Posted by FALSE. Although Californian was only about 10 miles away, she would not have begun to move until after Titanic’s rockets were reported to Captain Lord and he had woken up the wireless operator to get confirmation. Given that Californian’s Second Officer, Herbert Stone, first observed Titanic’s rockets at 1.10 a.m., and even assuming they had ignored the incorrect distress position given by Titanic and gone instead in the direction of the rockets they could see, Californian would not have been underway before 1.20 a.m., or about an hour before Titanic sank. Given that Californian’s top speed was 14 knots, this means she could have arrived only as Titanic was preparing for her final plunge.
Californian would have had to stand off the sinking Titanic at this stage and would therefore only have been able to haul people out of the water. Given the sub-zero temperature of the water at Titanic’s wrecksite, this would have met with limited success and those she did manage to save would probably not have been more than those who were in Titanic’s lifeboats anyway, as many of these people would not have taken to the lifeboats if they had clearly seen a rescue ship on its way.
This is a far cry from Senator Smith’s conclusion to the American Enquiry that:
‘Had [Captain Lord] been as vigilant in the movement of his vessel as he was active in displaying his own signal lamp, there is a very strong probability that every human life that was sacrificed through this disaster could have been saved.’
And Lord Mersey’s judgment in the British Enquiry:
‘The night was clear and the sea was smooth. When she first saw the rockets the Californian could have pushed through the ice to the open water without any serious risk and so have come to the assistance of the Titanic. Had she done so she might have saved many if not all of the lives that were lost.’
If you’d like to read the full book of101 Things You Thought You Knew About The Titanic…But Didn’t!, or any of my other books on Titanic, please visit my Author Page on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/tim-maltin/e/B005LNHYEQ/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_1
Tim, posted this on your recent YT video, thought you may see it here:
With the SS Californian, Mr Lord’s wiki states there are two sides, “Lordites” and “Anti-Lordites”, the expert Tim is mentioned in the wiki. First, I love Tim’s passion for the Titanic, I think he got this wrong as he ignores evidence…First I’m going to point out what Tim probably got wrong
– “Had her own 50 passengers”, she had ZERO passengers that night, only crew, max passenger capacity is only 47 yet I’m sure he’s rounding
-“She was not insured to go through ice”, then how did it make it through the Atlantic? It didn’t head south to avoid ‘bergs, it did head through the icefield like it’s done many times before
– “Hair turned white overnight”, according to medical experts, your hair is DEAD so this is impossible. There are no actual verified accounts of this event, only hearsay and many are attributed it to hairdye washing out. If extreme stress causing this, we have some wars going on where the military does some horrific things to civilians, you never hear their hair turning white overnight. Stressful conditions can cause people’s NEW hair to turn white, but not the existing
– Tim eluded to the Californian’s crew not seeing rockets or realizing the ship is in distress due to the mirage. Second Officer Herbert Stone said “A ship is not going to fire rockets at sea for nothing” so they were aware they were indeed rockets and that the ship looked “queer”, “everything is NOT alright with her”
Now I’ll add some datapoints of the event
-FACT, had they awoken the radio operator and heard the distress signals, they would be expected to provide assistance
-As pointed out, the Californian’s crew was aware something wasn’t right with the ship firing rockets in front of them, supposedly Lord was asleep, why didn’t the crew wake up the wireless operator? Coincidently, the RMS Carpathia’s Capt Rostron,was asleep, the wireless operator Cottam spoke to the bridges officers who dismissed the distress call and against orders, Cottam went into the Capts quarters to alert the Capt. The Capt immediately set course to provide assistance
-The ship’s log, the official log makes no mention of the strange ship they saw which should be in there; Tim even said “they’d investigate in daylight
-Lord gave conflicting, changing, and evasive testimony. One example is originally saying they didn’t see any rockets then saying they saw them but didn’t realize they were distress rockets
In conclusion, why didn’t Mr. Lord or his crew awake the wireless operator? If they did, they knew they would be expected to provide assistance
They did not wake the radio operator because the raised horizon made the distant and large Titanic appear to be a nearer and smaller vessel. Californian’s Radio chart showed that the Titanic was the only nearby ship with radio. They therefore concluded they were not looking at Titanic and that the smaller ship they were looking at did not have wireless.