The Ship on the Horizon
What the SS Californian saw of the Titanic's sinking
There are many controvercies and myths when it comes to the sinking of Titanic some are more outlandish than others but there is one that has endured and is one of the great “What if?” questions. Was the SS Californian the ship on the horizon that several survivors aboard Titanic saw and why did they not sail to their aid?
I’m not touching the hot potato of how useful Californian would have been had she arrived at Titanic’s site as I don’t know enough about the capabilities and there are so many Ifs, buts and maybes, that in my humble opinion, you cannot be 100% certain.
On the 5th April 1912 the SS Californian left Liverpool bound for Boston with a projected arrival date of 19th April carrying a mix of cargo. She had a top speed of between 12.5-13 Knots and belonged to the Leyland line which was part of the International Merchantile Marine Company or IMMC.
For most of the journey across the Atlantic it was pretty routine but as the vessel encountered ice fields they passed messages on to nearby vessels and on the 14th April her Marconi operator, Cyril Evans, sent a message to the SS Antillian:
"To Captain "Antillian" 6:30 p.m. Apparent ship's time Lat 42 3'N Long 49 9' W Three large bergs 5 miles to southward of us. Regards Lord"
Evans heard the Titanic's marconi traffic communicating with Cape Race and Captain Stanley Lord suggested they tell Titanic of the ice report as well but the Titanic's duty operator told Evans that he had heard the message to the Antillian. In fact the message was taken by Harold Bride to the bridge and handed to Titanic’s First Officer, William Murdoch.
Just a quick aside about Marconi/wireless transmission at the time. Many would think that a wireless message would be from ship to ship which no one else could hear but this isn’t the case.
Each vessel’s marconi set spoke to the ether and could be heard by any vessel within range of the sender. Some sets, such as Titanic’s, were more powerful than others and with a longer range. The Titanic was powerful enough to reach Cape Race in Newfoundland to pass messages from passengers and then they would pass the messages from there on to New York. However the further you were from the sender the fainter the signal and if a closer vessel used their wireless set its’ signal would block out other signals.
The other thing to quickly note is that Marconi men did not work for the owners of the ships nor the ship’s captains and instead worked for the Marconi Company. This meant that their priorities were somewhat different though if you used the prefix MSG (Master Service Gram) the message had to be passed to the Captain or bridge duty officer. There was also no need for a Marconi man to be on duty for twenty four hours. It was possible aboard Titanic as there were two men but the Californian and Carpathia had only one Marconi operator.
Californian proceeded southwards until she encountered ice as far as they could see in either the North and South. It was deemed best to wait until morning to proceed. Lord believed the position was 42 5 N by 57'7W which was recorded in the scrap log then moved to main log later.
At 11 pm a ship was seen appearing from the east and Evans told Captain Lord that from the wireless chatter and the strength of the signal it it was the Titanic. Lord thought about Californian’s situation and orderred Evans to signal her and say that Californian was stopped due to ice.
As Evans began to signal they recieved a "Keep Out!" as they were taliking to Cape Race - the Wireless transmision from Californian had been so powerful that it had cut through Titanic’s transmission to Cape Race which paying customers had… well paid for.
Using “Keep Out!” sounds rude and it was interpreted that way by James Cameron in his cut scene of the interaction but there are a couple of things to bear in mind. Firstly the Marconi operators were all young men and colleagues and they tended to talk to each other as young men. Jack Phillips was at the top of his game and career having progressed over six years to the super liners like Titanic, Oceanic and the Cunarders Lusitania and Mauretania and Cyril Evans was very much just starting out with a reputation for being abrupt with other users. Operators would be able to recognise other Operators tells and if Phillips had realised it was Evans then he would have responded in a similar style that the latter was famous for. The other thing is that the Californian’s call would have come through really loudly in Phillips’ ear as he was deep into his own work and a snap reaction of “Keep out” would have been completely understandable.
At 11:30 pm, as it was not law for Marconi sets to be monitored all the time (the unfolding disaster would change this immediately however) Evans turned the Marconi set off and went to bed.
Lord estimated that the unknown vessel that Evans had identified as Titanic was 5 miles off and they could see deck lights and the green starboard light. Lord believed the vessel was of a similar size to Californian but this was disputed by the Ship's Third Officer Groves (who was on duty) telling the London Board of trade:
"There was absolutely no doubt of her being a passenger steamer, at least in my mind."
A donkeyman, Ernest Gill, agreed: "It could not have been anything but a Passenger boat, she was too large."
The vessel appeared to have stopped at 11:30 and her lights dimmed in the darkness and it was accepted during the Board of enquiry that the vessel may have turned. Groves and Gill saw the masthead and steaming lights as well as her red Port light. As Californian’s deck officers made these observations it was about 11:40pm. - The time Titanic hit the Iceberg
Lord, who was still in the Chart room and did not come to the bridge told Gill that he should try and Signal an ice warning by morse lamp to the unknown vessel. Gill began to flash the distant ship with Californian’s morse lamp and although he had thought he had seen a light responding they could not open up dialogue so he simply gave up.
Second Officer Herbert Stone relieved Groves at Midnight and recieved a handover about the ship in the distance, Stone was sure that Lord was still awake at this time but not on the bridge and so he reported to the Captain of the failed morse messages by Voice pipe.
12:20 James Gibson thought he could see the Red light, through binoculars, and glare of the deck lights and again thought he saw a flashing light so they tried unsuccessfully to signal with a lamp again. 12:30 Gill reports seeing two white rockets and again at 1:10 am.
Stone contacted Lord again (Gibson believed this was at 12:55) via Voice pipe:
"Are they company signals?"
"I do not know but they appear to me to be white rockets."
Lord’s orders were to "Go on morsing" and if any further information was gained he should be contacted immediatly.
Morse messages failed again but they did see three more rockets. Unable to do any more Stone and Gibson kept an intermittent eye on the vessel.
Stone said to Gibson: "Look at her now she looks very queer out of the water her lights look queer…A ship is not going to fire rockets at sea for nothing."
The vessel was last seen at 1:40 and as the men watched for another twenty minutes before Gibson went down to Lord.
Stone recounted: "I told Gibson to go down to the Master and be sure and wake him and tell him that altogether we had seen eight of these white light rickets in the direction of the other steamer. That this other steamer was disappearing in the South-West that we had called her up repeatedly on the morse lamp and recieved no information what so ever."
At 2:05 Gibson returned to the bridge. Both Stone and Gibson continued the watch.
Stone told the Board of trade that: "A gradual disappearing of all her lights which would be perfectally natural with a ship steaming away from us"
At 2:40 Stone called Lord by Voice Pipe and told him the ship was gone bearing SWW.
Lord claimed he only recalled being only contacted at 1:15 of one White rocket:
"Between 1:30 & 4:30 when Chief Officer Stewart called, had no memory of talking to anyone but remembered Gibson opening & closing the Chart room door."
Gibson said that he was certain Lord was awake when he had gone down.
At 6 am Lord heard from SS Virginian that Titanic had struck a berg, ship sinking and passengers were in boats. At 7:30 Californian passed the SS Mount Temple who was at Titanic's last known position. No wreckage was sighted until they reached Carpathia's position.
Chief Officer Stewart confirmed using the stars that the positions estimated over previous days were correct and by that reckoning Californian was 19 miles away from Titanic's position and 30 miles away from where the wreckage was seen on the sea. A total distance of 30 miles
The Board of Trade was certain that the other vessel was Titanic and that the positions were wrong.
What of the other vessel involved?
Titanic’s Fourth Officer, Joseph Groves Boxhall had been tasked with launching her rockets to try and signal any nearby vessels and he and Quartermaster George Rowe began this process at 12:45 but not at regular one minute intervals (the standard for distress rockets) but more like every seven or eight minutes (which would be argued by Lordites that this was why Californian’s Master believed they were Company signals rather than distress). Boxhall scanned the horizon with binoculars and believed he could see a vessel in the distance and he and Rowe set about attempting to signal them with a morse lamp but to no avail and it was given up as a bad job.
The time line stacked up like this though: 11:40 Titanic hits the iceberg. Californian sees the vessel stop 12:45-1:45 Titanic fires 8 rockets. Californian sees a vessel fire 8 rockets. 2:20 Titanic founders. 2:40 Stone sees the ship has gone.
Although Lord was found to have not done anything wrong he has been heavily criticised through history for his (in)actions that fateful night. Indeed Stanley Lord lost his job in August 1912 and both the British and American Inquiries expressed disquiet at the Ccalifornian’s role in the disaster but neither sanctioned any direct disciplinary action.
As I mentioned earlier there were new legislations brought in to make sure that a similar incident would not occurr again with a 24 hour Wireless presence and that rockets shoud all be of a certain colour and launched at regular intervals of a couple of minutes so they were clear to all that they weren’t company signals.
There is a train of thought that says that on seeing the rockets it would be obvious to anyone that the other vessel was in distress and that Lord should have done more to see what the issue was. Arguably they did try to signal the vessel to ascertain what was going on by Morse lamp (and Lord stated at the Board of Trade Inquiry that Californian had a very powerful morse lamp) but at no point was Cyril Evans awoken and told to put the Marconi set on.
Lord was never able to clear his name during his lifetime, nor could his son in his though there are “Lordites” who much like the Richard III society look to clear his name and set the record straight as they see it. In the film, “A night to remember” Lord is depicted as sleeping in a warm bed whilst the Titanic’s crew and passengers were in freezing waters fighting for survival. This is somewhat unfair as he was asleep in the chart room in his uniform having been on duty for 17 hours straight.
It is easy to blame Stanley Lord after all he was the Captain of the vessel and he is ultimately responsible for his vessel and the choices made by her officers but he was ultimately not on duty at the time and was basing his decissions on the information he was being fed by the duty officer on the bridge, Second Officer Herbert Stone.
Stone sighted the rockets and did nothing beyond passing a message which the Captain may or may not have recieved and monitored the situation. He was the duty officer and if he felt, and rightly so, that a vessel at sea in the dead of night would only fire rockets in distress he could have woken Lord and informed him directly failing that if he really didn’t want to disturb his Captain he could have woken Evans and put check the wirless ether.
The idea of Lord’s innocence versus guilt is something I try not to take sides on, but back in my teenage years when I was much more versed on the sinking, I believed Californian and her Master should have done more. Now a days, and with many far knowledgable than I on the subject, it is best that I just sit on the fence.
It is believed the Californian was an hour or two away from the stricken liner and that the ice that surrounded her was lightly packed and there is an argument that she could have made her way and her presence could have saved many a lost life that night. Who is to say for definite but it is clear, and both the US and British inquiries felt that Captain Lord could have done more but had done enough according to the rules at the time.
I seem to recall a documentary where there was reference to atmospheric conditions creating a ‘mirage’ which would have caused problems with those on watch.