MR. EVANS: I should say about the height of that, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: And there were quite a number of them?
MR. EVANS: Yes; quite a number of icebergs.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you see any growlers?
MR. EVANS: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you see any field ice?
MR. EVANS: I saw the field ice after we got on the Carpathia.
SENATOR SMITH: A great deal of it?
MR. EVANS: Yes, sir; at a rough estimate there was about a 21­mile floe, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: A 21­mile floe?
MR. EVANS: Yes; floating ice; flat like the floor.
SENATOR SMITH: What did you do after you got aboard the Carpathia? Did you get all these people aboard?
MR. EVANS: Yes; we got all these people aboard.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you get all the dead people aboard?
MR. EVANS: Yes; we got all the passengers aboard as soon as we could.
SENATOR SMITH: Then what did you do?
MR. EVANS: I made fast the boat. I picked up a big satchel that was in the bottom of the boat, and I threw it up to the master­at­arms of the Carpathia, and then we went on the boat deck of the Carpathia and got orders to hoist our boat.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you see the captain that night?
MR. EVANS: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: Where?
MR. EVANS: He came to the starboard action boat that I was lowering, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: What did he say, if anything?
MR. EVANS: He passed some remark to a tall military gentleman there with white spats on, but what it was I could not say, as I was attending to the fall; it was a tall military­looking gentleman who was giving the orders as to lowering away forward or aft or both together. As soon as we lowered the starboard action boat to the next deck the gripes of the boat caught and we had to cut them with an axe.
SENATOR SMITH: What happened to that?
MR. EVANS: We had to cut it away.
SENATOR SMITH: Did it get caught in the gear?
MR. EVANS: Yes; the gripes we use in the lowering of the boat; it caught up underneath, or else it had been untied. I could not look at it, because it was holding it in.
SENATOR SMITH: It was chopped away with an axe?
MR. EVANS: Chopped away with an axe, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Then what happened to it?
MR. EVANS: It was lowered right down to the water.
SENATOR SMITH: It was lowered, then, to the water's edge?
MR. EVANS: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: Was it filled with people?
MR. EVANS: It was not on the boat deck, not when I first lowered it. Whether any passengers dropped in underneath I could not say.
SENATOR SMITH: You mean that this No. 1 boat that was caught was not filled at the boat deck?
MR. EVANS: Some ladies were passed into it on the boat deck, but very few.
SENATOR SMITH: How many?
MR. EVANS: I could not say.
SENATOR SMITH: About how many?
MR. EVANS: I should say five or six.
SENATOR SMITH: And then it was lowered?
MR. EVANS: Then it was lowered to the next deck.
SENATOR SMITH: To A deck?
MR. EVANS: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: And at A deck what happened?
MR. EVANS: I could not tell you, because I could not see.
SENATOR SMITH: Whether anybody got in there or not you do not know?
MR. EVANS: I could not say.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you see it in the water?
MR. EVANS: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you ever see it after that time?
MR. EVANS: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you see any men in it at all?
MR. EVANS: I saw the able seamen, Symons; I think his name is Symons. Yes, it is Symons.
SENATOR SMITH: The lookout?
MR. EVANS: Yes; the lookout man.
SENATOR SMITH: You saw him in it?
MR. EVANS: I saw him in the boat. There were some more men. There were five in it, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: How many men?
MR. EVANS: Three, I think, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Was that all there were in it?
MR. EVANS: That is all I could see, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did Symons survive?
MR. EVANS: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: Is he here?
MR. EVANS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: This No. 1 boat was the emergency boat?
MR. EVANS: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: On which side?
MR. EVANS: On the starboard side. There is one on each side.
SENATOR SMITH: This was on the starboard side?
MR. EVANS: On the starboard side; yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: It always hangs ready for any emergency? It always hangs ready in the davits, swung out?
MR. EVANS: It is already swung out.
SENATOR SMITH: All ready for lowering?
MR. EVANS: All you have to do is to take hold of the grips and lower away the boat.
SENATOR SMITH: When you saw it last it only had eight or nine people in it?
MR. EVANS: It only had eight or nine people in it.
SENATOR SMITH: How many would it hold?
MR. EVANS: I should think, on an average, of near about 35, sir; 35 or 40.
SENATOR SMITH: No. 12, your boat, and No. 10 and No. 14, in which you escaped, were all large boats?
MR. EVANS: The largest­sized boats.
SENATOR SMITH: The largest­sized lifeboats?
MR. EVANS: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: How many will a lifeboat of that kind hold, safely?
MR. EVANS: A large one, sir?
SENATOR SMITH: Yes.
MR. EVANS: It will probably hold 60, I should say, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Would it be perfectly safe to lower a large boat like that, with new tackle and davits, and everything in good condition with 60 people in it?
MR. EVANS: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: How many would it hold on the water if the water was smooth.
MR. EVANS: You could not get more than 60 into the boat. My boat, No. 10, was literally packed, without any room to move, at all. We could not get to this tripper at the time, with 60 persons in it, or anywhere near it.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you wish to be understood as saying that a large lifeboat like No. 14 or No. 12 or No. 10 could be filled to its full capacity and lowered to the water with safety?
MR. EVANS: Yes; because we did it then, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: That is a pretty good answer.
MR. EVANS: It was my first experience in seeing a boat loaded like that, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Was it your first experience with a wreck?
MR. EVANS: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: I think that is all.
At 11:45 o'clock p.m. the taking of testimony before Senator Smith was adjourned.
