MR. CLENCH: No; No. 4 was my boat. We were sent there to uncover the boat, and an officer came along and drafted me on the other side, the port side. I went to No. 16 on the port side ­ the after boat, and started getting out the boat falls to let them down; I got out the two falls and coiled them down on the deck. When I was putting the plug in the boat in readiness to be lowered they were swinging the boat out.
SENATOR BOURNE: Were you in the boat at the time it was swinging out?
MR. CLENCH: I was in the boat at the time she was swinging out.
SENATOR BOURNE: Fixing the plug?
MR. CLENCH: Fixing the plug.
SENATOR BOURNE: You were the only man in the boat at that time?
MR. CLENCH: I was the only man in the boat at that time. I jumped out of that boat and got her all ready for lowering, and helped to get the other falls out of the other boats. No. 14 boat we went to next.
SENATOR BOURNE: No. 14 being next to No. 16. The even numbers were on one side and the odd numbers on the other?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; the even numbers on the port side and the odd numbers on the starboard. I got the three boats out, and we lowered them down level with the boat deck. Then I assisted Mr. Lightoller­­
SENATOR BOURNE: The second officer?
MR. CLENCH: The second officer. Him and me stood on the gunwale of the boat helping load the women and children in. The chief officer was passing them along to us, and we filled the three boats like that.
SENATOR BOURNE: You filled No. 16 first?
MR. CLENCH: No; filled 12 first. After we got them already lowered down to the deck, then we went to No. 14 to lower­­
SENATOR BOURNE: How many did you put in No. 12? Have you any idea?
MR. CLENCH: I could not tell you exactly, but I should say 40 to 50 people.
SENATOR BOURNE: And what is the capacity, ordinarily, as you figure; 65?
MR. CLENCH: I think the number is about 65, but, of course, I suppose they were thinking of lowering them down and the falls would not be safe enough; but any rate, we had to go to No. 14 and do the same there. Me and Mr. Lightoller and the chief officer passed them in as we stood on the gunwale; in all three of the boats, that was. After we finished No. 16 boat, I goes out and looks at the falls again to see that they are already for going down clear. When I got back to no. 12 again, the chief officer happened to come along, and he said, "How many men have you in this boat?" There was one man in the boat, one sailor, and I said, "Only one, sir." He looked up, and me being the only sailor there, he said, "Jump into that boat," he said, "and make the complement" ­ that was two seamen.
SENATOR BOURNE: That was in No.14?
MR. CLENCH: That was in No. 12, sir. That was the boat I went away in. I goes into the boat, and then, of course, we had to wait for orders to lower away. We started lowering away and get down to the water. I goes and gets the tumbler and drops clear into the water, and drops clear of the blocks.
SENATOR BOURNE: The tumbler being the loosener from the fall?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; pulls the hook back so we dropped clear of the falls. Then we had orders to pull away from the ship.
SENATOR BOURNE: Who gave you the orders?
MR. CLENCH: They were shouted from the deck.
SENATOR BOURNE: By what officer? Do you know?
MR. CLENCH: I could not say what officer, now. He was too high up, and it was so dark I could not see.
SENATOR BOURNE: Who was in charge of the boat you went in to make up the complement?
MR. CLENCH: A seaman.
SENATOR BOURNE: He was in charge?
MR. CLENCH: He was in charge.
SENATOR BOURNE: Was it only a petty officer?
MR. CLENCH: No, sir; an able seaman. We had instructions when we went down that we were to keep our eye on No. 14 boat, where Mr. Lowe, the fifth officer, was, and keep all together as much as we could, so that we would not get drifted away from one another.
SENATOR BOURNE: So as to give relief immediately, if needed?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir. We got the boat out, I suppose, a quarter of a mile away from the ship; then we laid on our oars and stood by, and all stopped together.
SENATOR BOURNE: How many passengers were in No. 14, would you say, Mr. Clench?
MR. CLENCH: I think about 50, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: And only two seamen?
MR. CLENCH: Two seamen; that is all, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: Who did the rowing?
MR. CLENCH: Both seamen had to row out as far as they could, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: Did any passengers row?
MR. CLENCH: I could not say about No. 14 boat, sir; we had gone ahead of them.
SENATOR BOURNE: The boat that you were in ­ what number was that?
MR. CLENCH: No. 12, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: How many passengers were in it?
MR. CLENCH: Between 14 and 15, in ours.
SENATOR BOURNE: And only two seamen in it?
MR. CLENCH: Two seamen.
SENATOR BOURNE: No other members of the crew?
MR. CLENCH: No members of the crew. There was only one male passenger in our boat, and that was a Frenchman who jumped in, and we could not find him, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: Where was he?
MR. CLENCH: Under the thwart, mixed with the women. In fact, of course, we could not look for him just as we dropped into the water.
SENATOR BOURNE: He got into the boat before you lowered her?
MR. CLENCH: Before we lowered her.
SENATOR BOURNE: Without your knowledge?
MR. CLENCH: Without our knowing it.
SENATOR BOURNE: How do you think he was able to do that?
MR. CLENCH: I could not say, that, sir. We were, of course, attending to the falls and looking out to see that they went down clear.
SENATOR BOURNE: All of the rest of your passengers were women and children?
MR. CLENCH: Women and children.
SENATOR BOURNE: You rowed away from the ship about a quarter of a mile?
MR. CLENCH: About a quarter of a mile.
SENATOR BOURNE: Then you rested on your oars?
MR. CLENCH: Then we rested on our oars.
SENATOR BOURNE: According to orders?
MR. CLENCH: According to orders.
SENATOR BOURNE: What happened then? How long did you rest and what did you do after you resumed rowing?
MR. CLENCH: We was rowing up there, and up come the officer, after the ship was gone down, come up with us with his boat, and transferred some of his people he had in his boat into two boats of ours; I could not say the number of the other boats, but he transferred his people into ours so that he would have a clear boat to go around to look for people who were floating in the water.
SENATOR BOURNE: Could you, from your boat, see anybody floating or swimming around in the water?
MR. CLENCH: Never seen anyone, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: Did you see the ship sink?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: About a quarter of a mile away?
MR. CLENCH: About a quarter of a mile away.
SENATOR BOURNE: Did she sink bow down?
MR. CLENCH: Bow down; yes, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: Did she break in two?
MR. CLENCH: That I could not say.
SENATOR BOURNE: Did you hear any explosions?
MR. CLENCH: I heard two explosions, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: Immediately preceding the sinking of the ship?
MR. CLENCH: Yes. Well, before the ship had sunk there was one explosion.
SENATOR BOURNE: How long before the ship sank?
MR. CLENCH: I should say a matter of 10 minutes before she went under.
SENATOR BOURNE: There was?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: What did you think that was, one of the boilers bursting?
MR. CLENCH: I figured that the water got up around one of the boilers, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: Then in about 10 minutes there was another explosion.
MR. CLENCH: There was another explosion, but I could not say how long from one to the other.
SENATOR BOURNE: After the second explosion, you having only heard two­­
MR. CLENCH: Only two, I heard.
SENATOR BOURNE: (continuing). Then did the ship disappear?
MR. CLENCH: The lights went out after the second explosion. Then she gradually sank down into the water very slowly.
SENATOR BOURNE: How long as time would you say it was after the second explosion before she sank out of sight?
MR. CLENCH: I should say about a matter of about 20 minutes.
SENATOR BOURNE: In the sinking of the ship did she apparently go bow down and did the stern go away up in the air?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; the stern was well up in the air when the bow was underneath.
SENATOR BOURNE: Much higher than she was when she filled?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; so much higher than you could see the keel.
SENATOR BOURNE: Was the distance too great for you to see whether there were any passengers on the stern?
MR. CLENCH: You could not discern any small objects. The lights were all out.
SENATOR BOURNE: Did you hear any cries of people in the water?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; there were awful cries, and yelling and shouting, and that. Of course I told the women in the boats to keep quiet, and consoled them a bit. I told them it was men in the boats shouting out to the others, to keep them from getting away from one another.
SENATOR BOURNE: You did not look around you?
MR. CLENCH: I saw no one in the water whatsoever, whether alive or dead.
SENATOR BOURNE: You did not see any wreckage around you?
MR. CLENCH: No, sir; we never seen no wreckage around us.
SENATOR BOURNE: How long did you remain about a quarter of a mile from the ship after you reached that point? Did you remain there any length of time, or did you keep on rowing away?
MR. CLENCH: No, sir; we remained there, I should say, up until about 4 o'clock.
SENATOR BOURNE: A matter of an hour and a half?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; it was just after we got the women from Mr. Lowe's boat, and he said he was going around the wreckage to see if he could find anybody.
SENATOR BOURNE: How many did you have in your boat after you had taken part of the load from Mr. Lowe's boat?
MR. CLENCH: I should say we had close onto 60, then.
SENATOR BOURNE: Full up?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; we were pretty well full up then.
SENATOR BOURNE: What direction did Mr. Lowe give you?
MR. CLENCH: He told us to lie on our oars and keep together until he came back to us.
SENATOR BOURNE: He, in the meantime, having gone to see if he could rescue anybody where the ship had sunk?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; and while Mr. Lowe was gone I heard shouts. Of course I looked around, and I saw a boat in the way that appeared to be like a funnel. We started to back away then. We thought it was the top of the funnel. I put my head over the gunwale and looked along the water's edge and saw some men on a raft. Then I heard two whistles blown. I sang out "Aye, aye; I am coming over," and we pulled over and found it was a raft ­ not a raft exactly, but an overturned boat ­ and Mr. Lightoller was there on that boat, and I believe ­ I do not know whether I am right or not, but I think the wireless operator was on there, too. We took them on board the boat, and we shared the amount of the room that was there.
SENATOR BOURNE: How many where there on this boat was there?
MR. CLENCH: I should say about 20, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: So that you had about 60 at the time you rescued them, and you took on approximately 10 more?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; that made about 70 in my boat.
SENATOR BOURNE: The 60 were all women and children, except one man and your mate?
MR. CLENCH: Me and my mate ­ that is, when we came away from the boat; but when we got transferred we had some more put aboard from Mr. Lowe's boat. They were all men we picked up off the raft, or the overturned boat. It was a raft more than anything.
SENATOR BOURNE: Was it one of the collapsible boats that had overturned?
MR. CLENCH: Some term them "collapsible" boats, and some term them "surf" boats.
SENATOR BOURNE: But she was bottom up?
MR. CLENCH: Bottom up, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: They were all standing on the bottom?
MR. CLENCH: On the bottom of the boat, sir; and Mr. Lightoller, he came aboard of us. They were all wet through, apparently they had been in the water.
SENATOR BOURNE: Then what did you do?
MR. CLENCH: Mr. Lightoller took charge of us and sighted the Carpathia's lights. Then we started heading for that. We had to row a tidy distance to the Carpathia, because there was boats ahead of us, you see, and we had a boat in tow with us, besides all the people we had aboard.
SENATOR BOURNE: When did you sign for the ship?
MR. CLENCH: I signed on Monday, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: And sailed when?
MR. CLENCH: On Wednesday.
SENATOR BOURNE: Were you assigned to any lifeboat at the time or any boat?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; I was put on the boat list as on No. 4.
SENATOR BOURNE: You were assigned to that boat?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: As soon as you had signed your articles?
MR. CLENCH: Oh, no, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: When did you get notice you were assigned to No. 4?
MR. CLENCH: I suppose we had been out a couple of days before notice had been put up.
SENATOR BOURNE: They had no drills before leaving the dock?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; two boats were sent away.
SENATOR BOURNE: But your boat was not?
MR. CLENCH: No, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: It was not. There were only two boats drilled at the dock prior to sailing?
MR. CLENCH: That was all, sir, and they were manned by the seamen. They pulled around the dock and come back and got hoisted up again.
SENATOR BOURNE: Why did they not have a drill for all of the boats? Is not that customary?
MR. CLENCH: No, sir; there is only two goes out.
SENATOR BOURNE: Those are the emergency boats?
MR. CLENCH: No, sir; not emergency boatslifeboats.
SENATOR BOURNE: There were 14 of what are designated lifeboats on the Titanic?
MR. CLENCH: Fourteen lifeboats and two emergency boats.
SENATOR BOURNE: And four collapsible boats?
MR. CLENCH: Four collapsible boats.
SENATOR BOURNE: Making 20 altogether?
MR. CLENCH: Twenty altogether.
SENATOR BOURNE: Why should they pick out and have a drill with 2 of the 14 lifeboats and not drill with the other 12?
MR. CLENCH: Why, I could not say.
SENATOR BOURNE: In your experience at sea have you always been assigned to different boats, on different lines?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: As soon as you had signed your articles?
MR. CLENCH: As soon as you went aboard the ship there was the boat list stuck up in the forecastle for you.
SENATOR BOURNE: Was it customary then to have boat drills?
MR. CLENCH: Yes, sir; we had a board of trade muster then, on the other ships I have been on.
SENATOR BOURNE: But you did not have any on this boat, the Titanic?
MR. CLENCH: They just had a line up, sir; and that is all, and were told to go to the boats and get away.
SENATOR BOURNE: How long after you sailed did you know your boat?
MR. CLENCH: About two days after, sir.
SENATOR BOURNE: How did you get knowledge of your allotment or designation for No.4?
MR. CLENCH: Because it was posted up on the forecastle door.
SENATOR BOURNE: That was the first intimation you had?
MR. CLENCH: That was the first information I had.
SENATOR BOURNE: Did they have any boat drill at all during the voyage?
