TITANIC ENQUIRY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 119, 20 May 1912, Page 7

TITANIC ENQUIRY

FURTHER EVIDENCE A FIREMAN'S EXPLANATION QUESTION OF A BOAT'S RETURN. By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright. LONDON, 18th May. The Titanic wreck enquiry was continued yesterday. Hendriksen. one of the firemen "who got away in an emergency boat, was recalled and asked why he had stated that Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff-Gordon had prevented the boat he was in from returning to help those struggling in the water. He explained that he thought tho question referred to the crew. Symons, the man in charge of the boat, testified that ho did not think it safe to return to the rescue lest the boat should be swamped. He did not hear anyone suggest returning. He now realised that they might have saved a good many. The story of American millionaires bribing members of the crew, witness said, was untrue, though he admitted that someone representing Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff-Gordon had obtained a signed statement from him. Counsel watching the proceedings for Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff-Gordon stated that a solicitor, supposing, through a mistake, that he had been retained for the Duff-Goi'donsj had interviewed Symons. Taylor, a fireman, gave evidence that he heard someone suggest a return, and Lady Duff-Gordon spoke of the risk of swamping. Two male passengers agreed that it would bo dangerous, and then Symons ordered them to row away. They could have saved twenty-five or thirty persons. [In his evidence, given on 10th May, Hendriksen stated that he and five other firemen were aboard the emergency boat, with Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff-Gordon and three others. • They were two hundred yards from the Ti tonic when she sank. They heard tho agonising cries, and ho urged them to go back, but Lady Duff-Gordon said that if they returned the boat would be swamped. Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon supported his wife's protest. Not going to help tho drowning was due to Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon's protest. When tho Carpathia was sightea, Sir Cosmo DuffGordon promised to reward them, and afterwards gave tho crew five pounds each. Counsel suggested that the boat was intended for forty, but Hendriksen disagreed with the suggestion.] FUNERAL OF THE BANDMASTER. THIRTY THOUSAND MOURNERS. LONDON, 19th May. Thirty thousand mourners attended tho funeral of Mr. Hartley, bandmaster on the Titanic, who went down with tho ship and was picked up dead by tha cable steamer Mackay-Bennett..