SENATOR SMITH: Well, if the help which was called for, and was within easy reach of the ship that was sinking, was itself struggling with the ice and quite busy and could not respond to the C.Q.D. call as promptly as you might think it ought to do, do you no think it would be desirable to explain to them the circumstances under which the message for help was sent?
MR. COTTAM: The operator on the ship has no duties on the bridge to perform with regard to keeping a lookout or anything like that. His duty in a case of that description is to keep a constant watch
SENATOR SMITH: Wait a minute now. Suppose that this ship was stuck in the ice herself and he was taking business for his captain.
MR. COTTAM: I know he was not, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: How do you know he was not?
MR. COTTAM: Because, as I say, when the communication with the Titanic was going on there was not a sound otherwise.
SENATOR SMITH: But you were passing from your room to the deck, delivering these messages, along about half past 10 Sunday night?
MR. COTTAM: About 5 minutes
SENATOR SMITH: Suppose that during the time you were temporarily absent from your apparatus a call had gone out from the Mount Temple that they were in the ice, and having a little difficulty, you would have missed it?
MR. COTTAM: If I had not been in the room, certainly I would have missed it.
SENATOR SMITH: And therefore you would not know all that was taking place; and when you came back you might get the second message instead of the first one. And, as a matter of fact, the only one you did get was a goodnight message from the Mount Temple.
MR. COTTAM: That is right, sir. That was at 10:40 o'clock.
SENATOR SMITH: I want to get into your mind the fact that there are people who were on the Mount Temple who say they saw lights of the Titanic when it went down, and there are people who were on the Titanic who say they saw the lights of a boat ahead when the Titanic was sinking, and in that situation it is no time to be flippant or discourteous, in such a responsible position as you held.
MR. COTTAM: I was not flippant. Nobody was flippant with the Mount Temple. The Mount Temple was off watch.
SENATOR SMITH: I understand that; you were not discourteous to the Mount Temple. But you say you would have made the same answer to the Mount Temple that was made to the Frankfurt if the Mount Temple had asked the question the Frankfurt asked.
I do not think I will pursue this any further. The only purpose I have is to call the attention of the wireless people to the necessity for some regulation which will insist that even a second call is entitled to respectful reply.
I think that is all for the present. You may step aside; but hold yourself subject to the committee's call. We will take a recess until 3:30 o'clock.
Thereupon, at 2:10 o'clock p.m., the committee took a recess until 3:30 o'clock p.m.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to the taking of the adjournment, at 3:30 o'clock p.m., Senator William Alden Smith (chairman) presiding.
AFTERNOON SESSION
ADDITIONAL TESTIMONY OF GUGLIELMO MARCONI
SENATOR SMITH: Mr. Marconi, I would like to ask you one question. In my examination this morning I failed to ask you specifically whether between the date of the collision, Sunday evening, April 14, and the present time, any officer, director, or employee of the White Star Line, or of the International Mercantile Marine Co., had requested you or anyone associated with you, to your knowledge, to delay any message, or send any silence message, or message enjoining silence on the part of the Titanic's operator, Bride, or the Carpathia's operator, Cottam, with reference to the time and manner in which and to which the Titanic accident was in any way related?
MR. MARCONI: No; I am absolutely certain that I have received no such request.
SENATOR SMITH: Or any officer or any employee of your company, with your knowledge?
MR. MARCONI: Yes. You may add those as part of my answer.
SENATOR SMITH: And this answer refers to your operators, and the managers of your company, or the officers of your company, in any part of the world?
MR. MARCONI: Yes; of course, in so far as I know.
SENATOR SMITH: Exactly. The silence signal which I refer to is one recognized in wireless telegraphy, is it not?
MR. MARCONI: No.
SENATOR SMITH: Then I will add the words "any injunction of secrecy"?
MR. MARCONI: Yes; I understand. No; no request whatever has been received and no instructions were given, to limit or control or suppress or stop any message which the operator or the operators may have thought fit to send to anyone.
SENATOR SMITH: Did this include any special directions regarding the transmission of messages?
MR. MARCONI: No instructions whatever were given so far as I know. Instructions were given in every way or manner which it was thought would expedite or facilitate communication.
SENATOR SMITH: That is all. I would like ask the sergeant at arms if the witness Luis Klein, who was subpoenaed and brought here by the marshal's office of Cleveland is here; and tell him, if he is here, we are ready to use him.
MR. CORNELIUS: He is not here, Senator.
SENATOR SMITH: Where is he?
MR. CORNELIUS: He left his hotel yesterday morning. We do not know where he is. We have been unable to locate him.
SENATOR SMITH: Have you made every endeavor to locate him?
MR. CORNELIUS: Through our officers here; yes, sir through the marshal's office here.
SENATOR SMITH: Through the marshal's office of the District of Columbia?
MR. CORNELIUS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: But you have not been able to do so?
MR. CORNELIUS: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Are you continuing your efforts?
MR. CORNELIUS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You may continue your efforts to find him, and if you can find him, it is the wish of the committee that you should do so.
I desire to say that some rumors have reached the committee that there is friction and lack of harmony among the members of the subcommittee, and I have the concurrence of all my associates in saying that that statement is absolutely untrue. No foundation whatever exists for it. Personally, I have never heard of the slightest friction. We are all proceeding together in our own way to get at the results for which we have been convened, and while the absence of some of my colleagues from some of the hearings might have been noticed, I want the record to show that they have been performing a public duty in the Committee on Commerce, which is now finally acting upon a very important bill over which that committee has jurisdiction, and their absence must not be noted as due to the slightest indisposition upon their part to take active and constant part in these proceedings.
I desire to say, further, that after full conference we have determined to hear the members of the crew of the Titanic who have been summoned, aside from the officers who have already been sworn, and that it has been thought necessary, because of the large number of these men, to proceed with the hearing this afternoon without the attendance of the public, each member of the subcommittee examining his proportion or quota of these men. That does not mean that the men will not be examined here. It means only that we must simplify that branch of the work, and my associates feel that it can be done more expeditiously and with equal certainty if this course is taken, and with that announcement the subcommittee will take a recess until tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock.
Thereupon, at 4:15 o'clock p.m., the subcommittee adjourned until tomorrow, Friday, April 26, 1912 at 10 o'clock a.m.
