Owing to the list being to the starboard, I assumed that the boats which were lowered on the starboard side would be sure to clear the ship, while those on the port side might have some difficulty. This was only an assumption, as I have not heard of any such difficulty since.
We then proceeded over the raised deck caused by the unusual height of the ceiling in the lounge, and came down again onto the boat deck proper on the starboard side. There I gave my wife a drink from my flask, filled my pipe, put on my life belt at her urgent request, she having hers already on, and we stood at the rail for a few moments.
I would like to call particular attention to the fact that from the moment the engines were stopped steam was of course blown out from the boilers. This, coming through one single steam pipe on the starboard side of the forward funnel, made a terrifically loud noise; so loud, indeed, that persons on the boat deck could only communicate by getting as close as possible and speaking loudly. As a matter of fact, I shouted in my wife's ear.
All this time I considered that the lifeboats were merely a precaution and, upon my wife's suggestion, we moved up forward to the entry from the deck
There were still quite a number of passengers coming out, the stewards standing there directing them to the boats aft.
Instead of going aft, we stepped behind the projection of this entry, which was of the vestibule type, and waited until the people had apparently ceased coming and the steward was no longer there. Then we started forward again, and, as nearly as I can remember, stopped at the last one of the forward starboard group of lifeboats. This was already swung out level with the deck and, to my eyes, appeared sufficiently loaded.
However, my wife said that she was going in that boat, and proceeded to jump in, calling to me to come. As I knew she would get out again had I not come, I finally jumped into the boat, although I did not consider it, from the looks of things, safe to put very many more people in that boat.
As I remember it, there were two more men, both called by their wives, who jumped in after I did. One of them ­ a German, I believe ­ told me, as I recollect it, later on the Carpathia that he had looked around and had seen no one else and on one to ask whether he should go in or not, and had jumped in.
SENATOR SMITH: How many people were in the boat at the time?
MR. CHAMBERS: That I can not tell.
By the time we were settled and I began to take note of the things on the ship I noticed a tall young officer clad in a long overcoat, which may help identify him, giving orders to another officer to go into our boat and take charge of the boats on our side. As a parting injunction he gave our officer (whom I later found to be a Mr. Pitman) instructions to hold onto his painter and pull up alongside the gangway after the boat had reached the water.
Preliminary to this, and before lowering, all of which was done with absolute calm, I heard some one in authority say, "That is enough before lowering. We can get a lot more in after she is in the water."
I remember these conversations particularly, as at the time I was wondering at the source of the order, being morally certain, myself that no doors in the ship's side had been opened.
We were then lowered away in a manner which I would consider very satisfactory, taking into account the apparent absolute lack of training of the rank and file of the crew.
Shortly before we reached the water our officer called and finally blew his whistle for them to stop lowering, that he might find out whether the plug was in or not. The inquiry was called in a loud tone of voice, to which one of the crew in our boat replied that it was; that he himself had put it in. Meanwhile a voice from above called down, as nearly as I can recollect it, "It is your own blooming business to see that the plug is in, anyhow."
When we reached the water, we then had difficulty in casting off the falls. The little quartermaster had to crawl between our legs to the amidship portion of the boat in order to reach what was apparently called the "trigger," which is, I believe, a mechanism used to release both falls simultaneously.
We then put out our oars and crawled away slowly from the ship until we lay some three or four hundred yards off.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you observe anything unusual regarding the water­tight compartments?
MR. CHAMBERS: I was rather surprised at the time when she struck to hear no particular order or signals for closing the water­tight doors. By those I mean such as are usually closed by the stewards, and were, when last I traveled on the Cunarders, a number of years ago, always tested by being closed by the stewards themselves at noon or thereabouts.
SENATOR SMITH: At noon of each day?
MR. CHAMBERS: At noon of each day, yes; when the whistle blew at noon. That was on the old Etruria and the Umbria. I never traveled on the Campania and Lucania.
While I did not make a careful examination of the mechanism of the doors, I, at the same time, had looked them over rather more than casually, on my way to and from the swimming pool in the mornings.
I remember being somewhat surprised that these doors were not nowadays operated by electricity, this being only a landsman's point of view. As a matter of fact, they were operated from the deck above, the E deck, by first removing a small boiler plate which fitted flush with the deck and was unscrewed by means of the two­forked end of a pin­spanner; that apparently giving access to the square or hexagon end of a shaft which, being rotated by another box wrench some 2 feet 6 inches in length, with a T­handle, operated a double series of bevel gears, the last shaft having on it a pinion meshing in a floor rack and closing the door.
The cover plates to the mechanism of the water­tight doors, as far as I am able to state, were not removed before our final departure for the upper decks.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you see any attempt being made to remove them?
MR. CHAMBERS: I did not. I saw no attempt being made to remove them.
SENATOR SMITH: What else can you tell about that matter that will be helpful to the committee?
MR. CHAMBERS: I have no reason to believe that any attempt was made by the stewards, on whom I always understood this duty devolved, to close these doors, particularly as a large percentage of the steward part of the crew were new. Seeing these door plates undisturbed just before our final departure to the upper decks, I reached the conclusion that the doors had not been closed.
In connection with my statement that a large percentage of the steward part of the crew were new, I may say that my own room steward complained to me on the second day out that he did not know where anything was on the ship, and that no one would tell him.
Whereupon, at 6:30 o'clock p.m., the hearing was adjourned until to­morrow, Saturday, May 4, 1912, at 10 o'clock a.m.
