May 2nd, 1912 - American Inquiry Day 12
(Pictured: Ella White, and her Light Up Cane)
Day 12: At the end of day 11, a Tuesday, Senator Smith announces “In view of the statement of my colleagues on the subcommittee that a very important bill will be considered by the full Committee on Commerce tomorrow, we will suspend at this time and stand adjourned until Friday morning at 10 o'clock.” However, during this time, Smith interviewed two witnesses himself, which we have called Day 12.
Witnesses:
Mrs. J. Stuart White, First Class Passenger, RMS Titanic;
John Bottomley, Vice President, Marconi Company of America;
Notable Quotes/Lines of Questioning or Summarized Testimony:
“I never went out of my room from the time I went into it. I was never outside of the door until I came off the night of the collision... I remained in my room until I came out that night. I never took a step from my bed until that night.” - Mrs. White (she had an accident upon entering the ship)
“I entered the lifeboat from the top deck, where the boats were. We had to enter the boat there. There was no other deck to the steamer except the top deck. It was a perfect rat trap. There was no other deck that was open, at all.” – Mrs. White (She was on the port side)
“For instance, before we cut loose from the ship two of the seamen with us - the men, I should say; I do not call them seamen; I think they were dining-room stewards - before we were cut loose from the ship they took out cigarettes and lighted them on an occasion like that! That is one thing that we saw. All of those men escaped under the pretense of being oarsmen. The man who rowed me took his oar and rowed all over the boat, in every direction. I said to him, ‘Why don't you put the oar in the oarlock?’ He said, ‘Do you put it in that hole?’ I said ‘Certainly.’ He said, ‘I never had an oar in my hand before.’ I spoke to the other man and he said; ‘I have never had an oar in my hand before, but I think I can row.’ Those were the men that we were put to sea with at night - with all these magnificent fellows left on board, who would have been such a protection to us. Those were the kind of men with whom we were put out to sea that night.” – Mrs. White
“Oh, it was 10 miles away, but we could see it distinctly. There was no doubt but that it was a boat. But we rowed and rowed and rowed, and then we all suggested that it was simply impossible for us to get to it; that we never could get to it, and the thing to do was to go back and see what we could do for the others... Then we turned and went back, and lingered around there for a long time, trying to locate the other boats, but we could not locate them except by hearing them. The only way they could locate us was by my electric lamp... I had an electric cane - a cane with an electric light in it - and that was the only light we had. We sat there for a long time, and we saw the ship go down, distinctly.” – Mrs. White
“It was something dreadful. Nobody ever thought the ship was going down. I do not think there was a person that night, I do not think there was a man on the boat who thought the ship was going down. They speak of the bravery of the men. I do not think there was any particular bravery, because none of the men thought it was going down. If they had thought the ship was going down, they would not have frivoled as they did about it. Some of them said, ‘When you come back you will need a pass,’ and, ‘You can not get on tomorrow morning without a pass.’ They never would have said these things if anybody had had any idea that the ship was going to sink.” – Mrs. White
“No; we did not succeed. They never received the telegram until last Monday night in this hotel. They took our telegram first thing when we got on board the Carpathia, Monday morning. They took our Marconigram. I think the people on land had a much more serious time than we had, so far as real suffering was concerned.” – Mrs. White
“As I have said before, the men in our boat were anything but seamen, with the exception of one man. The women all rowed, every one of them. Miss Young rowed every mile. The men could not row. They did not know the first thing about it. Miss Swift, from Brooklyn, rowed every mile, from the steamer to the Carpathia. Miss Young rowed every minute also, except when she was throwing up, which she did six or seven times, Countess Rothe stood at the tiller. Where would we have been if it had not been for our women, with such men as that put in charge of the boat? Our head seaman would give an order and those men who knew nothing about the handling of a boat would say, "’f you don't stop talking through that hole in your face there will be one less in the boat.’ We were in the hands of men of that kind. I settled two or three fights between them, and quieted them down. Imagine getting right out there and taking out a pipe and filling it and standing there smoking, with the women rowing, which was most dangerous; we had woolen rugs all around us.” – Mrs. White
“I never saw a finer body of men in my life than the men passengers on this trip - athletes and men of sense - and if they had been permitted to enter these lifeboats with their families the boats would have been appropriately manned and many more lives saved, instead of allowing the stewards to get in the boats and save their lives, under the pretense that they could row, when they knew nothing whatever about it.” –Mrs. White
Bottomley describes his attempts to get in contact with the Carpathia, generally those were through other people with him simply giving instruction. He also is questioned, as to be expected, about the situation with the Marconi Operators being paid for their story, and the circumstances surrounding the arrangement with the New York Times. Senator Smith asks him similar questions that have been asked of Marconi and Sammis, and as expected his answers are similar.
“That would be my opinion. I think the people on the ship were suffering tremendously, and the matter of news was of next to no importance except to satisfy the cravings of the public. That is my honest opinion.” – Bottomley
SEE American Inquiry Day 11 post here.
