MR. FRANKLIN: They said that, as far as they could find out, they had the same information in Montreal. Whether our representative was able to get anything absolutely authentic up there, any more than we had, I am not prepared to state; but he confirmed my fear ­ that is all there was to it ­ that the rumor was true. I read into the record the other day that Associated Press report that I had on my desk soon after I got into my office.
SENATOR SMITH: Monday morning?
MR. FRANKLIN: Yes. I read that into the record, and I must have handed the copy to the clerk in charge.
SENATOR SMITH: While the chairman is looking through his papers, let me ask you where the Virginian was then, if you can state?
MR. FRANKLIN: My recollection is that the Virginian reported that she was 170 miles from the scene of the disaster.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Did you make an effort to have the Virginian follow up the information she had and go to the relief of the Titanic?
MR. FRANKLIN: Our information at that time was that the Virginian was proceeding as rapidly as possible to the Titanic.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Did you urge the owners of the Virginian to have her do that?
MR. FRANKLIN: Our report was that she was proceeding. We did not urge owners of the Virginian, but we urged our people in Halifax to do their utmost to get in touch with the Parisian, which we also heard was near the scene of the disaster, and also to keep us advised of any information they had.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Who are your people in Halifax?
MR. FRANKLIN: A. E. Jones & Co. of Halifax.
SENATOR FLETCHER: How did you communicate with them?
MR. FRANKLIN: By telegram entirely.
SENATOR FLETCHER: You urged them to have the Parisian to keep­­
MR. FRANKLIN: To keep in touch with the Parisian, to see if she had some information about the matter.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Did you get any information from Jones & Co.?
MR. FRANKLIN: Nothing that was worth having.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Was there any way you could?
MR. FRANKLIN: Here are our telegrams with Jones & Co. [indicating]. There may be a copy of it. Here is one:
7 a.m. Keep us fully advised any information you get of Titanic. Doing our utmost to get information.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Those are the 15th?
MR. FRANKLIN: The morning of the 15th of April.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Was there any way you could have reached the Virginian through any wireless station that you could command?
MR. FRANKLIN: No, sir; because she was proceeding as rapidly as she could to the Titanic.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Do you know if the Virginian was in communication with the Carpathia?
MR. FRANKLIN: My recollection is that she was, but I could not testify to that. She had the information. She was one of the first ships that had the information.
SENATOR FLETCHER: But the Carpathia was nearer the Titanic than the Virginian?
MR. FRANKLIN: Oh, yes, the Carpathia's captain testified he was about 50 miles, it is my recollection from the Titanic, and my understanding is that the Virginian was 170 miles from the Titanic. We asked Halifax at 7:45 in the morning:
Is there any Government boat or large seagoing tug available to proceed to the Titanic if desire? Answer quickly.
We understood the others were going.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Do you know the distance from Halifax to where the Titanic sank?
MR. FRANKLIN: Six hundred miles.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you or the officers of your company have any responsibility for the employment or direction of the wireless operators on your boats or on your ships?
MR. FRANKLIN: I could not reply to that except in a general way; that is, to the effect that I do not think they have. But if anything or anybody was objectionable, I presume he would be removed.
SENATOR SMITH: Exactly. Do you think that it is prudent or desirable to have wireless operators, upon whom rests so much responsibility in a crisis, unofficial in their relationship to your companies?
MR. FRANKLIN: They are not unofficial, Senator, in a certain way; that is, as regards any messages that have to be sent or received in connection with the navigation of the steamer, they are absolutely under the direction of the captain.
SENATOR SMITH: But you have heard the testimony yesterday as to enjoining silence, and you heard the custom revealed permitting the wireless operators, Binns, Cottam, and Bride, to receive pecuniary reward for information in their possession and I would like to know if you approve that course?
MR. FRANKLIN: I think that is rather an unfortunate course, and I think that it might possibly be an incentive for these young men to try to withhold information until they arrive with the steamer. Therefore it is an unfortunate course; but it is only human nature.
SENATOR SMITH: What kind of human nature is that?
MR. FRANKLIN: That these boys, when they get ashore, will, if they sit down and give a reporter a story, expect some compensation for it. If that could be eliminated, it would be a very desirable thing to do.
SENATOR SMITH: Suppose your company when it installs wireless apparatus on your ships does so with the distinct understanding that you are to supply operators, making proper tests as to their efficiency and proper inquiries as to their character and obtaining proper knowledge as to their fitness for the employment ­ do you not think that quite desirable?
MR. FRANKLIN: That is a matter we would have to give careful consideration to before expressing a definite opinion about, whether that would be more desirable than the present plan, because these are commercial problems; these wireless equipments are in communication with the shore and they are for the use of the public; they are not for our use exclusively. If they were for our use exclusively, a part of the ship's equipment for the ship's messages only, and for communication in case of danger or anything of that sort, then we could employ the people and regulate them absolutely.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you not think it is of doubtful wisdom to have any man aboard one of your ships which navigate the waters of the world, practically charged with large responsibility, who is not under your immediate control and direction?
MR. FRANKLIN: He is under the direction and control of the captain, so far as the ship's business is concerned; but he is not, so far as messages that he might receive or send are concerned, because he could send them or receive them without anybody else knowing anything about them. But even if we had a man appointed there, one of our own men, he might do the same thing.
SENATOR SMITH: He might, but if he did, you could remove him?
MR. FRANKLIN: Yes; so could Marconi.
SENATOR SMITH: But you could not?
MR. FRANKLIN: I think if our commander suspected anything of that kind, and had fairly good reason for doing so, and made proper representations to the Marconi Co., he would be discharged.
SENATOR SMITH: Exactly; but your commander is gone, in this instance.
MR. FRANKLIN: But you are talking about a general proposition.
SENATOR SMITH: I want to ask you, now, one further question on that line, whether you think it is wise to have an employee on one of your ships, in an important position, subject to the direction and control of strangers to your management and business?
MR. FRANKLIN: If you had asked me that question before this disaster, it would have made no impression on me; but after having heard of this telegram that went out to this operator, it does then seem as if the operator should have instructions of exactly the same nature as the captain of the steamer has. In other words, when the captain leaves the port, leaves his dock, he is the master in charge, and everything is up to him. If this Marconi operator, whether he is under the control of the Marconi man, or under our control, had similar instructions under the captain, it might improve matters; it might avoid a similar occurrence, if there was anything there. I do not know.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you in any manner, or does the captain of the ship under your direction, fix rules and regulations for the conduct of wireless operators aboard your ships? I will be a little more definite; I mean as to the hours he shall be on duty, as to the number of times he shall visit the apparatus, as to his right to leave the operating room, and as to the person to whom he must report before absenting his post?
MR. FRANKLIN: I do not think those are fixed by the management of the ship, but the management of the ship understands about what he has to do.
SENATOR SMITH: In this instance, you recall that the operator, Cottam, on the Carpathia, said that he had no fixed hours, that he reported to no one, and was practically in the unrestricted management of that wireless station on the Carpathia?
MR. FRANKLIN: He might have been, true, in a certain sense; but if the captain of the steamer found the boy was not doing his duty ­ the operator ­ he would very promptly take him to task.
SENATOR SMITH: I understand that; but this wireless operator, Cottam, told the committee in your hearing that he received a message which he did not even report to the captain of the Carpathia, because he did not deem it important; the wireless operator on the Titanic refused, with the telephone on his ears, to accept the warning of the steamship Californian for 30 minutes after communication was attempted, because he was making up his accounts. The only reason for receiving the C.Q.D. call of distress from the Titanic when she struck that iceberg was because this wireless operator happened to have on his head the telephone which would register the call while he was undressing to get in bed; and in five minutes he would have had that off his head and been in bed, in which event the Carpathia would have been in utter ignorance of this call of the Titanic until the operator resumed his position in the operating room. Now, I ask you whether you consider it important that operators should be employed directly by the owners of these ships, and regulations in great detail made for their conduct, in order to insure the safety of your passengers and the safety of your ships?
MR. FRANKLIN: In reply to that, I think that you will find that these operators have certain regulations.
SENATOR SMITH: I understand what they are. You heard him say what they were, that they were the regulations of the Berlin Convention, with which he was familiar?
MR. FRANKLIN: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: Now, do you understand that they have any regulations outside of those?
MR. FRANKLIN: My understanding was that the operators were supposed to stand by their instruments for certain times, where there was only one operator; but this young man the other day testified that he was largely guided by the amount of business­­
SENATOR SMITH: And by his own judgment.
MR. FRANKLIN: Yes; and the amount of business. Now, there is no doubt that the complete investigation of this whole thing will evolve some scheme, whether it is best for the operator to be under the jurisdiction of the Marconi Co. as to his hours, or whether he should be absolutely under the jurisdiction of the steamer; that is, as to his hours, because that is a different thing, the matter of hours, from the matter of conforming with the ship's rules. That will no doubt be a matter of careful consideration, and the best course to be pursued will, after consideration, no doubt be brought out. The steamship companies want to get as much protection from the Marconi instruments for their travelers and patrons as they can possibly get. We can see what is the best method of handling that matter only after everything is investigated.
SENATOR SMITH: From the testimony of Cottam, the Carpathia operator, we learned that he had no hours that were particularly prescribed.
MR. FRANKLIN: Correct.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you not think it would be quire desirable to have a regulation that the operator should be in his operating room from 6 o'clock at night until daylight the next morning, or 6 o'clock the next morning, during the hours when people are asleep, when the vision is obscured, and when most of these calamities on the sea occurred, rather than be on duty during the daytime, when all eyes of the ship's officers and passengers and crew are helpful and difficulties more easily avoided?
MR. FRANKLIN: Yes. Of course, the question ­ I do not know whether I can make it clear to you, but this is the point that the Marconi instrument does not avoid difficulties; it only assists­­
SENATOR SMITH: I understand that. I do not want you to infer that I think it is perfect.
MR. FRANKLIN: I think I can answer your question in this way. It is a question of long distance. It is not a question of daytime or darkness. Now, no doubt this investigation will bring forth facts. The present law of the United States is that a steamer carrying passengers, when the number of passengers plus the number of the crew exceeds 50, must have a Marconi instrument and operator. You may find upon going into this matter further that it would be well for the United States to pass some law or legislation or regulation to the effect that all steamers carrying passengers must have an operator at the switchboard all the time. I do not think it is a question of night and day.
SENATOR SMITH: That is what I am aiming at­­
MR. FRANKLIN: I do not think it is, night or day.
SENATOR SMITH: You say that the Marconi apparatus is not perfect.
MR. FRANKLIN: No; I did not say that.
SENATOR SMITH: What did you say?
MR. FRANKLIN: I said the Marconi apparatus is not an aid to navigation in the way of picking up or locating anything, and therefore it is not a question of night or day.
SENATOR SMITH: But it managed to record a call which was responded to promptly; and as a result of that wireless message which was accidentally received the lives of about 700 people were saved.
MR. FRANKLIN: Further than that, it has saved a great many lives during the time it has been on shipboard, and it is a very valuable assistance in the case of disaster.
SENATOR SMITH: Now I am coming right to a point which I had in mind when I started. Suppose the surviving operator of the Titanic had been under the control of your company, and instead of failing to reply to the call of the Californian for 30 minutes, because he wanted to make out his accounts, he had been required to immediately respond to a call from whatsoever source, and by responding immediately that night the information received from the Californian might have avoided this accident entirely, do you not think that that shows the wisdom of your company controlling these men and having a little more inducement held out for competent and discreet men in these important positions?
