.
Captain Rostrom denied emphatically there was any intention on his part
to disregard the inquiry made by the President of the United States or
that any censorship was exercised over wireless messages by any person
other than himself.
Charles W. Lightholder, second officer of the Titanic and senior
surviving officer of the ship, told of what preceded the sinking of the
Titanic, what happened while women were taken away in boats as brave
men stood by, and what happened when the Titanic took her last dip. It
was a story of heroism, told quietly and calmly.
Lightholder said that tests of the water had been made for ice. It
was part of the routine. Water was taken from the side of the ship in
canvas buckets and the temperature learned by putting a thermometer in
it.
As the second officer of the ship, Lightholder said he had been in
charge of it on Sunday when the Titanic struck, from 6 o’clock in the
evening until 10, or inside of two hours before the collision.
He would not admit that the tests were being made solely for the
purpose of searching for information as to icebergs.
It was part of the routine of the ship. The tests were made for routing
purposes and other purposes. The water was not much above freezing.
The witness said that he did not know what the tests of the water
that day showed. No reports had been made to him. He did not think it
necessary that night, when he was on the bridge in charge, to make
tests for the purpose of finding out if the Titanic was in the vicinity
of icebergs.
ICEBERGS REPORTED.
“Did you know that the Amerika had reported to the Titanic the location
of icebergs in that neighborhood?” asked Senator Smith.
“I heard of the message, but I didn’t know that it was the Amerika.”
“Did you get from Captain Smith that night any information about the
icebergs?”
“Not that night,” said Lightholder. “I think it was in the afternoon,
about 1 o’clock. I was on the bridge, having relieved First Officer
Murdock, who had gone to lunch.”
Captain Smith, he said, told him of the wireless message from the
Amerika about the icebergs. Lightholder said he couldn’t recall just
what position the ship was in then, but he could work it out on the
chart.
When Chief Officer Murdock returned to the bridge, Lightholder said, he
told him exactly the information Captain Smith had communicated to him.
“What did Murdock say?” asked Senator Smith. “All right,” replied
Lightholder.
“So the chief officer of the ship was fully advised by you that you
were in proximity to icebergs?” he was asked. “Yes, sir.”
“How fast was the boat going at that time?” “Between 21½ and 22 knots.”
“Was that her maximum speed?” “So far as we knew,” said Lightholder,
“she could go faster than that if pushed. We understood that that was
not her maximum speed.”
“During your voyage, did you know you were in the vicinity of ice?”
Senator Smith asked. “I knew some had been reported.”
He said the ship was not in proximity to icebergs Saturday or Sunday,
although he knew the ship would be near ice on Sunday night. The
witness said he knew nothing of the Amerika and the Titanic talking by
wireless about icebergs.
Senator Smith asked if he sought to send any wireless messages from the
Titanic after she struck. He said not.
MR. ISMAY’S REMARKS.
Turning to the subject of lifeboats, Mr. Ismay said he heard the
captain give the order to lower the boats. “I then left the bridge.”
Three boats, he said, he saw lowered and filled. In his own boat were
four members of the crew and forty-five passengers.
“Was there any jostling or attempt by men to get into the boats?” asked
Senator Smith. “I saw none.”
“How were the women selected?” “We picked the women and children as
they stood nearest the rail.”
Representative Hughes handed Senator Smith a note, and then the
chairman told Mr. Ismay that it was reported that the second lifeboat
left without its full complement of oarsmen, and from 11.30 until 7.30
women were forced to row the boat. “I know nothing about it.”
Representative Hughes’ daughter was in this boat and was assigned to
watch the cork in the boat and, if it came out, to use her finger as a
stopper.
Then Senator Smith asked the circumstances under which he left the
boat. “The boat was being filled,” began Mr. Ismay. “The officers
called out to know if there were any more women to go. There were
none. No passengers were on the deck. So as the boat was being lowered
I got into it.”
“The ship was sinking?” asked Senator Smith. “The boat was sinking,”
almost whispered Mr. Ismay.
“Was there any attempt to lower the boats of the Carpathia to take on
passengers after you went aboard her?” asked Senator Smith. “There were
no passengers there to take on,” said Mr. Ismay.
He said he saw no liferafts in the sea.
“How many lifeboats were there on the Titanic?” “Twenty altogether, I
think,” said Mr. Ismay, “sixteen collapsible and four wooden boats.”
Whether the boats were taken on board the Carpathia or not he did not
know.
“It has been suggested,” Senator Smith continued, “that two of the
lifeboats sank as soon as lowered. Do you know anything about that?”
“I do not. I never heard of it, and I think all the lifeboats were
accounted for.”
NO INDICATIONS OF TITANIC’S BREAKING.
“When you last saw her were there indications that the Titanic had
broken in two?” “No, there was no such indication.”
“How long after you left her was it that you looked back for the last
time?” “It may have been ten minutes or a half hour. I am not sure.
Impossible for me to tell.”
“Was there confusion apparent on the Titanic when you looked back?” “I
didn’t see any. All I saw was the green light the last time I looked.”
“After you left Captain Smith on the bridge did you see him again?” “I
did not.”
“Did you have any message from him?” “None.”
“How many wireless operators were there on the Titanic?” “I presume
there were two. One is always on watch.”
“Did they survive?” “I have been told one did, but I do not know
whether it is true or not.”
Mr. Ismay was asked what he had on when he got into the lifeboat. “A
pair of slippers, a pair of pajamas, a suit of clothes and an overcoat.”
Captain Rostrom, of the Carpathia, followed Mr. Ismay. He told Mr.
Smith that he had been captain of the Carpathia since last January, but
that he had been a seaman twenty-seven years.
The captain told in detail of the arrangements made to prepare the
lifeboats and the ship for the receipt of the survivors.
Arriving at the zone of the accident, Captain Rostrom testified, he saw
an iceberg straight ahead of him and, stopping at 4 A. M., ten minutes
later he picked up the first lifeboat. The officer sang out he had only
one seaman on board and was having difficulty in manning his boat.
ICEBERGS ON EVERY SIDE.
“By the time I got the boat aboard day was breaking,” said the captain.
“In a radius of four miles I saw all the other lifeboats. On all sides
of us were icebergs; some twenty, some were 150 to 200 feet high, and
numerous small icebergs or ‘growlers.’ Wreckage was strewn about us. At
8.30 all the Titanic’s survivors were aboard.”
Then, with tears filling his eyes, Captain Rostrom said he called the
purser. “I told him,” said Captain Rostrom, “I wanted to hold a service
of prayer--thanksgiving for the living and a funeral service for the
dead.
“I went to Mr. Ismay. He told me to take full charge. An Episcopal
clergyman was found among the passengers, and he conducted the
services.”
As the prayers were being said, Captain Rostrom testified, he was
on the bridge searching for survivors. He told of talking with the
California, which had arrived. As he searched the sea, one body with a
life preserver on floated by.
The man was dead, probably a member of the crew, the captain said. The
body was not picked up, the officer explaining, “because the survivors
of the Titanic were in no condition then to see a body brought aboard.”
“But I must say,” declared Captain Rostrom with positiveness, “every
one of the survivors behaved magnificently. They sat in the boats until
the order came for them to mount the ladder in turn, and then came up.”
Asked about the lifeboats, Captain Rostrom said he found one among
the wreckage in the sea. Several of the lifeboats brought in on the
Carpathia to New York, he said, were lowered last night and hauled away
by tenders, he knew not where.
Captain Rostrom said that the Carpathia had twenty lifeboats of her
own, in accordance with the British regulations.
“Wouldn’t that indicate that the regulations are out of date, your
ship being much smaller than the Titanic, which also carried twenty
lifeboats?” Senator Smith asked. “No. The Titanic was supposed to be a
lifeboat herself.”
Captain Rostrom then explained that it was for the good of the
shipwrecked people that he brought his ship to New York instead of
going to Halifax.
WOMEN AT THE OARS.
At Representative Hughes’ suggestion, Captain Rostrom was asked further
about the lifeboat with one officer and one seaman in it. This was the
boat from which the Representative’s daughter was rescued. At least two
women were rowing in this boat. In another lifeboat he saw women at the
oars, but how many he could not tell.
In discussing the strength of the Carpathia’s wireless, Captain Rostrom
said the Carpathia was only 58 miles from the Titanic when the call
for help came. “Our wireless operator was not on duty,” said Captain
Rostrom, “but as he was undressing he had his apparatus to his ear. Ten
minutes later he would have been in bed and we never would have heard.”
Mr. Marconi took the stand as soon as the hearing was resumed for the
afternoon. He said he was the chairman of the British Marconi Company.
Under instructions of the company, he said operators must take their
orders from the captain of the ship on which they are employed.
“Do the regulations prescribe whether one or two operators should be
aboard the ocean vessels?” “Yes, on ships like the Titanic and Olympic
two are carried,” said Mr. Marconi. “The Carpathia, a smaller boat,
carries one. The Carpathia’s wireless apparatus is a short-distance
equipment. The maximum efficiency of the Carpathia’s wireless, I should
say, was 200 miles. The wireless equipment on the Titanic was available
500 miles during the daytime and 1000 miles at night.”
“Do you consider that the Titanic was equipped with the latest improved
wireless apparatus?” “Yes, I should say that it had the very best.”
Charles Herbert Lightholder, second officer of the Titanic, followed
Mr. Marconi on the stand. Mr. Lightholder said he understood the
maximum speed of the Titanic, as shown by its trial tests, to have been
22½ to 23 knots. Senator Smith asked if the rule requiring life-saving
apparatus to be in each room for each passenger was complied with.
LIFE-SAVING EQUIPMENT INSPECTED.
“Everything was complete,” said Lightholder. Sixteen lifeboats, of
which four were collapsible, were on the Titanic, he added. During
the tests, he said, Captain Clark, of the British Board of Trade, was
aboard the Titanic to inspect its life-saving equipment.
“How thorough are these captains of the Board of Trade in inspecting
ships?” asked Senator Smith. “Captain Clark is so thorough that we
called him a nuisance.”
Lightholder said he was in the sea with a lifebelt on one hour and a
half.
“What time did you leave the ship?” “I didn’t leave it.”
“Did it leave you?” “Yes, sir.”
“Where were you when the Titanic sank?” “In the officers’ quarters.”
“Were all the lifeboats gone then?” “All but one. I was about fifteen
feet from it. It was hanging in the tackle, and they were trying to get
it over the bulwarks the last time I saw it. The first officer, Mr.
Murdock, who lost his life, was managing the tackle.”
The last boat, a flat collapsible, to put off was the one on top the
officers’ quarters, Lightholder said. Men jumped upon it on deck
and waited for the water to float it off. Once at sea, it upset.
The forward funnel fell into the water, just missing the raft, and
overturning it. The funnel probably killed persons in the water.
“This was the boat I eventually got on,” declared Lightholder. “No one
was on it when I reached it. Later about thirty men clambered out of
the water on to it. All had on life preservers.”
DIED AND SLIPPED OFF INTO THE WATER.
“Did any passengers get on?” asked Senator Smith. “J. B. Thayer, the
second Marconi operator and Colonel Gracie I recall,” said the witness.
“All the rest were firemen taken out of the water. Two of these died
that night and slipped off into the water. I think the senior Marconi
operator did that.”
“Did you see any attempt to get women to go who would not?” “Yes.”
“Why would they not go?” “I hadn’t time to learn.”
“Did any ask for their family to go?” “Yes, one or two.”
“Did any families go?” “No.”
In the first boat to put off, Lightholder said, he put twenty to
twenty-five. Two seamen were placed in it. The officer said he could
spare no more and that the fact that women rowed did not show the boat
was not fully equipped.
At that time he did not believe the danger was great. Two seamen placed
in the boat he said were selected by him, but he could not recall who
they were.
“The third boat?” “By the time I came to the third boat--all these on
the portside--I began to realize that the situation was serious and I
began to take chances.”
“How long did all the work of loading and lowering a lifeboat take?”
“It was difficult to say, but I think about fifteen or twenty minutes.”
“How many passengers did the third boat contain?” “I filled it up as
full as I dared, sir, then lowered it; about thirty-five, I think.
The women and children couldn’t have stood quieter if they’d been in
church.”
In loading the fourth lifeboat Lightholder said he was running short
of seamen. “I put two seamen in and one jumped out. That was the first
boat I had to put a man passenger in. He was standing nearby and said
he would go if I needed him.
“I said, ‘Are you a sailor?’ and he replied that he was a yachtsman.
Then I told him that if he was sailor enough to get out over the
bulwarks to the lifeboat to go ahead. He did and proved himself
afterward to be a very brave man.”
“Who was he--did you know him?” “I didn’t know him then, but afterward
I looked him up. He was Major Peuchen, of Toronto.”
“Had you ever seen him before?” “Never.”
DIFFICULTY IN FINDING WOMEN.
Of the fifth boat Lightholder had no particular recollection. “The last
boat I put out, my sixth boat,” he said, “we had difficulty finding
women. I called for women and none were on deck. The men began to get
in--and then women appeared. As rapidly as they did the men passengers
got out of the boats again.
“The boat’s deck was only ten feet from the water when I lowered the
sixth boat. When we lowered the first the distance to the water was 70
feet.” All told, Lightholder testified, 210 members of the crew were
saved.
Lightholder declared he stood on top the officers’ quarters and as the
ship dived he faced forward and dived also. “I was sucked against a
blower and held there,” testified the officer.
“Head above water?” “No, sir. A terrific gust came up the blower--the
boilers must have exploded--and I was blown clear.”
“How far were you blown?” “Barely clear. I was sucked down again; this
time on the ‘fidley’ grating.”
“Did anyone else have a similar experience?” “Yes, Colonel Gracie.”
“How did you get loose?” “I don’t know, maybe another explosion. All I
know is we came up by a boat.”
“Were there any watertight compartments on that ship?” the Senator
asked. “Certainly, forty or fifty.”
Thomas Cottam, 21 years old, of Liverpool, the Marconi operator on the
Carpathia, was the first witness at the evening session.
He denied himself some glory by saying he had no stated hours for labor
on the Carpathia. Previous witnesses had testified he was not “on duty”
when he received the Titanic’s signal for help.
UNCERTAIN AS TO THE KIND OF WORK.
He was decidedly uncertain whether he was required to work at night,
finally saying it depended on whether he had commercial or ship’s
business to get off.
“What were you doing last Sunday evening about 10 o’clock?” asked
Senator Smith. “Receiving news from Cape Cod,” said Cottam. He said he
had also been “sending a lot of messages for the Titanic.”
“Had you closed your station for the night?” “No.”
“What do you do when you close your station?” “Switch the storage
battery out,” said Cottam.
“Does that prevent receiving or sending messages?” the Senator
continued. “No.”
“Does it lessen the likelihood of your getting a signal of any kind?”
“No, not in the least,” Cottam replied.
“You say the Carpathia wireless instruments would send a message about
250 miles with accuracy?” “Yes, sir.”
“Was there any thunder or lightning Sunday night?” “No, it was clear.”
“Well, how did you happen to catch the Titanic message of distress?”
“I was looking out for a confirmation by the steamer Parisian of a
previous message from the Parisian--a message that came some time in
the afternoon.”
“Did you hear the captain of the Carpathia testify here today?” “No.”
“He said you were about to retire and caught this Titanic distress
message rather providentially?” “Yes, sir.”
“How far had you got along in your arrangement to retire? Had you taken
off your clothes?” “Yes, my coat.”
“Did you have any instruments then?” “Yes, the telephones were on my
head. I was waiting for the Parisian’s answer. I had just called it.”
“How long would you have waited?” “Several minutes.”
“Would you have retired pretty soon, you think?” “Yes.”
“Well, when you got the distress message from the Titanic Sunday night,
how did you get it?” “I called the Titanic myself, sir.”
SENDING MESSAGES TO THE TITANIC.
“Who told you to call the Titanic?” “No one, sir. I did it of my own
free will. I asked the Titanic operator if he was aware that Cape Cod
had been sending messages for the Titanic.”
“What was the answer?” “‘Come at once’ was the message, sir,” said
Cottam.
“Was that all of it?” “No, the operator said, I think, ‘come at
once--this is a distress message. C. Q. D.’” Cottam testified.
When word of the Titanic’s distress was received, Operator Cottam said
he immediately sent them the position of the Carpathia and added that
they would hurry to the rescue.
“Get any reply to that?” asked Senator Smith. “Yes, sir; immediately.
They acknowledged receipt of it.”
The witness said the next communication with the Titanic was four
minutes later, when he confirmed the position of both vessels. At this
juncture the Frankfurt, of the North German Lloyd Line, broke in on the
communication, having heard the Titanic’s call for help. Later the
steamship Olympic also replied.
“What did you do then?” asked Senator Smith. “I called the attention
of the Titanic to the Olympic’s efforts to raise it,” answered the
witness. “The Titanic replied it could not hear because of the rush of
air and the noise made by the escaping steam.”
Immediately after telling the Titanic of the Olympic’s attempt to
get in communication with her, the former, the witness said, sought
the Olympic’s aid, reporting that it was “head down” and giving its
position. The Baltic broke in at this time, but its efforts to reach
the Titanic were without avail.
“I was in communication with the Titanic at regular intervals until the
final message,” said Cottam. “This was ‘come quick; our engine room is
filling up to the boilers.’”
“What was your condition?” asked Senator Smith. “I was desperately
tired. I was worked out,” answered Cottam, who was then excused.
The committee adjourned at 10.20 o’clock to meet at 10 o’clock the next
morning.