New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-25
TITANIC DOOMED
BY BULKHEADS,
COURT IS TOLD
Expert at Trial Asserts
S15O,OOO Outlay Would
Have Protected Liner.

Bulkheads costing $150,000-an in
vention in use for more than fifty years
would have kept the Titanic afoat on
her i'll fated maiden voyage in 1912, ac-
cordng to Richard II. Robinson, man
aging director of the Lake Torpedo
Boat Company, of Bridgeport, Conn. He
was the last witness called yesterday
in the suit before Judge Mayer in the
Federal Court annex in the Woolworth
Building brought by the Oceanic Steam
Navigation Company, Limited the
growing out Of the sinking of the Ii
tanic to $97,922. The numerous claim
ants. represented by proctors in admi-
rally in the present proceedings, ask
approximately SlS,000.000.
For s150,000," said Mr.. Robinson on
the stand, Longitudinal bulkheads
could have been put in the Titanic,
which would have kept her afoat, or
she could have had transverse bulk
heads, which would have cost less and
had the same effect"
Mr.. Robinson has had experience,
both in this country and abroad, in
constructing war and merchant ships,
and once was an assistant constructor
in the United States Navy. He has also
served in the Boston Bureau of Naval
Construction and with the Cramps, in
Philadelphia.
Transverse bulkheads are nothing
new" he continued, "and in fact were
used in the Great Eastern in 1858 and
often occasionally in the old wooden
ships before that. II is surprising TO
me that the Titanic did not have longi-
tudinal or transverse bulkheads. She
was constructed on the two compart-
ment theory, and she could float with
three compartments flooded"
Sailors Couldn't Row.
Most Of the day was spent with wit
nesses who had been saved from the
Titanic on April II, 1912, but who had
lost relatives. They retold the story
of the tragedy, and all agreed that the
stewards on the steamer were not we'll
trained in their duties and that the
members of the crew who attempted 70
row the lifeboats did not know how
One witness, Mrs. Lillian Renouf. Of
Elizabeth, y. j., whose husband and
two brothers were lost, broke down
completely and had 10 be excused in
I the middle of her story.
"My brothers ran down 10 the state
room where my husband and | we're,
said Mrs. Renouf, who seeks $4,000 for
/ Mr.. Renoufs death, land told US TO get
dressed. Ny brothers could not get into
the boats, which were badly lowered
and the one | was in was tilted almos,
10 a vertical position. There was
neither light nor water in it, and as
we left saw lot Of women and chill.
dren on the deck"
John b. Thayer, Of Hsverford, Penn
told his graphic story of the disaster
! for the first time. His father wen,
] down with the ship and his mother was
saved. His father, formerly a vice
president of the Pennsylvania Railroad
and himself, he said. were constantly
in the company OF J. Bruce lsmay.
Once. he testified, in a conversation
about the speed Of the liner. Mr.. lsmay
said, Two more boilers are TO be
opened up to-day" He told how he and
his father had gone cropping from boat
to boat. looking for one that would
take them. Mr.. Thayer said that he a,
length jumped into the water and swan
I 10 an overturned boat, TO which twenty
eight men were clinging. He also said
/ that two Of the collapsible boats could
lot be launched.
Only Twenty-eight Persons in Boat.
Mrs. Marion Kenyon, Of Noank
! Conn, whose husband was drowned
said that not until he had spoken tc
Captain Smith did he learn the tru,