SENATOR SMITH: You know of no such thing that delayed the Frankfurt from going to the rescue of the Titanic?
MR. COTTAM: No, sir; there was not another sound other than that single communication between the Frankfurt and the Titanic; there was not another sound otherwise. He ought to have heard it and read it.
SENATOR SMITH: Let us see about that. There was the C.Q.D. that you picked up?
MR. COTTAM: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: And that was picked up on the Frankfurt?
MR. COTTAM: I do not know whether the same one was. I do not suppose it was.
SENATOR SMITH: The C.Q.D. was received and acknowledged; then 20 minutes elapsed, and the operator asked the Titanic, "What is the trouble?"
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir; he came back with his position. He said, "Here is our position. What is the matter?"
SENATOR SMITH: He gave his position and said, "What is the matter?"
MR. COTTAM: He did not give it; he offered it.
SENATOR SMITH: Did he ever give it?
MR. COTTAM: I do not know whether he gave it or not, sir. I did not hear it.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you receive that message from the Frankfurt to the Titanic on the Carpathia?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: What did it say?
MR. COTTAM: It simply asked what was the matter what did he want to exchange positions for at that time of night and wanted to know what was the matter.
SENATOR SMITH: The Frankfurt wanted to know what was the matter, and did not give his position?
MR. COTTAM: I do not remember whether he gave it or not; I did not hear it.
SENATOR SMITH: Would you have heard it if it had been given? You heard the balance of the message?
MR. COTTAM: Certainly. I heard all the communications with the Titanic.
SENATOR SMITH: You heard all the communications with the Titanic?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: From what ships?
MR. COTTAM: From the ships that were in communication with the Titanic.
SENATOR SMITH: What were they?
MR. COTTAM: There were the Olympic and the Frankfurt. Satisfactory communication was not established with the Baltic at all.
SENATOR SMITH: But satisfactory communication was established with the Olympic and the Frankfurt?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you remember whether the Olympic gave her position?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir; she gave it.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you remember what it was?
MR. COTTAM: No, sir; I did not take it.
SENATOR SMITH: You are positive the Frankfurt did not give her position?
MR. COTTAM: I am not positive absolutely positive. I can not remember. I did not take much notice of it. I was helping the Titanic.
SENATOR SMITH: Under the regulations of the Berlin Convention the Frankfurt was obliged to give her position, was she not, upon receipt of this C.Q.D. call?
MR. COTTAM: If he had used any common sense he would have done it.
SENATOR SMITH: How is that, Mr. Marconi?
MR. MARCONI: They are obliged to give the best assistance possible. I suppose that would include that.
SENATOR SMITH: What I am trying to ascertain is this. The C.Q.D. call, the call of distress, goes out. That is the most alarming call that can be recorded over a wireless instrument?
MR. MARCONI: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: It is as significant, as I understand it, as a red light would be in front of a moving express train?
MR. MARCONI: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: A warning and a call both?
MR. MARCONI: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: What I would like to get at is this, whether it is the duty of any ship whose country is a party to the Berlin convention to respond to that call, and whether when that response is made the ship's position is given as a part of the regulations. Do you see my point?
MR. MARCONI: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: If the Frankfurt was 500 miles away and the ship's position was known to the captain of the Titanic, and the Carpathia was 50 miles away and the ship's position was known to the Titanic, then the operator of the Titanic might very appropriately say to the operator of the Frankfurt, "Keep out." Do you see my point?
MR. MARCONI: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: I want to know whether that is covered by the regulations.
MR. MARCONI: I do not recall that the regulations specify that the position should be given of the ships which are called, but it does specify that they have to do everything in their power to assist, and I presume that includes what you have stated. It is several months since I have read the regulations of the Berlin convention.
SENATOR SMITH: At least, if they had known that the Frankfurt was within 50 miles they would have taken some comfort from the fact that they were not 500 miles off?
MR. MARCONI: Certainly; it would have been of the greatest utility. I should also state that any ship of any country, even of a country which is not a party to the Berlin convention, would reply to that call, and would be morally bound to reply to that call.
SENATOR SMITH: Mr. Cottam, you say you said, "Good night" to the Mount Temple operator? That is, at about half past 10 Thursday night you said "Good night" to him?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: But I have forgotten whether you said that the Mount Temple gave you her position at any time.
MR. COTTAM: I do not remember whether she did or not.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you remember whether the Mount Temple replied to the C.Q.D. call of the Titanic that night?
MR. COTTAM: I do not think so. I did not hear her.
SENATOR SMITH: The captain says they did. The captain says the Mount Temple replied to the C.Q.D. call of the Titanic.
MR. COTTAM: I heard nothing from the Mount Temple.
SENATOR SMITH: What I am getting at is whether you picked up any message from the Mount Temple that night in addition to these other ships' messages that you have spoken of.
MR. COTTAM: No, sir. If the Mount Temple had replied, I would have been bound to have heard it, because there was not a sound in the air, and this communication of the Titanic was all that was going.
SENATOR SMITH: When you got this message from the Titanic the Carpathia was about 58 miles from the Titanic's position?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir; about 58 or 60 miles.
SENATOR SMITH: Why did the operator of the Titanic tell this other operator he was a fool and to keep out? Was it because he had not responded?
MR. COTTAM: Because if he had not done it he would have been a nuisance, as we were in good, satisfactory communication, and as he could not get satisfactory communication with the Frankfurt he tried elsewhere then.
SENATOR SMITH: What would you have told him if you had been the operator on the Titanic?
MR. COTTAM: I should have told him the same.
SENATOR SMITH: Regardless of whether he was a Marconi operator or a German independent operator?
MR. COTTAM: It does not matter what system. I don't care. When a man takes 20 minutes to answer in a case like that, when two hours is between life and death, it is about the only fit thing you can call him.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you not think it would have been just as well, not knowing the position of the Frankfurt, for the operator on the Titanic to have said, "We are sinking"? It would not have taken any more words to say that than it did to say, "You are a fool."
MR. COTTAM: C.Q.D. is sent out with the position. When a man sends his position and C.Q.D. the first thing to do is to turn right around and steer for that position. The position of the Frankfurt to the Titanic did not matter at all.
SENATOR SMITH: I know, but I would like to impress you with the seriousness of becoming flippant or discourteous in such an emergency as that. I am a little sorry to hear you say you would have made the same answer.
MR. COTTAM: Certainly I should under the same circumstances, because we were trying to get the Olympic, and we were trying to work the Olympic at that time. The Olympic was sending a message when he came in with "What is the matter?"
SENATOR SMITH: You know that is a pretty big responsibility for you to exercise, not knowing the ship's position. As a matter of fact, suppose it should turn out that the Frankfurt was nearer than the Carpathia to the Titanic, and that that answer of the wireless operator prevented the Frankfurt or discouraged the Frankfurt from coming to the Titanic when that ship might have arrived an hour or longer before the Carpathia?
MR. COTTAM: I do not think she was nearer. I do not think she was nearer than the Carpathia.
SENATOR SMITH: You do not know anything about that?
MR. COTTAM: Only by the strength of the signals; that is all.
SENATOR SMITH: That is all you know about it?
MR. COTTAM: That is all, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: My information does not agree with yours. The Carpathia had but one operator on this journey?
MR. COTTAM: That is all.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: While this conversation was going on between the Titanic and the Olympic and the Carpathia and the Frankfurt, could the Frankfurt have heard all these messages?
MR. COTTAM: Certainly.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: It could?
MR. COTTAM: Yes. If she heard the first message from the ship, she ought to have heard all the communications from all the others. Apparently she was not on watch.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: So it was not necessary to apprise her of all the details?
MR. COTTAM: No, sir.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: She could get direct details just as the other vessels to whom they were specially directed would receive them?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir. I got the message, and she ought to have done so, as apparently she was closer. Apparently she was closer, and she ought to have had it if I got it.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: When the Frankfurt's operator broke in at that time with that inquiry that you have regarded as unnecessary, that breaking in was interfering with the messages that the Titanic was giving, was it not?
MR. COTTAM: Yes; and interfering
SENATOR NEWLANDS: (interposing). That made the operator impatient?
MR. COTTAM: Yes.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: Regarding this interference?
MR. COTTAM: That is so.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: You and Bride received these marconigrams regarding the press story within half an hour of your docking?
MR. COTTAM: I believe one or two of them were received after we had docked.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: After you had docked?
MR. COTTAM: Yes.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: Then all the survivors of the disaster were accessible to the newspaper men?
MR. COTTAM: Lots of them got ashore before I got ashore.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: You say you waited at the Strand Hotel?
MR. COTTAM: Yes.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: For about an hour and a half?
MR. COTTAM: Yes.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: Did you see the reporter of the Times there?
MR. COTTAM: That is where I met the reporter of the Times.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: You had to wait some time before you saw him?
MR. COTTAM: Yes.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: What was his name?
MR. COTTAM: I don't remember.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: You refused to communicate with him, then, until you got permission?
MR. COTTAM: Yes.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: During the time the survivors of the Titanic were on the Carpathia were your hands full of business?
MR. COTTAM: Yes.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: You had many messages to send, both on behalf of the ship and on behalf of the passengers on the ship, had you not?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: That prevented you from attending to a great many inquiries that were made?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir. We got inquiries on our side and could not attend to them.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: You could not attend to them?
MR. COTTAM: No, sir.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: Were you able to dispatch all the messages which you received on board the Carpathia from the survivors and others on the ship?
MR. COTTAM: The survivors' messages? They handed messages in to me, you mean?
SENATOR NEWLANDS: Yes.
MR. COTTAM: No; I did not get them all off.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: You were not able to get them all off?
MR. COTTAM: No, sir.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: You were busy, were you?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR NEWLANDS: Did you not have sufficient time, or was it because of lack of sufficient connections?
MR. COTTAM: No; I had not sufficient time; I could not do an impossibility. It was practically an impossibility to get them off.
SENATOR SMITH: Mr. Cottam, did you hear the testimony of Mr. Boxhall, of the Titanic, the officer who said he fired the rockets?
MR. COTTAM: No, sir; I did not.
SENATOR SMITH: The night of the collision?
MR. COTTAM: No, sir; I did not hear that.
SENATOR SMITH: And who said he tested out the Morse signals of distress and that he saw the lights of a boat ahead of him about 5 miles?
MR. COTTAM: I saw it in the paper, where a boat had been seen.
SENATOR SMITH: You did not hear him swear?
MR. COTTAM: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you hear Mr. Lightoller, the second officer of the Titanic, say that he saw lights?
MR. COTTAM: No, sir; I was only in here yesterday for about 5 or 10 minutes.
SENATOR SMITH: Suppose a boat in the vicinity of the Titanic, or any other boat on which you were an operator replied to the C.Q.D. call after a lapse of 20 minutes and said, "What is the matter?" Do you wish us to understand that your reply would be to that kind of an inquiry, "You are a fool"?
MR. COTTAM: I should, under the circumstances, or I should have ignored him altogether.
SENATOR SMITH: Suppose you ignored him altogether and did not answer his second inquiry as to what was the matter? Let me just call your attention to the situation: Suppose this boat that Boxhall and Lightoller and others seem to have seen ahead of the Titanic had replied after a C.Q.D. had been received, "What is the matter?" and that you had ignored them altogether?
MR. COTTAM: I should not give up a certainty for an uncertainty when I was working the certainty.
SENATOR SMITH: Hold on until I get through. Suppose you had ignored them altogether and told the operator he was a fool, and suppose it had turned out that the ship you were talking with could have reached the side of the Titanic and saved those 1,400 lives; do you not think your curt dismissal of the second inquiry would be a pretty big responsibility for you to assume?
MR. COTTAM: Perhaps it would; but if a man was making a nuisance of himself if he had been a nuisance in the case, as you say, and he could not have got that C.Q.D. from the Titanic with the insulation he had, the best insulation in a merchant ship, he did not deserve to go to sea as an operator.
SENATOR SMITH: All right. Let us go a little further than that. Suppose this ship that was just ahead of the Titanic, the Mount Temple, and was in sight of its officers from its deck, was itself stuck in a field of ice and could not at that moment move, would that change your view of your duty?
MR. COTTAM: You mean in sight of the Titanic? I do not understand it. I do not understand the question.
The question was repeated by the stenographer as above recorded.
