The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-15

ODStiNcu, SiOpPtu tnt ii6ill put had started about 1 o'clock again. was seen again at o'clock to the starboard. Witness said:
 Captain Lords Account
 Tt was reported in the morning the steamer which had been seen during the night had fired several rockets, but I saw only one. thought 1t might have been a company signal or acknowledge ment of the Californian's Morse sig nals by which we had been trying to communicate with the steamer
 "If they had been distress signals, I should have heard the reports of the concussion as the vessels were only five miles separated I did not hear that the Titanic had sunk until the morning.
 At the time l thought as she was reported to be 19 miles distant, we might have seen her sinking"
 Allen Edwards representing the lockers union. asked Captain Lord whether he and his officers had not been offended by wireless message re- ceived from the Titanic telling the Cali fornian to Shut up."
 Captain Lord replied that they did not discuss this.
 Captain Lord said the officer on the bridge on the night of the wreck told him the next morning that the sighting of rockets had been report ed to him and that he had answered the calls. However, he declared, he could not remember doing so.
 Captain Lord asserted if he had known the Titanic was sinking he would have gone to her aid despite the ice although he did not believe he he, In it,a
 Apprentice Saw Rockets
 An apprentice, Gibson, who was on the Californian's bridge. told of sec ing rockets and of reporting them to the captain Gibson testified that at 3 40 a. m., long after the Titanic went down. he saw another rocket.
 The witness said that while watch | ing the steamer which was firing rock cts the second officer remarked that the steamer was not firing rockets at sea for nothing and that she appeared to be very queer, out of the water and seemed to have a heavy list to star board He did not think the vessel was | exactly in distress. but was in trouble | of some sort He thought she was a | tramp steamer.
 Herbert Stone, second officer of the | who next took the stand. i, said that when he took the watch he | could see the masthead and red lights | and a few indistinct lights of steamer | about five miles away. Later the ves- sel fired eight white rockets.
 Were they distress signals?" he was | a asked.
 Might Have Been Anything
 "They might have been anything l The steamer might have been com with some other vessel, giv- ing a warning of icebergs or trying | to reply to the Californians Morse sig | nals." he replied.
 Did it occur to you that they were | distress sgnals?"
 After I heard that the Titanic had | gone down 1t occurred to me that they l might have been distress signals, but | I believed they came from a smaller l vessel which was near"
 "what did you think rockets were | being sent up for?'
 Stone thought ship was in trouble 1 but that she steamed away. He told the captain the rockets might have come from a steamer farther away than the one they saw although as the bear Ing of the rockets altered at the same time as the steamer steamed away it was evident they came from her. The steamer just faded away. She did not go out of sight as if she were sink Ing. - Ou want us lo 'iHdt, notwith hstanding the rockets. neither you nor Gibson thought there was any thing the matter with the ship?" asked Lord Mersey.
 No"
 Saw Another Steamer
 Later the witness said he saw an- other steamer and the first officer re- 
 "Theres that steamer. She's all right"
 Counsel for the board of trade:
 .'Why should the first officer have said that? Did you say anything to him to suggest that the steamer had sunlS?"
 .No."
 Lord Mersey asked.
 "Did not the very thing happen that you had been taught indicated dis tress?"
 Yes"
 Lord Mersey; "we need not press the matter further"
 Counsel for the White Star line asked that the cross s-examination of Hen drickson. who had mentioned Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon in his evidence. be post poned until the Duff -Gordons could at- tend and have an opportunity to make a