Fleet acknowledged that if he had been aided in his observations by a good glass he probably could have spied the berg into which the ship crashed in time to have warned the bridge to avoid it. Major Arthur Peuchen, of Toronto, a passenger who followed Fleet on the stand, also testified to the much greater sweep of vision afforded by binoculars and, as a yachtsman, said he believed the presence of the iceberg might have been detected in time to escape the collision had the lookout men been so equipped. HAD ASKED FOR BINOCULARS It was made to appear that the blame for being without glasses did not rest with the lookout men. Fleet said they had asked for them at Southampton and were told there were none for them. One glass, in a pinch, would have served in the crow's nest. The testimony before the committee on April 24th showed that the big steamship was on the verge of a field of ice twenty or thirty miles long, if she had not actually entered it, when the accident occurred. The committee tried to discover whether it would add to human safety if the ships were fitted with search lights so that at night objects could be seen at a greater distance. The testimony so far along this line had been conflicting. Some of the witnesses thought it would be no harm to try it, but they were all skeptical as to its value, as an iceberg would not be especially distinguishable because its bulk is mostly below the surface. One of the witnesses said that much dependence is not placed upon the lookout, and that those lookouts who used binoculars constantly found them detrimental. Harold G. Lowe, fifth officer of the Titanic, told the committee his part in the struggle of the survivors for life following the catastrophe. The details of this struggle have have already been told in a previous chapter. AUTHORIZED TO SELL STORY In great detail Guglielmo Marconi, on April 25th, explained the operations of his system and told how he had authorized Operator Bride of the Titanic, and Operator Cottam, of the Carpathia, to sell their stories of the disaster after they came ashore. In allowing the operator's to sell their stories, said Mr. Marconi, there was no question of suppressing or monopolizing the news. He had done everything he could, he said, to have the country informed as quickly as possible of the details of the disaster. That was why he was particularly glad for the narratives of such important witnesses as the operators to receive publication, regardless of the papers that published them. He repeated the testimony of Cottam that every effort had been made to get legitimate dispatches ashore. The cruiser Chester, he said, had been answered as fully as possible, though it was not known at the time that its queries came from the President of the United States. The Salem, he said, had never got in touch with the Carpathia operator.