SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, UNITED STATES SENATE,
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met at 10:30 o'clock a.m., pursuant to adjournment.
Present: Senators William Alden Smith (chairman), Perkins, Burton, Bourne, Simmons, Newlands, and Fletcher.
SENATOR SMITH: For my associates and myself, I desire to make an announcement.
The inquiry we are making is in obedience to a direction by the Senate, and is for the purpose of ascertaining certain important facts connected with the unfortunate loss of the Titanic. We are not at all concerned about the convenience of visitors upon the hearing. We are concerned primarily in obtaining the truth, and I desire each person here to understand that they are here solely by the courtesy of the committee; that the inquiry is not for their entertainment, and that any expressions of any kind or character will not permitted.
Any violation of this injunction will force the committee to conduct its inquiries in such a manner as to avoid such a situation.
In view of the importance of the investigation, I bespeak for the witnesses that courtesy and kindness that is their proper due.
As to whether these hearings can be conducted in this general, open session, we are not fully determined; but having no disposition to carry them on secretly, with the desire that each step shall be known by the public, this course has been adopted this morning, as it was pursued in New York.
TESTIMONY OF MR. PHILIP A. S. FRANKLIN.
Mr. Franklin was sworn by the chairman.
SENATOR SMITH: What is your full name?
MR. FRANKLIN: Philip A. S. Franklin.
SENATOR SMITH: And where do you reside?
MR. FRANKLIN: I reside in New York.
SENATOR SMITH: What is your business?
MR. FRANKLIN: I am the vice president in the United States of the International Mercantile Marine Co.
SENATOR SMITH: How old are you?
MR. FRANKLIN: Forty­one years of age.
SENATOR SMITH: What composes the International Mercantile Marine Co.?
MR. FRANKLIN: In a general way, the International Mercantile Marine Co., through its various ramifications, owns the White Star line, the American Line, the Red Star Line, the Atlantic Transport Line, and the National Line, and the majority of the stock of the Leyland Line.
SENATOR SMITH: What is the capitalization of your company?
MR. FRANKLIN: The capitalization, in round numbers, is $100,000,000 between the preferred and common shares; $52,000,000 of 4 1/2 per cent bonds; about $19,000,000 of 5 per cent bonds, and some underlying bonds, amounting to about $7,000,000.
SENATOR SMITH: What is the business of the company?
MR. FRANKLIN: The business of the company is that they own steamers which are operating in various trans­Atlantic and trans­oceanic trades, carrying freight and passengers.
SENATOR SMITH: Does the International Mercantile Marine own the White Star Line or control it?
MR. FRANKLIN: The International Mercantile Marine owns or controls the International Navigation Co. (Ltd.) of England, which company owns the shares of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Co., which company owns the White Star steamers.
SENATOR SMITH: How many ships are there in the White Star Line, so­called?
MR. FRANKLIN: I could not tell you that, but I have a record here that could give you the information. We will produce an annual report which will show that. We can come back to that, Senator. It will have to be worked out of our report.
SENATOR SMITH: I will pass, for the moment, that inquiry, and ask if you can give us a detailed statement of the owners, officers, and directors of these various companies composing the International Mercantile Marine Co.?
MR. FRANKLIN: I could not do that in detail without looking it up for you, because a great many of these companies are located abroad; but I can give you the directors of the International Mercantile Marine Co.
SENATOR SMITH: Can you do so now?
MR. FRANKLIN: Yes, sir. These are the directors: C. A. Griscom, E. C. Grenfell, John I. Waterbury, the Right Honorable Lord Pirrie, George W. Perkins, Charles Steel, J. Bruce Ismay, Percy Chubb, E. J. Berwind, Harold A. Sanderson, P. A. B. Widener, Charles F. Torrey, J. P. Morgan, jr.
SENATOR SMITH: Who are the officers of that company?
MR. FRANKLIN: The officers are: President, , J. Bruce Ismay; vice presidents, E. C. Grenfell, Harold A. Sanderson and P. A. S. Franklin.
SENATOR SMITH: Where do the officers of the company reside?
MR. FRANKLIN: Mr. Ismay, the president, resides in Liverpool; Mr. Grenfell resides in London; Mr. Sanderson resides in Liverpool; Mr. Franklin resides in New York.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you hold any position in the International Mercantile Marine Co.?
MR. FRANKLIN: I hold the position of vice president, in America, of the International Mercantile Marine Co.
SENATOR SMITH: And, as such officer, have you jurisdiction over the affairs of that company in America?
MR. FRANKLIN: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Does any other person share this responsibility with you here?
MR. FRANKLIN: Not directly. Of course, we have certain members of the board of directors here, who have meetings here, and we have a finance committee who meet here, but as far as the management of the company in its business is concerned, I have nobody except the various assistants that we have all the way through.
SENATOR SMITH: Subordinate to you?
MR. FRANKLIN: Subordinate to me.
SENATOR SMITH: Will you state to the committee what jurisdiction and authority you have, if any, over the movement and direction of the ships in your company?
MR. FRANKLIN: We have no authority or jurisdiction over the movement or direction of the ships of our company after they have left the dock or port of any port in the United States or Canada. If we should at any time have instructions regarding the actual policy of the ship, we would receive those instructions from the home office in England, and that would be given to the commander of the steamer in the dock here.
We have nothing to do with the ships in the way of giving the commander instructions regarding the navigation, or anything of that kind, of the ship, except what is passed to us by the owners of the ships. We are simply agents.
SENATOR SMITH: How long have you been an officer of this company?
MR. FRANKLIN: Since 1902, I think it is.
SENATOR SMITH: Have you ever filled any other position than the one you now occupy with your company?
MR. FRANKLIN: When the company was first formed, I was in charge of the business of the Atlantic Transport Line, which is a subsidiary of the International Mercantile Marine Co., but I was not then an officer, immediately, of the International Mercantile Marine Co. Shortly after its formation, however ­ I should say six or eight months after ­ I was made a vice president of the International Mercantile Marine Co.
SENATOR SMITH: Are you a navigator by profession?
MR. FRANKLIN: Not at all, sir?
SENATOR SMITH: Have you ever had any experience in that regard?
MR. FRANKLIN: Not the slightest.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you know Mr. Ismay?
MR. FRANKLIN: I do, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: How long have you known him?
MR. FRANKLIN: I have known Mr. Ismay, I should say, since about 1895 or 1897; possibly a little earlier.
SENATOR SMITH: Have you had occasion to confer with him regarding the affairs of your company?
MR. FRANKLIN: Constantly, since 1902.
SENATOR SMITH: Did these conferences take place in the United States?
MR. FRANKLIN: Some conferences took place in the United States and some conferences in Liverpool.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you know Capt. Smith, of the Titanic?
MR. FRANKLIN: I did.
SENATOR SMITH: How long had you known him?
MR. FRANKLIN: I had known him ever since I have been connected with the International Mercantile Marine Co.; and I knew him before that, because I had crossed on one or two steamers under his command along about 1898 to 1900. Then, however, I was not in any way officially connected with the company.
SENATOR SMITH: Will you tell the committee what ships of your company were commanded by the late captain of the Titanic?
MR. FRANKLIN: He commanded the Majestic, the Adriatic, the Olympic, and the Titanic. That I am sure of. I am not sure of the steamers he may have commanded between the Majestic and the Titanic.
SENATOR SMITH: Is the Baltic one of your ships?
MR. FRANKLIN: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: He commanded the Baltic, did he not?
MR. FRANKLIN: I think he did, but I would not say positively. I think he did.
SENATOR SMITH: When did you last see him?
MR. FRANKLIN: I last saw Capt. Smith when he was here on the Olympic in February.
SENATOR SMITH: In February of this year?
MR. FRANKLIN: Of this year; yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Have you seen or heard from him since that time directly?
MR. FRANKLIN: I have never seen nor heard from him directly, no, sir, since that time.
SENATOR SMITH: So far as you know, did the subordinate officers of your company attempt to and succeed in obtaining any communication from him on his last voyage from Southampton to New York or to the point of this disaster?
MR. FRANKLIN: We never had the slightest communication of any kind from the captain of the Titanic on the last voyage or from the time he left Belfast.
SENATOR SMITH: From the time he left Belfast after the trial trip?
MR. FRANKLIN: We had no word of the trial trip or anything regarding the trial trip.
SENATOR SMITH: You know nothing directly of the test at Belfast?
MR. FRANKLIN: No.
SENATOR SMITH: And you have had no communication and, so far as you know, your subordinates have had no communication with him after he left Belfast with the Titanic?
MR. FRANKLIN: No; that is quite right. We did not have. I want to make it perfectly clear. We naturally received cables from Southampton; we received a cable when the ship left Belfast; we received a cable when the ship arrived at Southampton. Those cables, however, were not sent by the captain of the steamer; they were sent by the officers.
SENATOR SMITH: By what officer?
MR. FRANKLIN: By the Southampton office; by the agent, in other words, in Southampton.
SENATOR SMITH: Advising you of the departure of the Titanic?
MR. FRANKLIN: No; the Southampton cable advised us of the arrival of the Titanic.
SENATOR SMITH: From Belfast Lough?
MR. FRANKLIN: From Belfast Lough. That was simply a routine matter.
SENATOR SMITH: So far as you know, did you or did any of your subordinates in this country receive any communication from any officer of the Titanic after she left Southampton?
MR. FRANKLIN: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you or did any of your subordinates receive any communication from Mr. Ismay after or immediately preceding the departure of the Titanic from Southampton?
MR. FRANKLIN: I sent to Mr. Ismay as the steamer was running between Southampton and Queenstown simply a bon voyage message: "Successful future to the Titanic and successful voyage also to yourself," or something to that effect.
SENATOR SMITH: Have you a copy of that message?
MR. FRANKLIN: I do not think I have a copy of it with me. I can have it sent over to you, Senator.
SENATOR SMITH: I wish you would do so.
MR. FRANKLIN: Will you have a record made of everything you want from us?
SENATOR SMITH: Yes.
MR. FRANKLIN: And I can give you a copy of Mr. Ismay's reply.
SENATOR SMITH: So far as you can now recollect, what did he say?
MR. FRANKLIN: Simply: "Much appreciate your message," or something to that effect.
SENATOR SMITH: Was this a wireless or a cable message?
MR. FRANKLIN: It was sent by cable.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you receive any communication from any officer, director, passenger or member of the crew of the Titanic, by wireless, after the Titanic left Southampton and up to the time she sank in the sea?
MR. FRANKLIN: Not a word or communication from any kind or description except this: We had the regular wire that comes through the regular channel from Cape Race or through Cape Race , that advised us that on Sunday morning the Titanic was 550 miles southeast of Cape Race. That is a matter that comes through the press, also.
SENATOR SMITH: Was that an official communication?
MR. FRANKLIN: It is semiofficial. It is sent to the press also. We receive an advice, and the press gets it for the newspapers and for the records.
SENATOR SMITH: But you have no exclusive control over that kind of a communication?
MR. FRANKLIN: No; we do not get an exclusive communication. To the best of my knowledge that was telephoned to me by one of our people on Sunday morning simply as a matter of information.
SENATOR SMITH: Sunday morning preceding the collision?
MR. FRANKLIN: Sunday morning preceding the collision.
SENATOR SMITH: That was the only attempt at communication with that ship, and so far as you know, the only attempt by its officers, passengers or crew, from the time they left Southampton until the accident occurred?
MR. FRANKLIN: Absolutely.
SENATOR SMITH: I show you a telegram which I will read in order that the record may contain it. It is dated New York, NY, April 15, 1912. It is addressed to "J. A. Hughes, Huntington, W. Va." It reads as follows: Titanic proceeding to Halifax. Passengers will probably land there Wednesday; all safe. White Star Line.
I ask you whether you know anything about the sending of that message, or by whom it was authorized, or from whom it emanated?
MR. FRANKLIN: I do not, sir. And since this was mentioned at the meeting in New York on Saturday, we have had our entire passenger staff in No. 9 Broadway office asked, and we can not find who sent that message. Now, what we would appreciate your committee doing is to have the telegraph company deliver to you the message received from the White Star Line, and let us see where they got it and when they got it, and what station it was delivered to. I think it is only fair for us to explain, in connection with that, that we have a great many people naturally employed in the passenger department of our No. 9 Broadway office. The office was very crowded on Monday morning, and a good many of the juniors were answering communications, to the best of their ability, by telephone, and otherwise, and it might be, possibly, that that telegram was sent by one of these juniors, from something he had gotten, either from the newspapers or something of that kind, but so far as the White Star Line or its officials were concerned, the officials did not authorize anything of that kind; nothing of that kind was authorized, and we were very guarded in advising everybody that the only authentic information we were receiving about the horrible disaster was what we were gettingand we had gotten one message ­ through Capt. Haddock, of the Olympic.
