“Yes, sir, dozens. We couldn’t take them.”
The witness said he did not see J. Bruce Ismay, and that the last he saw of Captain Smith he was in the act of jumping from the bridge just as the ship went down. He said he was swimming within 150 feet of the ship when it went down and that he felt no suction.
Long before the hearing was resumed in the afternoon crowds besieged the Waldorf-Astoria rooms, but few who had not been sought by the committee were admitted.
C. P. Neil, commissioner of labor of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and Representatives Levy and Livingston, of New York, were among the visitors.
Senators Smith and Newlands conferred after luncheon for more than an hour, and it was nearly 4 o’clock when they reached the committee room.
“Is Mr. Bride, the operator of the Titanic, here?” Senator Smith asked of Mr. Marconi and Mr. Sammis, of the Marconi Company.
They told him that Mr. Bride had been sent to a physician, but could be brought back later. The senator said he wanted to ask the operator several additional questions, but could postpone them.
The second officer of the Titanic, C. H. Lightoller, was called by Senator Smith, but was not present, and the third officer of the Titanic, Herbert John Pittman, took the stand.
“Do you know of your own knowledge whether the Titanic’s ship’s log was preserved or taken from the Titanic?” asked Senator Smith.
“I do not.”