I heard one man say that the impact was due to ice. Upon one of his listeners’ questioning the authority of this, he replied: “Go up forward and look down on the fo’castle deck, and you can see for yourself.” I at once walked forward to the end of the promenade deck, and looking down could see, just within the starboard rail, small fragments of broken ice, amounting possibly to several cartloads. As I stood there an incident occurred which made me take a more serious view of the situation, than I otherwise would. Two stokers, who had slipped up onto the promenade deck unobserved, said to me: “Do you think there is any danger, sir?” I replied: “If there is any danger it would be due to the vessel’s having sprung a leak, and you ought to know more about it than I.” They replied, in what appeared to me to be an alarmed tone: “Well, sir, the water was pouring into the stoke ’old when we came up, sir.” At this time I observed quite a number of steerage passengers, who were amusing themselves by walking over the ice, and kicking it about the deck. No ice or iceberg was to be seen in the ocean. I watched the boats on the starboard side, as they were successively filled and lowered away. At no time during this period, was there any panic, or evidence of fear, or unusual alarm. I saw no women nor children weep, nor were there any evidences of hysteria observed by me. I watched all boats on the starboard side, comprising the odd numbers from one to thirteen, as they were launched. Not a boat was launched which would not have held from ten to twenty-five more persons. Never were there enough women or children present to fill any boat before it was launched. In all cases, as soon as those who responded to the officers’ call were in the boats, the order was given to “Lower away.” What the conditions were on the port side of the vessel I had no means of observing. We were in semi-darkness on the Boat Deck, and owing to the immense length and breadth of the vessel, and the fact that between the port and the starboard side of the Boat Deck, there were officers’ cabins, staterooms for passengers, a gymnasium, and innumerable immense ventilators, it would have been impossible, even in daylight, to have obtained a view of but a limited portion of this boat deck. We only knew what was going on within a radius of possibly forty feet.