Digest of Testimony given at a hearing into the loss of the Titanic before a Sub-committee of the Committee on Commerce of the United States Senate

Before thr Carpathia had even docked in New York, on April 19th, and the survivors of the disaster had disembarked, William Alden Smith, Senator for Michigan, had secured his own appointment as chairman of a sub-committee to invesigtae the loss of the Titanic and empowered to summon British subjects to give evidence before it. Although the Titanic was a British ship, the White Star Line was owned by an American trust - the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMMC) and could therefore be sued under American law, if neglience could be proved. Smith was well known to be political rival of J P Morgan, who woned the IMMC. Britain's ambassador in Washington refused to recognise the jurisdiction over the case and sought to gain the US President's support to have the enquiry terminated. President Taft replied that he had no authoirty over the Sneate and that the enquiry would continue for as long as the chairman thought it would keep his name in the papers. (FO 369/522 no. 16033)

The Digest of Testimony provides a comprehensive survey of the evidence of witnesses before the committee, graphically illustraed by quotations, and, under BOATS IN DETAIL, tells how the lifeboats were disembarked.

May 1912 PRO reference - MT 9/920 G