SENATOR SMITH: That you said, "We are to look out for ourselves now, and pay not attention to those stiffs."
MR. HICHENS: I never made use of that word, never since I have been born, because I use other words in preference to that.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you say anything about it?
MR. HICHENS: Not that I am aware of, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: And you wish the committee to understand that you did not refuse to go the relief of people in the water, either before or after the Titanic disappeared?
MR. HICHENS: I could not, sir. I was too far away, and I had no compass to go back, to enable me to find where the cries came from. The cries I heard lasted about two minutes, and some of them were saying, "It is one boat aiding the other." There was another boat aside of me, the boat the master­at­arms was in, full right up.
SENATOR SMITH: How long after you were lying on your oars was it that the Titanic went down?
MR. HICHENS: I could hardly tell you, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you instruct the men in your boat to row away from the Titanic after it went down?
MR. HICHENS: I did, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Why did you not row toward the scene of the Titanic?
MR. HICHENS: The suction of the ship would draw the boat with all her occupants, under water, I thought, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Is that the sole reason you did not go toward the Titanic?
MR. HICHENS: I did not know which way to go back to the Titanic. I was looking at all the other boats; I was among all the other boats.
SENATOR SMITH: What other boats; the lifeboats?
MR. HICHENS: We were all together; yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Why were you looking at the lifeboats?
MR. HICHENS: We were looking at each other's lights.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you have a light?
MR. HICHENS: I did; yes, sir. We all had lights and were showing them to one another.
SENATOR SMITH: The lifeboats all had lights?
MR. HICHENS: Most all of us. We kept all showing our lights now and then to let them know where we were, too.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you mean to tell me you would pass your time in showing one another your own lights, but did not go toward the Titanic?
MR. HICHENS: Yes; but before the Titanic sank we were all pulling for a light which we thought was to be a cod banker. We all made for this light.
SENATOR SMITH: You made up your mind it was not the boat you thought it was? You thought it was a fishing boat?
MR. HICHENS: We all thought so, and all pulled for that light.
SENATOR SMITH: You then pulled for that light, and finally discovered you were making no progress toward it?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: And you stopped?
MR. HICHENS: We stopped then; yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: And at that time you were a mile away from the Titanic?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir; a mile or more, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: And was the Titanic still afloat?
MR. HICHENS: The Titanic was still afloat, sir, and her lights all showing.
SENATOR SMITH: How long after that did you see her go down?
MR. HICHENS: I could hardly tell you. Probably 10 minutes after that her lights disappeared, but I did not see her go down.
SENATOR SMITH: You, yourself, did not see her disappear?
MR. HICHENS: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Was your back toward her?
MR. HICHENS: We could not see her at all. When I seen the lights disappear, that was all I could see because it was very dark.
SENATOR SMITH: You sat at the tiller?
MR. HICHENS: I was standing at the tiller.
SENATOR SMITH: Was your back to the ship?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: And you did not see her go down?
MR. HICHENS: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: After the lights disappeared and went out, did you then hear cries of distress?
MR. HICHENS: We did hear cries of distress, or I imagined so, sir, for two or three minutes. Some of the men in the boat said it was the cries of one boat hailing the other. I suppose the reason they said this was not to alarm the women ­ the ladies in the boat.
SENATOR SMITH: Did the Italian say that?
MR. HICHENS: The Italian could not speak. I am not talking of our own men, but the boat close, near by.
SENATOR SMITH: Some other boat?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir; we were having conversation with them and the master­at­arms.
SENATOR SMITH: You desire the committee to understand that you kept a safe distance from the Titanic after you got into the lifeboat; you made fast to the other lifeboat; you went away from the Titanic about a mile; you lay there on your oars; you saw the Titanic go down, or saw the lights go out, and you did not go in that direction at all?
MR. HICHENS: We did not know what direction to go, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you, after the lights went out, go in that direction in which the lights were?
MR. HICHENS: When the lights were gone out, we were still heading toward this cod banker, all of us.
SENATOR SMITH: That fishing boat was away from the Titanic's position?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir, a good ways, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: When you left the Titanic in the lifeboat, did anyone tell you take that load off and come back to Titanic?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Who told you that?
MR. HICHENS: I think it was the first officer or the second officer. I am not sure which officer it was.
SENATOR SMITH: Mr. Murdock or Mr. Lightoller?
MR. HICHENS: One of them; I am not sure which.
SENATOR SMITH: What did you say?
MR. HICHENS: All right, we was willing to pull away for this light; but when we got down we told we had to have one more man in the boat.
SENATOR SMITH: You wanted another man?
MR. HICHENS: We wanted two or three more men if we could get them.
SENATOR SMITH: But you did not get them?
MR. HICHENS: No, sir; only this major; he came down. He got in then, and that is all.
SENATOR SMITH: He swung himself out and got in, didn't he?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR BURTON: Did that call come back before the major got into the boat, or was it when you were away from the ship and rowing away?
MR. HICHENS: When I got down to the bottom, when we were lowered down in the water, we only had one man there, one seaman besides myself.
SENATOR BURTON: Then you say it was the first or second officer called you to come back?
MR. HICHENS: He told us to go away and make for the light. We had them orders before we went down below. We had no orders when we got to the water at all; we couldn't hear then.
SENATOR SMITH: The orders you got were to take that boat to the water?
MR. HICHENS: To that light.
SENATOR SMITH: To the light and return?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir; that is right.
SENATOR SMITH: And that order was given to you by the first or second officer?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Was your lifeboat lowered from the port or from the starboard side?
MR. HICHENS: The port, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You did not carry out that order?
MR. HICHENS: Yes; I did sir.
SENATOR SMITH: What did you do?
MR. HICHENS: I pulled for that light ­ this imaginary light. We were pulling for it all the time.
SENATOR SMITH: You pulled for this imaginary light?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: And never returned to the side of the Titanic?
MR. HICHENS: We could not return, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: I think I understand you. I want you to tell the committee, if you can, why you put the ship to starboard, which I believe you said you did, just before the collision with the iceberg?
MR. HICHENS: I do not quite understand you, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You said that when you were first apprised of the iceberg, you did what?
MR. HICHENS: Put my helm to starboard, sir. That is the orders I received from the sixth officer.
SENATOR SMITH: What was the effect of that?
MR. HICHENS: The ship minding the helm as put her to starboard.
SENATOR SMITH: But suppose you had gone bows on against that object?
MR. HICHENS: I don't nothing about that. I am in the wheelhouse, and, of course, I couldn't see nothing.
SENATOR SMITH: You could not see where you were going?
MR. HICHENS: No, sir; I might as well be locked in a cell. The only thing I could see was my compass.
SENATOR SMITH: The office gave you the necessary order?
MR. HICHENS: Gave me the order, "Hard a starboard."
SENATOR SMITH: Hard a starboard?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You carried it out immediately?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir; immediately, with the sixth officer behind my back, with the junior officer behind my back, to see whether I carried it out ­ one of the junior officers.
SENATOR SMITH: Is that the only order you received before the collision, or impact?
MR. HICHENS: That is all, sir. Then the first officer told the other quartermaster standing by to take the time, and told one of the junior officers to make a note of that in the log book. That was at 20 minutes to 12, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You said it was pretty cold that night?
MR. HICHENS: Very intense cold, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: What did that indicate to you ­ that you were in the vicinity of the Great Banks of Newfoundland?
MR. HICHENS: I do not know, sir. In the morning, when it turned daybreak, we could see icebergs everywhere; also a field of ice about 20 to 30 miles long, which it took the Carpathia 2 miles to get clear from when it picked the boats up. The icebergs was up on every point of the compass, almost.
SENATOR SMITH: It was very cold?
MR. HICHENS: Very cold, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Freezing, I believe you said.
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you yourself take the temperature of the air or water than night?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Where and when?
MR. HICHENS: About 10 minutes before I went to the wheel, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: How did you take the temperature of the air?
MR. HICHENS: We have a bucket, sir, attached to a piece of line about 20 fathoms long, which we put over the lee side of the ship, and draw just sufficient water to put the instrument in to cover the mercury to make it rise to its temperature, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Is that a dipper or pail?
MR. HICHENS: A small bucket, leaded at the bottom.
SENATOR SMITH: What is attached to it, a rope or chain?
MR. HICHENS: A piece of line about as thick as your black lead pencil.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you take that line and lower this bucket yourself?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir; when it was my duty to do so I did it.
SENATOR SMITH: You did it that night just before going to the wheel?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: The bucket reached the water, did it?
MR. HICHENS: Certainly, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You took the temperature?
MR. HICHENS: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: What was it?
MR. HICHENS: I could not tell at present time, sir. We have to enter it up in the log book.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you enter it?
MR. HICHENS: I did, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: But you can not remember what it was?
MR. HICHENS: I can not remember; no sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Whether it was zero?
MR. HICHENS: No, sir; I know it was not zero.
SENATOR SMITH: You can not give us any idea about it?
MR. HICHENS: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You took the temperature of the air?
MR. HICHENS: We had to do this duty every two hours. The quartermaster was standing by. After that we don't take no notice of it. We write it down in the log book for the junior officer, and it is copied off in the quartermaster's log book.
SENATOR SMITH: And it constitutes part of the log book?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir; just as we take the barometer and the thermometer, and then the air, or the temperature of the water and the like.
SENATOR SMITH: And you took the temperature of both the water and air, but you do not remember how cold the water was, or what the temperature of the water was?
MR. HICHENS: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you remember what the temperature of the air was?
MR. HICHENS: No, siroh, yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: When did you take the temperature of the water and the air ­ when had you done so before that time?
MR. HICHENS: The last watch on deck, when it was not my wheel. If I had the station on the bridge­­
SENATOR SMITH: When was it? What time was it?
MR. HICHENS: In the morning; the same watch in the morning; the 8 to 10 watch, Sunday morning.
SENATOR SMITH: What did you find the temperature of the water and air at that time? Do you recall that?
MR. HICHENS: I do not know, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you recall whether you found it colder at night than you did in the morning?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir; I know the thermometer was down at 31 at 8 o'clock Sunday evening31 1/2. That is the only thing I remember.
SENATOR SMITH: And both the water and the air were colder when you made the last test­­
MR. HICHENS: (interrupting). Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: (continuing). Than when you made the previous test?
MR. HICHENS: Certainly so, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: What did that indicate to you?
MR. HICHENS: It had nothing to do with me. It does not concern me, whatever.
SENATOR SMITH: What did you think? Did you think you were in the vicinity of ice when you found that water so cold?
MR. HICHENS: No, sir; I didn't think much about it.
SENATOR SMITH: Had you heard you were in the vicinity of ice?
MR. HICHENS: I heard by the second officer when he repeated it. He sent me with his compliments to the ship's carpenter to look out for the ship's water, that it was freezing at 8 o'clock. Then I knew. I didn't know before, but I heard the second officer distinctly tell Mr. Moody, the sixth officer, to repeat through the telephone, and keep a sharp lookout for small ice until daylight, and to pass the word along for the other lookout men.
SENATOR SMITH: You heard no officer say anything about icebergs, or an ice field, or growlers, or whatever they call these things, except what you have described, when he said it was freezing?
MR. HICHENS: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: Had you ever been over that course before?
MR. HICHENS: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Had you ever been among icebergs before?
MR. HICHENS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Where?
MR. HICHENS: Up about Norway and Sweden, and Petersburg, and up the Danube.
SENATOR SMITH: So they were not unfamiliar sights to you?
MR. HICHENS: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you have any way of your own by which you knew whether you were in the vicinity of icebergs?
MR. HICHENS: It began to get very, very cold; exceedingly cold; so cold we could hardly suffer the cold. I thought there was ice about, somewhere.
SENATOR SMITH: That indicated to you that you were in the vicinity of ice?
MR. HICHENS: It did not concern me. It had nothing to do with me at all. The officers had to do with it. I am only a junior officer.
SENATOR SMITH: I did not ask you that. I just asked you what you thought, and not what you did. You had had experience among these icebergs, and when you found it cold and getting colder all the time, in the north Atlantic, you reached the conclusion that you were coming to ice, did you?
MR. HICHENS: I thought so, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you say anything about it to anyone?
