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The Titanic Reports

The Official Conclusions of the 1912 Inquiries Into the Titanic Disaster by the US Senate and the British Wreck Commissioner

Red and Black Publishers, St Petersburg, Florida

Report Of The Committee On Commerce United States Senate Pursuant To S. Res. 283
Directing The Committee On Commerce To Investigate The Causes Leading To The Wreck Of The White Star Liner Titanic. Originally published 1912

British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry Report on the Loss of the Titanic. Command Paper of the House of Commons Cd6392, 1912-1913 session. Originally published 1912

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Titanicreports : the official conclusions of the 1912 inquiries

into the Titanic disaster / by the US Senateand the British Wreck

Commissioner.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-934941-11-9

1. Titanic(Steamship)--Sources. 2. Shipwrecks--North Atlantic

Ocean--Sources. I. United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce.

"Titanic" disaster II. Great Britain. Court to investigate loss of

steamship "Titanic". Proceedings before the Right Hon. Lord Mersey, wreck

commissioner of the United Kingdom...

VK1255.T6T58 2008

910.9163'4--dc22

2008009879

Red and Black Publishers, PO Box 7542, St Petersburg, Florida, 33734

Printed and manufactured in the United States of America

The American Congressional inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic, in April 1912, very nearly did not take place – and the reasons were legal and economic.

When the world learned, on the morning of April 15, 1912, that the Titanic had struck an iceberg and sunk, Michigan Senator William Alden Smith paid particular attention to the press reports. Senator Smith had previously met the Titanic’s captain, William J. Smith (no relation) on another vessel, during a trans-Atlantic trip in 1906. By late afternoon, Senator Smith became more and more disturbed by the details he was seeing in the press reports – not enough lifeboats for all the passengers, the Titanic perhaps ignoring ice warnings and traveling at excessive speed. The White Star Line that owned the Titanic, Senator Smith knew, was itself a part of the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM), an American holding company that was incorporated in New Jersey and financed by the American banker J. Pierpont Morgan. In addition, the Titanic had been traveling to an American port, and most of its passengers were immigrants who were about to become American citizens. Convinced that the US government had an interest in finding out exactly what had happened, Senator Smith telephoned the White House to ask what President Theodore Roosevelt planned to do regarding the accident, and was told by Roosevelt’s secretary that the President intended to let the British Board of Trade handle any investigation.

On April 17, however, after it became apparent that the only survivors had already been picked up by the British liner Carpathia, and that the loss of life on the Titanic had been heavy, Senator Smith introduced a resolution calling for an investigation into the accident by a subcommittee of the Senate’s Commerce Committee. Smith was named Chairman, and six other Senators – three Republicans and three Democrats – were chosen to serve on the subcommittee.

The next day, the newly-formed panel received word that critically endangered their investigation even before it had begun. The US Navy informed Senator Smith that it had intercepted a message to the White Star office in New York from someone aboard the Carpathia. The cable read:

Most desirable Titanic crew aboard Carpathia should be returned home earliest moment possible. Suggest you hold Cedric, sailing her daylight Friday unless you see any reason contrary. Propose returning in her myself.

It didn’t take a Navy codebreaker to know that “YAMSI” was J. Bruce Ismay, the Chairman of IMM who had been on board the Titanic, and was now approaching the United States, with the rest of the survivors, aboard the Carpathia. To Senator Smith, it looked suspiciously as if Ismay wanted to quickly spirit himself and all his employees back to England without even setting foot in America, thereby denying any reporters (or investigators) the opportunity to question any of the crew, and placing everyone out of reach of subpoenas for any potential American court hearing (Ismay didn’t yet know that the US Senate had already formed its own investigation of the disaster).

For anyone who was familiar with American maritime law, the reason for Ismay’s anxious desire to avoid any questioning by United States authorities was obvious, and it came down to one word: liability.

In the early days of trans-Atlantic travel, sailing between America and Europe was risky—the North Atlantic was stormy, unpredictable and dangerous. In order to lessen the financial risk and to encourage trans-Atlantic shipping, the US adopted, in 1851, a doctrine of maritime law known as “limitation of liability”. In effect, this provision removed most of the liability on the part of a ship-owner for any action over which it had no direct control, including the negligent actions of a ship’s captain or crew at sea. In such circumstances, the owner of the ship was limited in liability to only the value of any cargo lost.

There was, however, an exception to the limited liability doctrine—and it applied directly to the Titanic disaster. The ship-owner’s liability was no longer limited if that owner had been in contact with the ship’s commander during a voyage and had in any way directed or controlled the actions undertaken by the ship’s captain while the ship was at sea.

Ismay, the President of IMM and the Chairman of the White Star Line which owned the Titanic, was not merely in wireless contact with the captain during the voyage, however—he was actually aboard the ship. Ismay’s reputation was already in tatters, since it was widely believed by the American public that he had used his influence as the ship’s owner to obtain a seat in a lifeboat, and thus to save his own life at the expense of the passengers. Ismay’s presence on the ship, however, as both he and Senator Smith realized, presented a far greater threat to him than merely a reputation as a coward. If it could be shown that Ismay had exercised any influence over the actions of Titanic’s Captain Smith – in setting the ship’s course and speed in order to make a timely passage, for example—then IMM and White Star, as the Titanic’s owners, would no longer be protected by the “limited liability” doctrine, and could be sued in American courts by all of the 700 survivors and all 1,500 victims’ next of kin. Ismay, White Star and IMM all faced potential bankruptcy if a US court denied them the limited liability protection.

For Senator Smith, the news that Ismay wanted to leave the US immediately (and take his British crew with him) raised suspicions that, between the lack of lifeboats and the potential for full liability, the owners of the Titanic had something to hide. By noon that day, Smith was at the White House asking the Attorney General whether the US had the legal right to subpoena Ismay and the Titanic crew, who were all British citizens. Upon being informed that the Englishmen could be legally served with a subpoena as long as they were in the US, Smith met with the rest of the Senate subcommittee and, accompanied by Senator Francis Newlands, boarded a train for New York. Immediately upon arrival, the two Senators served a total of 20 subpoenas upon Ismay and the Titanic officers and crew, requiring them to appear at hearings that were hastily scheduled for the next morning, April 19, at the New York Waldorf-Astoria.

The British inquiry was started on April 22, when the President of the British Board of Trade appointed Charles Bigham, Lord Mersey, to serve as Chairman of the Wreck Commission. The hearings began on May 2, 1912.

Report Of The Committee To Investigate The Causes Leading To The Wreck Of The White Star Liner Titanic.

The Committee on Commerce, which was authorized and directed to inquire into the loss of the British steamship Titanic, respectfully reports that that duty has been performed, and the committee has reached its conclusions thereon.

Resolved, that the Committee on Commerce, or a subcommittee thereof, is hereby authorized and directed to investigate the causes leading to the wreck of the White Star liner Titanic, with its attendant loss of life so shocking to the civilized world.

Resolved further, that said committee or a subcommittee thereof is hereby empowered to summon witnesses, send for persons and papers, to administer oaths, and take such testimony as may be necessary to determine the responsibility therefore, with a view to such legislation as may be necessary to prevent, as far as possible, any repetition of such a disaster.

Resolved further, that the committee shall inquire particularly into the number of lifeboats, life rafts, and life preserves, and other equipment for the protection of the passengers and crew; the number of persons aboard the Titanic, whether passenger or crew, and whether adequate inspections were made of such vessel, in view of the large number of American passengers traveling over a route commonly regarded as dangerous from icebergs; and whether it is feasible for Congress to take steps looking to an international agreement to secure the protection of sea traffic, including regulation of the size of ships and designation of routes.

Resolved further, that in the report of said committee it shall recommend such legislation as it shall deem expedient; and the expenses incurred by this investigation shall be paid from the contingent fund of the Senate upon vouchers to be approved by the chairman of said Committee.

Accordingly the following Senators were pointed his members of the subcommittee: William Alden Smith, Michigan, chairman; George C. Perkins, California; Jonathan Bourne, Jr., Oregon; Theodore E. Burton, Ohio; F. M. Simmons, North Carolina; Francis G. Newlands, Nevada; Duncan U. Fletcher, Florida.

We examined 82 witnesses upon various phases of this catastrophe, including the examination of 53 British subjects or residents of Great Britain and 29 citizens of United States or residents thereof.

We interrogated two general officers of the International Mercantile Marine Co., which owned the steamship Titanic - J. Bruce Ismay, of Liverpool, England, president, also a passenger on the ship on this voyage, and P. A. S. Franklin, of New York, vice president in the United States of the International Mercantile Marine Co.; all the surviving officers, 4 in number - Charles Herbert Lightoller, Second Officer, of Netley Abbey, Hampshire, England; Third Officer Herbert John Pitman, of Somerset, England; Fourth Officer Joseph Grove Boxhall, of Hull, England; and Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe, of North Wales; and 34 members of the crew, whose names are as follows:

We took the testimony of 21 passengers of all classes (including President Ismay) and 23 other witnesses on subjects related to our inquiry (including vice president Franklin).

We held our sessions in New York and in Washington, and took testimony by deposition in other parts of the country and in the Dominion of Canada.

We find that the Titanic was a White Star steamer and was owned by the Oceanic Steam Navigation Co., of England, all of the stock of which company is in turn owned by the International Navigation Co. (Ltd.), of England, and the stock of that company, in turn, is owned by the International Mercantile Marine Co., an American corporation, organized under the laws of New Jersey.

Mr. J. Bruce Ismay, of Liverpool, England, is president of the International Mercantile Marine Co., and Mr. P. A. S. Franklin, of New York City, is vice president of that company in United States.

The Board of Directors of the International Mercantile Marine Co. is composed of the following persons:

C. A. Griscom, Chairman. E. C. Grenfell. John F. Archbold. John I. Waterbury. The Right Hon. Lord Pirrie George W. Perkins. Charles Steele. J. Bruce Ismay, President. Percy Chubb. E. J. Berwind. Harold A. Sanderson. P. A. B. Widener. Charles F. Torrey. J. P. Morgan, Jr.

The International Mercantile Marine Co., through its various ramifications and constituent companies, owns the White Star Line, the American Line, the Red Star Line, the Atlantic Transport Line, the National Line, and the majority of the stock of the Leyland Line.

$102,000,000 between preferred and common shares.$ 52,000,000 of 4 1/2 percent bonds.$ 19,000,000 (about) of 5 percent bonds.$ 7,000,000 (about) of underlying bonds.

This company owns and operates a fleet of about 125 vessels, with a total of about 1,150,000 tons register, doing a general transoceanic transportation business throughout the world.

Titanic

The Titanic was built by Harland and Wolff, of Belfast, Ireland. No restriction as to limit of cost was placed upon the builders. She was launched May 31, 1911. She was a vessel of 46,328 tons register; her length was 882.6 feet, and her breadth was 92.6 feet. Her boat deck and bridge were 70 feet above the waterline. She was, according to the testimony of President Ismay, “especially constructed to float with her two largest watertight compartments full of water.”

At the time of the accident the vessel carried insurance of £1,000,000 sterling or about $5,000,000, the remaining risk being carried by the company’s insurance fund.

The Titanic was a duplicate of the Olympic, which is owned by the same company, with a single exception of her passenger accommodations, and was built to accommodate 2,599 passengers, with additional accommodations for officers and crew numbering 903 persons.

The committee finds from the evidence that between six and seven hours was spent in making trial tests of this vessel at Belfast Lough on Monday, the 1st of April last. A few turning circles were made, compasses adjusted, and she steamed a short time under approximately a full head of steam, but the ship was not driven at her full speed. One general officer of the steamship company was on board during the trial tests, while the builders were represented by Mr. Thomas Andrews, who had superintended the building of the vessel. Mr. Andrews conducted certain tests at Southampton and represented the builders both at Southampton and on the first voyage.

With a partial crew, the ship sailed from Belfast, immediately after the trial, for Southampton, where she arrived on Wednesday, April 3, about midnight. She made fast with her port side to the wharf, where she remained until April 10, about 12 o’clock noon, when she sailed for Cherbourg, Queenstown, and New York.

Many of the crew did not join the ship until a few hours before sailing, and the only drill while the vessel lay at Southampton or on the voyage consisted in lowering two lifeboats on the starboard side into the water, which boats were again hoisted to the boat deck within a half hour. No boat list designating the stations of members of the crew was posted until several days after sailing from Southampton, boatmen being left in ignorance of their proper stations until the following Friday morning.

On Wednesday morning, the day the ship sailed from Southampton, Capt. Clark, a representative of the British Board of Trade, came aboard and, after spending a brief time, issued the necessary certificate to permit sailing.

The Titanic was fitted with 16 sets of double-acting boat davits of modern type, capable of handling 2 or 3 boats per set of davits. The davits were thus capable of handling 48 boats, whereas the ship carried but 16 lifeboats and 4 collapsibles, fulfilling all the requirements of the British Board of Trade. The Titanic was provided with 14 lifeboats, of capacity for 65 persons each, or 910 persons; 2 emergency sea boats, of capacity for 35 persons each, or 70 persons; 4 collapsible boats, of capacity for 49 persons each, or 196 persons. Total lifeboat capacity, 1,176. There was ample lifebelt equipment for all.