MR. COTTAM: I have never taken the exact distance, but you can receive any distance, providing the transmitting station has power to transmit.
SENATOR BOURNE: It just depends on the purity of the wave, the length of the wave, and the power, does it?
MR. COTTAM: It depends altogether on the power.
SENATOR BOURNE: How many messages do you average on a ship on a voyage per day, in handling, official and private?
MR. COTTAM: On an average, sir, on an ordinary voyage?
SENATOR BOURNE: Yes; how many a day to do you average under ordinary circumstances?
MR. COTTAM: Sometimes, when there is no communication established, of course there are none.
SENATOR BOURNE: On days when you have communication, I mean. I presume that most of your business is just after leaving a port, and just before entering another port, is it not?
MR. COTTAM: Yes.
SENATOR BOURNE: What is the average business then?
MR. COTTAM: I do not know what the average was on the Carpathia. I only made the round trip on her.
SENATOR BOURNE: That is all the experience you have had?
MR. COTTAM: Oh, no, sir; I have had experience on other ships.
SENATOR BOURNE: While on other ships, what has been your experience?
MR. COTTAM: I can not say. Sometimes there would be very, very few, and other times there would be a lot, according to the passengers we had.
SENATOR BOURNE: How long have you been on shift, on duty, continuously.
MR. COTTAM: I do not know, sir. Twelve hours.
SENATOR BOURNE: Would an eight­hour continuous shift be a great strain? Would eight hours' duty be a great strain on you?
MR. COTTAM: It is not a great strain, but it is hard work. You have to do it on coast stations. When you are working on coast stations you have to do it.
SENATOR BOURNE: Would six hours on and six hours off be better or eight hours on and eight hours off? Which would you prefer, if you had the selection?
MR. COTTAM: I think I would sooner have eight hours on and eight off.
SENATOR BOURNE: You would rather have eight on and eight off?
MR. COTTAM: Yes; I think so.
SENATOR SMITH: That is all. I think that finishes with the member of the crew and the officers. Senator Burton wanted to ask Mr. Boxhall a few questions, but I do not know of any reason why we should hold the witnesses any longer. I think we will get through with Mr. Ismay to­morrow, and if it is not objected to by any members of the committee, I think you may arrange to let the members of the crew and the officers go, Mr. Cornelius. I would like from Mr. Lightoller, the ranking officer, the information that has been especially asked for ­ the name and home address of each of these men. If we should care to see them again, or ask some further questions, we might do so at some later time.
MR. KIRLIN: That does not mean you want Mr. Lightoller back to give that information?
SENATOR SMITH: I want to know that I am going to get it; that is all.
MR. KIRLIN: Then, we can arrange to let them all go?
SENATOR SMITH: So far as the committee know, there is no other course necessary. I did want Senator Burton to see Mr. Boxhall, because he asked especially to be permitted to ask him some questions, and I might suggest that if Mr. Boxhall would care to call upon Senator Burton this evening, he might be able to get through with him; or, he might appear tomorrow morning for a few moments.
MR. FRANKLIN: But the other members of the crew and the officers may return?
SENATOR SMITH: So far as I know; and we will try to finish with Mr. Ismay to­morrow morning. We will stand adjourned until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.
Thereupon, at 6:20 o'clock p.m., the committee adjourned until to­morrow, Tuesday, April 30, 1912, at 10 o'clock a.m.
The following is a copy of the notes of the wireless operator of the Mount Temple, introduced during testimony of Capt. James Henry Moore, on Saturday, April 27, 1912.
COPY OF PROCES­VERBAL BOOK, STEAMSHIP "MOUNT TEMPLE"
Time
P.M. Sunday evening, April 14, 1912
9:55 Sigs. with M.P.A. Nil.
10:25 Titanic sending C.Q.D. Answer him, but he replies: "Can not read you, old man, but here my position 41.46N, 50.14 W. Come at once. Have struck berg." Informed captain.
10:35 Carpathia answers M.G.Y. M.G.Y. says: "Struck iceberg; come to our assistance at once." Sends position.
10:40 M.G.Y. still calling C.Q.D. Our captain reverses ship and steams for M.G.Y. We are about 50 miles off.
10:48 Frankfurt answers M.G.Y. M.G.Y. gives him his position and asks: "Are you coming to our assistance?" D.F.T. asks: "What is the matter with you?" M.G.Y. replies: "We have struck iceberg and sinking; please tell captain to come." "O.K.; will tell the bridge right away." "O.K.; yes; quick."
10:55 M.G.Y. calling S.O.S.
10:57 M.G.Y. calling M.K.C.
10:59 M.G.Y. working M.P.A.
11:00 M.G.Y. calling M.G.N. and C.Q.D.
11:10 M.G.Y. calling C.Q.D.
11:20 M.G.Y. gets M.K.C. and says "Captain says 'Get your boats ready. Going down fast at the head'."
11:25 D.F.T. says "Our captain will go for you."
11:27 M.G.Y. calling C.Q.D. and M.B.C.
11:30 M.G.Y. calling C.Q.D.
11:35 M.K.C. sends M.S.G. to M.G.Y. M.G.Y. replies "We are putting the women off in the boats."
11:41 M.G.Y. says C.Q.D. engine room flooded.
11:43 M.G.Y. tells M.K.C. sea calm.
11:45 D.K.F. asks: "Are there any boats around you already?" No reply.
11:47 M.K.C. sends M.S.G. to M.G.Y. M.G.Y. acknowledges it and sends Rd.
11:55 D.F.T. and S.B.A. (Russian liner Birma) calling M.G.Y. No reply.
A.M. Monday, April 15, 1912
12:10 M.K.C., D.F.T., and M.B.C. calling M.G.Y. No reply.
12:25 S.B.A. tells D.F.T. he is 70 miles from M.G.Y.
12:50 All quiet now. M.G.Y. hasn't spoken since 11:47 p.m.
1:25 M.P.A. sends: "If you are there, we are firing rockets."
1:40 M.P.A. calling M.G.Y.
1:58 S.B.A. thinks he hears M.G.Y., so sends "Steaming full speed to you; shall arrive you 6 in the morning. Hope you are safe. We are only 50 miles now."
2:00 M.P.A. calls M.G.Y.
3:00 All quiet; we're stopped amongst pack ice.
3:05 S.B.A. and D.F.T. working
3:20 S.B.A. and D.F.T. working. We back out of ice and cruise around. Large bergs about.
3:25 M. W. L. calls C.Q. I answer him and advise him of M.G.Y. and send him M.G.Y.'s position.
3:40 M. W. L. working D.F.T.; D.F.T. sends him the same.
4:00 M. W. L. working MG.N.
4:25 M. W. L. working S.B.A.
5:20 Sigs. M. W. L.; wants my position; send it. We're very close.
6:00 Much jamming.
6:45 M.P.A. reports rescued 20 boatloads.
7:15 More jamming,
7:30 M.B.C. sends S.G. to M.W.L.: "Stand by immediately. You have been instructed to do so frequently. Balfour, inspector."
7:40 M.P.A. calls C.Q. and says: "No need to stand by him; nothing more can be done." Advise my captain, who has been cruising around the icefield with no result. Ship reversed Standing by rest of day. M.P.A. and M.K.C. very busy.
[Testimony taken separately before Senator Burton on Monday, April 29, 1912]
SENATOR BURTON: I understand you have testified before the full committee about the radiograms relating to ice?
MR. BOXHALL: Yes, sir. I have stated upstairs, or in Senator Smith's presence, this afternoon that I did not hear of any ice reports the day of the accident.
SENATOR BURTON: None were reported to you?
MR. BOXHALL: I did not hear any. There were none reported to me. I do not think any were reported during my watch on deck, or I should have heard it.
SENATOR BURTON: When was your watch on deck?
MR. BOXHALL: I was on deck on Sunday morning from 8 o'clock until noon, and I was on again from 4 until 6, and then I was on again from 8 until the time of the accident.
SENATOR BURTON: You made an entry on the chart as to ice of which you had received information did you not?
MR. BOXHALL: Yes.
SENATOR BURTON: When was that?
MR. BOXHALL: I can not get the day, but it was probably a couple of days before, when we had a radiogram from the captain of La Touraine, giving his position at 7 o'clock Greenwich time, and I worked our position at 7 o'clock Greenwich time, and wrote out the time for Capt. Smith.
SENATOR BURTON: You made an entry of that on the chart?
MR. BOXHALL: Yes; and showed the captain the position the captain of La Touraine had given us.
SENATOR BURTON: Do you recall what that position was?
MR. BOXHALL: No, sir; but I recall this much, as I remarked to Capt. Smith, that those positions were of no use to us, because they were absolutely north of our track. You will understand these French boats do not keep the recognized tracks we do. French boats are always to be found to the northward. Therefore I plotted all these positions out. He had given us the position of a derelict, or something, and when I plotted this derelict and these various icebergs he had seen I could almost form an opinion of this track he had taken, and I said, "They are out of our way."
SENATOR BURTON: About how far north of your track?
MR. BOXHALL: I could not say; but considerably north. He had gone right across the Banks.
SENATOR BURTON: Twenty or thirty miles?
MR. BOXHALL: I would not like to say any distance. He had gone across the Banks, and we did not get on the Banks, at all.
SENATOR BURTON: You did not check that up with any special care after you had put that location down, because you thought it out of your course?
MR. BOXHALL: It was put down just as carefully as I should have put it down if it had been on our course. I did not know exactly where she was until the I saw the actual position on the chart. The captain saw me, and he was there alongside of me when I was putting the positions down, or shortly after I put them down, anyhow. He read the telegram and looked at it, and those positions satisfied him.
SENATOR BURTON: Did you receive any messages that informed you of ice in your track?
MR. BOXHALL: Not to my knowledge.
SENATOR BURTON: Not when you were on watch?
MR. BOXHALL: No, sir; and I do not think there were any received at all of ice on our track, or the word would have been passed around right away; everybody would have known it. As soon as these messages are received, where there is ice, one of the junior officers of the watch plots the positions on the chart.
SENATOR BURTON: What is the custom as to making observations? Does the same person take the observations who also makes the computations as to where you are?
MR. BOXHALL: Sometimes. It just depends on the state of the weather, and it depends a lot on the captain. Some captains will not allow their senior officers to go inside of the chart room and work these observations out, leaving the junior officer on the bridge. Others do.
SENATOR BURTON: What was the case on the Titanic?
MR. BOXHALL: In this case I think it was optional; of course, with a fair amount of regard for the weather. Sometimes the officers went inside, and sometimes they did not.
SENATOR BURTON: The captain of the Mount Temple maintains that the course as conveyed by the distress signal was wrong; that the Titanic was actually eight miles distant from the place indicated. What do you say to that?
MR. BOXHALL: I do not know what to say. I know our position because I worked the position out, and I know that it is correct. One of the first things Capt. Rostron said after I met him was "What a splendid position that was you gave us."
SENATOR BURTON: You gave them what position?
MR. BOXHALL: 41-degrees 46-minutes and 50-degrees 14-minutes.
SENATOR BURTON: And you are satisfied that was correct.
MR. BOXHALL: Perfectly.
SENATOR BURTON: You computed it yourself, did you?
MR. BOXHALL: I computed it myself, and computed it by star observations that had been taken by Mr. Lightoller that same evening; and they were beautiful observations.
SENATOR BURTON: Who made the computations on them?
MR. BOXHALL: I did. You asked me if the officer who took the observations and the one who made the computations compared their results?
SENATOR BURTON: Yes.
MR. BOXHALL: I do not see what there is to compare. The officer who takes the observations always is the senior officer.
SENATOR BURTON: He writes those down, does he?
MR. BOXHALL: He simply takes the observations with his sextant. The junior officer takes the time with the chronometer, and then is told to work them out.
SENATOR BURTON: That is, another person works them out?
MR. BOXHALL: Yes. If he does not think these things are correct, he tells you to work them over, and you have to do it.
SENATOR BURTON: Would there not be some danger of your mistaking a figure, or something of that kind, that is written down by another person?
MR. BOXHALL: When you take stars you always endeavor, as they did that night, to take a set of stars. One position checks another. You take two stars for latitude and two for longitude, one star north and one star south, one star east and one star west. If you find a big difference between eastern and western stars, you know there is a mistake somewhere. If there is a difference between these two latitude stars you know there is a mistake somewhere. But, as it happened, I think, I worked out three stars for latitude and I think I worked out three stars for longitude.
SENATOR BURTON: And they all agreed?
MR. BOXHALL: They all agreed.
SENATOR BURTON: What time did you do that?
MR. BOXHALL: I really do not know what time it was. I was working these things out after 8 o'clock, and Mr. Lightoller took them before 8 o'clock.
SENATOR BURTON: About how long was that before the collision?
MR. BOXHALL: The collision was at 11:43, I think.
SENATOR BURTON: And how long before the collision did you make this computation?
MR. BOXHALL: I suppose about 10 o'clock. Yes; I finished before 10 o'clock, because I gave Mr. Lightoller the results when I finished.
SENATOR BURTON: And the result as to the position of the ship was arrived at by computing your speed after 10 o'clock to the time of the collision?
MR. BOXHALL: Yes.
SENATOR BURTON: You are very sure it was right, and Capt. Rostron said it was?
MR. BOXHALL: Capt. Rostron said it was a very, very good position. After I had worked these observations of Mr. Lightoller's I was taking star bearings for compass error for myself, and I was working those out. That is what kept me in the chart room most of the time. I was making computations most of the time.
SENATOR BURTON: Did you yourself receive these messages relating to ice?
MR. BOXHALL: I received those I copied.
SENATOR BURTON: What did Murdock mean by the expression "I intended to port around it?" What is the meaning of that expression?
