WELCOMES EXHAUSTIVE INQUIRY.
“I am informed that a committee of the United States Senate has been appointed to investigate the accident. I heartily welcome a most complete and exhaustive inquiry as the company has absolutely nothing to conceal and any aid that my associates or myself, our ship builders or navigators can render will be at the service of both the United States and the British Governments.”
“How soon did she sink after she struck?” Mr. Ismay was asked. “Let me see, it was two hours and twenty-five minutes, I think. Yes, that is right.”
“In other words, there would have been ample time to have taken everybody off if there had been enough lifeboats?” he was asked. “I do not want to talk about that now,” was the reply.
“Did you go off in the first boat?” some one asked. “What do you mean?”
“Were you in the first boat that left the ship?” “No,” he replied, slowly and firmly, “I was not. I was in the last boat. It was one of the forward boats.”
“Did the captain tell you to get in the boat?” “No.”
“What was the captain doing when you last saw him?” “He was standing on the bridge.”
“It is not true that he committed suicide?” “No. I heard nothing of it.”
Mr. Ismay was asked to explain the delay in the sending of the news of the wreck from the Carpathia. He said: