Damage to the ship's engines?

[Mike Spooner]

During the British Inquiry Boxhall was asked :

Q - Did you notice what the telegraphs indicated with regard to the engines?
A - Full speed astern, both.
Q - Was that immediately after the impact?
A - Yes.

Q - After the collision you went astern?
A - The engines were going full speed astern for quite a little time.
Q - Did you go forward after that?
A - Not that I know of.

When he says "quite a little time" did he mean a short time, or a long time, because I have heard people use that expression when they are referring to a long time e.g. I waited in the post office queue for quite a little time and then they finally served me.

I recall a member once said if you wanted to get the engine room's immediate attention to stop the engines the officer on the bridge would first pull the telegraph handle all the way to full speed astern and then pull it forwards to signal stop engines. Something about the length of the ring was important. Perhaps Boxhall walked on the bridge just as Murdoch had pulled the telegraph back to full speed astern and then he looked over the side and did not realize that Murdoch was actually ordering the engines to stop? Quartermaster Olliver witnessed the captain telegraph 'half speed ahead' yet there is no indication that she went half speed ahead. Is it possible that Dillon and Scott (in the engine room) did not look at the telegraph indicators and were instead judging what the engines were doing by looking at them turn, because they would turn slow at first before picking up speed. So in a sense the officer could ring 'full speed astern' but Dillon and Scott only saw the engines moving slowly astern as she gradually picked up speed and then stopped again, and then QM Olliver witnessed the captain ring 'half speed ahead' and Dillon and Scott only witness the engines turn slowly as she gradually picked up speed in that direction before they were ordered to stop again?


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The trouble with Boxhall he does not stick with the same story. As he said one thing in the US inquiry and another in the British inquiry. As in his BBC talk 1962 another story. With Murdoch and Smith dead his word against the dead men! I personal think he is putting future career first as a lower rank officers. Trying make an impression of him self for WSL.
The BBC talk when he said the ship made contact with the iceberg. I was in my quarters having a cup tea! Does one have tea in your quarter and not in the officers mess? If he was having tea in his quarter he certainly got on the bridge in a remarkable time! Then he had the dam check to say how he recalculated the correct ship position over Smith position but still got it wrong!
I can't quite work out want his duty shift time were? Four hours on and four hours off. So what time was his due on next?

 

[Alex Kiehl]

Perhaps. My trusty thesaurus says a gangway can also mean a passageway, a stairway, or a doorway leading from one place to another. So when she says "guards by the gangways to prevent others...." She could mean 'guards by the doorways/stairways/passageways to prevent others...'? She may have assumed the guards were there to "prevent others" when in fact they might have been there to 'help and direct others' towards the lifeboats and were not in any way hostile to the stokers. She may have been confused by their presence and jumped to the wrong conclusion?


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Aaron, do you think by "guards," she meant stewards or seamen?

 

[David G. Brown]

A Thesaurus is a handy book, but can be misleading. Most are focused on general, every-day words and not on the specific language that develops in any craft or trade. For nautical words, I suggest the International Maratime Dictionary compiled by Rene de Kerchove and published by Van Nostrand Reinhold. Mine is a 2nd edition which sits hand on a shelf above my computer screen.

-- David G. Brown

 

[Alex Kiehl]

David, do you think you could help me with my question?

 

[David G. Brown]

Alex --

Send me your question privately. We'll discuss the matter.

-- David G. Brown