Titanic and the Mystery Ship

by Senan Molony

  Captain Lord also stated clearly that he first spoke to the second officer at 12.40am during his US Inquiry evidence (p.729): ‘At 20 minutes to 1, I whistled up the speaking tube and asked him if she was getting any nearer. He said, “No; she is not taking any notice of us”. So, I said “I will go and lie down a bit”’. Stone does not mention this earlier discussion in his direct evidence. It is hardly surprising. He was being energetically taken to task on other issues. But he did mention it in a statement prepared at Captain Lord’s request on 18 April 1912, while the Californian was still at sea: ‘At 12.35 you [captain] whistled up the speaking tube and asked if the other steamer had moved. I replied “No” and that she was on the same bearing and also reported I had called him up and the result’. The result had been no answer. Stone makes no reference to anything further Lord said. But he must now be keenly aware that Lord wants to know every move the steamer makes.

  There are grounds for believing that Stone acted more quickly in reporting the unusual activity than appears from his evidence to the British Inquiry, and indeed from his personal statement for the captain. By 12.35 or 12.40 a.m., Stone has been twice warned, directly and by tube, that Lord wanted to be told about any change in that nearby vessel’s position. Stone next sees his first flash in the sky. He does not know what it is. He waits four or five minutes until he sees another. He concludes they may be rockets. What is Stone going to do? Is he going to wait until he sees a substantial number of rockets before reporting them to the captain, or is he going to report them straight away? Common sense would tell us that he is going to report immediately. But Stone in his evidence gave the impression of reporting five rockets to Lord – although it is important to emphasise that Stone never actually specified the number of rockets he reported to his skipper. He merely said ‘rockets’, suggesting that he sighted more than one. This matter deserves the closest attention, because Captain Lord maintained he was told about only one rocket in the conversation with Stone. There is an obvious gulf between Lord being told of one rocket and being told of several. Yet an early report by Stone – of perhaps ‘one flash and one rocket’ – seems more in keeping with Lord’s eagerness to be kept informed. Let us see what Stone says about the rockets in his very first account, composed without legal ‘interaction’ on board the Californian within three days of the disaster as the vessel was bound for Boston. Lord had called up the tube at 12.35, Stone said. Ten minutes went by and then:

  At about 12.45 I observed a flash of light in the sky just above that steamer. I thought nothing of it as there were several shooting stars about, the night being fine and clear with light airs and calms.

  Shortly after, I observed another distinctly over the steamer which I made out to be a white rocket though I observed no flash on the deck or any indication that it had come from that steamer; in fact, it appeared to come from a good distance beyond her.

  Between then and about 1.15, I observed three more the same as before, and all white in colour. I, at once, whistled down the speaking tube and you came from the chartroom into your own room and answered. I reported seeing these lights in the sky in the direction of the other steamer which appeared to me to be white rockets.

  This account is taken from Stone’s original written statement for Lord on the incidents of the watch (see appendices). Looking at this account, we can understand that Stone naturally thinks nothing of the first flash. The second he ‘made out to be a white rocket’, but one which appeared to come from a distance beyond the nearby vessel. Yet Stone’s account makes it appear that he waited to see three more rockets before he whistles down the tube ‘at once’ to report. Waiting for five rockets to go by is not reporting ‘at once’. If he reported at once, it ought to have been after the second rocket – the first flash he positively identified as a rocket. Here is what Captain Lord told the British Inquiry:

  6788. A little later did he whistle down the tube and tell you she was altering her bearings? — A quarter-past one [accepts the timing cited by Stone in his original statement].

  6789. Did he say how she was altering her bearings? — Towards the SW.

  6790. Did he tell you whether he had seen any signal? — He said he saw a white rocket.

  6791. From her? — From her.

  6792. A white rocket? — Yes.

  6793. [The Commissioner] She did not change until what time? — A quarter-past 1 it was reported to me first.

  6794. And then what was her bearing? — She was altering it slightly towards the SW.

  6795. It was then that you saw the rocket? — It was then that we saw the rocket.

  6796. Did you see it? — No.

  6797. The Second Officer saw it? — The Second Officer saw it.

  It is noteworthy that Lord, despite the apparent numerical clash with Stone (which could have done Lord no good and which must have suggested Lord was lying and attempting to minimise the number of rockets he was told about), had not changed his evidence in London from that which he gave at the earlier US Inquiry: ‘At a quarter past 1, he [Stone] said, “I think she has fired a rocket. She did not answer the Morse lamp and she has commenced to go away from us”. I said, “Call her up and let me know at once what her name is”. So, he put the whistle back, and, apparently, he was calling. I could hear him ticking over my head. Then I went to sleep’ (US Inquiry, p.729).

  Stone, however, in his British Inquiry evidence (he did not give evidence in America), changes the time he spoke to the captain from the 1.15 a.m. cited in his original written account to ‘about 1.10 a.m.’:

  7827. After a time did you make any communication to the Captain? — Yes.

  7828. How? — By means of the speaking tube.

  7829. What did you communicate to him? — I communicated that I had seen white lights in the sky in the direction of this other steamer, which I took to be white rockets.

  7830. What time was it you gave him that information? — Just about 1.10 a.m.

  Whether Lord had any independent means of knowing the time, apart from Stone’s original statement, is not known. However there is an intriguing line in Lord’s testimony which appears for a moment and is gone, unprobed and untested, but intriguing nonetheless: ‘And when did she [Californian’s near ship] begin to go on again? ‘From the Second Officer’s report she commenced about 1 o’clock — Ten minutes to 1’ (question 7070). Ten minutes to one!

  Meanwhile there is a third party who does specify a time. Apprentice Officer James Gibson says he returned to the bridge at 12.55 a.m.; five minutes to one, and his testimony is very different to Stone’s:

  7463. A little later than that, did the Second Officer, Mr Stone, say anything to you about this ship? — At five minutes to one.

  7464. What was it he told you? — That she had fired five rockets.

  7465. That was at five minutes to one? — Yes.

  7466. Had you not been on the bridge all the time? — No, Sir. I went down at twenty-five minutes to, and came up at five minutes to one.

  7467. You went down at twenty-five minutes to one and came up at five minutes to one, and it is when you come up that this message is given? — Yes.

  So we have Stone saying that five rockets were seen close to the unidentified ship up to 1.15 a.m. or perhaps 1.10 a.m. And we have Gibson saying he was told of five rockets fired by the time he came back as early as 12.55 a.m. Which is it? Gibson was with Stone from ‘five minutes to one’ onwards. He does not report Stone whistling down the speaking tube to Lord to report rockets in his presence. Here is Gibson:

  7476. Now, I just want to get what happened after that. You have told me that the Second Officer said to you that the ship had fired five rockets? — Yes.

  7477. Did he tell you anything else about what he had been doing while you had not been there? — He told me that he had reported it to the Captain.

  7478. Did he tell you what the Captain had instructed him to do? — Yes.

  7479. What was it? — To call her up on the Morse light.

&nbs
p; 7480. Did he tell you whether he had tried to call her up on the Morse light? — Yes.

  7481. Had he? — Yes.

  7482. What had been the result? — She had not answered him, but fired more rockets.

  Gibson is told by Stone of five rockets fired. Stone had reported to the captain, who instructed him to Morse the steamer. But look carefully at question 7482. This clearly suggests Stone called the captain after the second sighting confirmed that the lights were indeed rockets. The ship had then fired more rockets, and Stone had not taken further action. So far Gibson’s account entirely bears out that of Lord, and rather contradicts Stone in certain salient features. Importantly, Gibson’s own original statement, composed for the captain while the Californian was still at sea, says explicitly that Stone contacted the captain after the second rocket, not the fifth. It is all we would expect from what common sense would tell us. Here is Gibson’s original statement, 18 April 1912:

  Arriving on the bridge again at that time, the Second Officer told me that the other ship, which was then about three and a half points on the starboard bow, had fired five rockets and he also remarked that after seeing the second one, to make sure he was not mistaken, he had told the Captain, through the speaking tube and that the Captain had told him to watch her and keep calling her up on the Morse light.

  Stone himself will now provide direct evidence to suggest that he saw rockets number three, four and five only after he told his captain about white lights in the sky (these lights being the first two rockets). In his first account, written for Lord while at sea on 18 April, Stone makes no mention of Morsing the stranger in the time between Lord’s call up to the bridge to ask if the visitor had moved (12.40 a.m.) and his own report of rockets in a call down to Lord. Stone in his earliest version of events did not mention carrying out any Morsing in the interval between these two conversations with Lord. But, in his British evidence, Stone suggests differently: ‘When did you call her up on the Morse lamp – after the five rockets were seen? — Previously, and during the time that they were being sent up’ (7875). It is known that he had called her up previously, before Lord rang up with his question, but it now appears that Stone, with no further Morsing, rang down to his captain to report only one certain rocket, possibly two. It was at this point that he was told to ‘go on Morsing’. This would mean he was then Morsing ‘during the time that they were being sent up’ – meaning the three further rockets to make five in total. This further serves to confirm that the call to Lord to report lights, as Gibson indicated, was made after only two rockets were fired.

  There is another reason why both Gibson and Lord could be correct in asserting that Stone reported only one ‘definite’ rocket following the initial flash in the sky that ‘might have been anything’. And that compelling reason was provided by Stone himself:

  7938. Was the steamer altering her bearing to your vessel during that period of time? — Yes, from the time I saw the first rocket.

  7939. The first of the eight that you have told us of? — The second – excepting the first flash, which I was not sure about.

  7940. You say you saw the steamer altering her bearing with regard to you? — She bore first SSE and she was altering her bearing towards the south towards west.

  Stone is saying that the steamer was moving from the time of what is effectively the second rocket. This is an absolute trigger moment for Stone. He has been asked to report to his captain if the nearby steamer should move or alter her bearing. One can imagine the conversation at this point, and the following is this author’s guess at what could have been said: ‘Sir, that steamer is going away now. She has definitely fired one rocket. There was another flash earlier, which I wasn’t sure about. I Morsed her before all this and got no reply’. Such a possibility is testified to by both Gibson and Lord, although they do disagree on times. Stone, on the other hand, never specifies in any of his direct evidence the actual number of rockets he first told Lord about. Here again is Stone stating categorically when he first saw the steamer move – the very action he was told to report instantly – in yet more pieces of testimony:

  8037. Then you had seen them [rockets] from this steamer? — A steamer that is in distress does not steam away from you, my Lord.

  8038. You saw these [rockets] before this steamer steamed away from you? — I saw them at the same time the ship started to alter her bearings.

  And again:

  8042. I said that the ship was altering her bearing from the time she showed her first rocket, she commenced altering her bearing by the compass.

  8043. Is not this accurate? When you came on to your watch at twelve o’clock this ship was stationary? — Yes.

  8044. And except for a change in her position towards 2.40 she was stationary all the time? — No, she was not stationary.

  8045. Was she moving? — She started to move as soon as I saw the first rocket. She was stationary up to that time. She was stationary by our compass, at least so far as I could tell.

  8048/9. When did you send word to the Captain that you noticed her steaming away? — At 10 minutes past 1. I reported to the Master that she was altering her bearings, which was the same thing.

  Here, at question 8049, we have Stone calling the master because the steamer is beginning to steam away, altering her bearings. This is exactly what the master wanted to know about. The rocket is unusual but almost incidental; in Stone’s mind the main news to impart is that the steamer is leaving! There is no urgency to the report, because the steamer is leaving and has merely fired a rocket or two rockets, perhaps in farewell? As Stone says (question 8037): ‘A steamer that is in distress does not steam away from you, my Lord’. The stricken Titanic, firing rockets, never steamed away…

  We can see from the evidence of Lord, Gibson and Stone himself that it is a real possibility that the first the captain knows about a change to the nearby steamer is that she has begun to steam. She has fired only one definite rocket. That is Lord’s level of knowledge around 1 a.m. Californian time. In Lord’s mind, the steamer is going away. The rocket or rockets are confusing. He wants to know more and has instructed Stone to find out more by Morse lamp. But his initial impression is this:

  6917. What did you think he was sending up a rocket for? — I thought it was acknowledging our signals, our Morse lamp. A good many steamers do not use the Morse lamp.

  Whether this conversation happened before 12.55, or at 1.10, or at 1.15, hardly matters. Captain Stanley Lord has no reason in the world to imagine that any steamer is firing distress rockets. This is the only conversation that matters, because it is only at 2.05 a.m. Lord is next told about further rockets. By that stage those left aboard the Titanic by her departed lifeboats were beyond all hope. If Lord is told about a vessel steaming away, and if he is told about her firing only one definite rocket (a version of events that Gibson appears to support), then Captain Lord has no possible way of discerning that anything remotely resembling a disaster is unfolding. And Lord sticks to his story throughout – no matter how much it might make him appear to be a barefaced liar about being told of only one rocket. Stone, on the other hand, maintains throughout that he saw the nearby steamer begin to move after she had fired her ‘first’ real rocket: yet another indication that she was not the Titanic. He also maintains (question 8049) that he told the captain about the ship’s movement for the very first time at 1.10 a.m. Yet, in his original statement, composed on his own within three days of the disaster, Stone writes – in total contradiction – that he had seen fully five rockets by this time:

  Between then and about 1.15 I observed three more the same as before, and all white in colour. I, at once, whistled down the speaking tube and you came from the chartroom into your own room and answered. I reported seeing these lights in the sky…

  By the time of the British Inquiry, it is Stone who has changed his story. It is Stone who creates uncertainty as to when he first noticed that the steamer nearby was beginning to move, about the exact time that he commu
nicated this fact to the master, and as to how many rockets he told the captain about.

  Now, as a sworn witness, he mentions no specific number of rockets in his account of the first communication initiated with his captain. Lord and Gibson, on the other hand, are consistent in their separate accounts, apart from the issue of the time at which Stone rang down, which is certainly far less important than what Stone actually said. On this basis, Lord’s ‘one rocket’ evidence is fully worthy of credulity. It is corroborated by Gibson, who came onto the bridge to find Stone having failed in his Morse conversation attempts by seeing only rockets for reply. Yet Stone’s account of that crucial first conversation with the master is contradicted – not only by the other two principals – but also, as seen above, by himself.

  LORD’S RESPONSE

  It is difficult to piece together the crucial conversation between Lord and Stone, largely because Stone is repeatedly vague about it:

  7827. After a time did you make any communication to the Captain? — Yes.

  7828. How? — By means of the speaking tube.

  7829. What did you communicate to him? — I communicated that I had seen white lights in the sky in the direction of this other steamer, which I took to be white rockets.

  7830. What time was it you gave him that information? — Just about 1.10.

  7831. Had you seen white lights? — Yes.

  As we have seen in the last section, Gibson and Lord suggest Stone may have reported those ‘white lights’ after seeing just two of them, and only one that he concluded was a rocket. It is noticeable that Stone repeatedly avoids saying in evidence how many rockets or white lights he reported, as in his monosyllabic reply to question 7831. There is no doubt, however, that he creates the strong impression that he reported five. Such a scenario would immediately transfer a lot of responsibility to Lord. But if this is what Stone is seeking to do, even perhaps unconsciously, there is an obvious question to be asked: why did a responsible Officer of the Watch allow five rockets to go by before informing the master? This question is all the more pertinent when set against Stone’s own insistence that he noticed the other ship moving from the ‘first rocket’, yet waited for more rockets before communicating to Lord the very news which the captain had asked to be informed about. Finally, on this point, it should be noted that nowhere in his evidence does Captain Lord himself seek to blame his underlings or express any belief that he was let down by his crew. Lord is loyal to those serving with him, and does not insist that any are wrong or mistaken, being content simply to state his own case. Yet he must have seen that the evidence of Stone, with its inconsistencies, was deflecting all the responsibility onto him as master. Stone does not leave this conclusion up to the inference of the reader; it is quite clear that he believes the situation was in Lord’s hands: ‘I just took them as white rockets, and informed the Master and left him to judge’ (7853). This is Stone abrogating responsibility, particularly in light of what it appears he actually conveyed to Lord, who is only as good as the information he receives from the officer up top. Stone’s evasions are in stark contrast with Captain Lord’s own evaluation of Stone: