Titanic and the Mystery Ship

by Senan Molony

  But the evidence also shows that, from 12.10 a.m. to 2 a.m., the Californian experienced a swing of sixteen points (from east-north-east to west-south-west). This is an average of about seven minutes per point. It would appear that the swing was faster at some points and slower at others, depending on the orientation of the Californian in relation to the current. And just to confuse things further, there is a third marker. Stone in his original statement discloses a swing between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. of four points, from west-south-west to west-north-west. This is thirty minutes per point! Thus it is unsafe to rely on Gibson’s bearings for exact times as to the rockets he saw. But what we can say from his other language is that the intervals certainly do not appear to be as short as cited by Officer Boxhall of the Titanic of ‘probably five minutes’ (question 15399) for those he personally fired from the White Star vessel.

  Most likely there are substantial gaps between all rockets seen, since only three were seen between 1 a.m. and an hour later when the decision was taken to report to the captain. It is now after 2 a.m. At this point, Gibson goes below, tells the captain the ship has disappeared, having fired a total of eight rockets. Lord asks the time and Gibson says (question 7565): ‘Five minutes past two by the wheelhouse clock’.

  The disparity in the apparent rate of drift, incidentally, may suggest that the ship under observation had moved quicker along the horizon than current could bring her – and was therefore steaming. But the consideration of the rocket intervals has served its purpose, since there are two broad possibilities for the ship seen by the Californian. Either she is the Titanic, in which case she is firing distress rockets highly irregularly, with large gaps between some, contrary to what the distress signal regulations provide, or alternatively, she is not the Titanic, as she is not drifting in a uniform way, as we know the Titanic did, the White Star liner being undeniably stopped while firing her rockets. It is submitted therefore that Gibson’s observations mean that the ship he saw was not drifting uniformly, as she should have done in a normal current. Currents cannot easily change their speed! Instead it seems that Gibson’s ship bearings (at the time the various rockets were fired) suggest that the speed, initially slow, picked up during the material period, only to slow down again. The observed vessel could have contributed to this apparent anomaly if she was herself moving, thereby going through compass points comparatively rapidly. As Stone says:

  7962. Cannot you express any opinion? — I should say that at different times she [the ship under observation] was going at different speeds.

  This scenario fits in, not with an immobile ship drifting in a current, but with a steamer steaming under her own motive power – ‘steaming away’, as Stone saw it. And if she is moving under her own power, then she cannot be the Titanic.

  STONE’S TIMING OF ROCKETS

  Be warned! There are irreconcilable differences between Stone and Gibson as to the frequency of the three rockets they saw in their time together before their stranger ‘disappeared’ or steamed away. Stone says: ‘I saw the last of the rockets as near as I can say about 1.40’ (7935). Let us go back to the start. Stone testified to initially reporting rockets to the captain by speaking tube at 1.10 a.m. He does not say in the witness box how many he reported, but tells Gibson when the latter returns to the bridge that five have been fired. Stone said he saw these first five rockets ‘at intervals of about three or four minutes’ (7842). After Gibson arrives, more rockets are seen. Stone states:

  7891. How many? — Three, in the direction of this steamer.

  7892. In quick succession? — About the same period as the others.

  But this ‘same period’ is clearly impossible, because there is half an hour between 1.10 (initial report to captain) and 1.40 (last rocket seen, according to Stone). The separations here are ten minutes, at a crude average, not ‘intervals of three or four minutes’. If all rockets he saw had ‘the same period as the others’, then all rockets would be concluded by 1.15 – not at 1.40. That is because the four-minute gap would have run as follows: 1) 12.45; 2) 12.49; 3) 12.53; 4) 12.57; 5) 1.01 (Gibson arrives); 6) 1.05; 7) 1.09; 8) 1.13. Stone is clearly too casual in his answers and all rockets were simply not fired in such rapid succession. Otherwise they could not have stretched to the 1.40 a.m. finish time that he himself specifies! In his first report for the captain, written at sea, he said: ‘At about 12.45 I observed a flash of light in the sky’, which is the starting-point illustrated above. In this written statement, he said five rockets were fired between 12.45 and ‘about 1.15’. But Gibson says he arrived on the bridge at 12.55, when five had already been fired! Stone’s evidence of ‘three or four minutes’ would have all eight rockets finishing by 1.13 a.m. But this is just after the time Stone says he first rang down to advise the captain (1.10 a.m.), which by common agreement was in Gibson’s absence. So once again, Stone’s timings cannot be correct.

  Stone’s account is of seeing eight rockets between 12.45 and 1.40 – or nearly one hour of firings. The mean rocket gap here is nearly every eight minutes, since the clock starts at zero from 12.45 (rocket No.1) and there are another seven rockets to go in fifty-five minutes. Seven multiplied by eight is fifty-six. These lapses are not short: 1) 12.45; 2) 12.53; 3) 1.01; 4) 1.09; 5) 1.17; 6) 1.25; 7) 1.33; 8) 1.41. Of course Stone’s timings are also wrong because they would have condemned Gibson to seeing six rockets instead of the three he did see – if Gibson’s return time of 12.55 a.m. is not in error…

  Relying on plain old common sense, what we can assuredly say is that there does not appear to have been any rapidity between the latter three rockets that these two men saw together because they did not comment on it (and frequency of signalling, in any context, tends to suggest urgency, if not desperation). Put another way, the reverse proof is that the rockets they saw together did not lead them to any action. This in itself is a strong indicator of infrequency.

  It might also appear strange that Stone waited for a full twenty minutes after seeing the last rocket – at 1.40 a.m. by his own account – before sending Gibson down at 2 a.m. to tell the captain that she had fired altogether eight rockets and steamed away. Gibson says he saw three rockets between 12.55 and a time that we have seen appears to be close to 2 a.m., based on his account of drift in his original statement: ‘When at about one point on the port bow she fired a rocket [the last they saw]… Just after two o’clock she was then about two points on the port bow’.

  On the other hand, Stone and Gibson do not know the rockets have stopped until some time after they have stopped. If they are seen at intervals of seven to eight minutes, they might wait ten minutes or more before concluding they have stopped. This brings us to 1.50 a.m. or later if Stone’s 1.40 a.m. for the last rocket is correct. Stone might then wait a few more minutes before definitely concluding that they have stopped and sending down Gibson. Neither man can know in advance which one is the last rocket.

  Captain Lord wanted to know about changes in the other ship’s position and bearing. By 2 a.m. the other ship, judged to have been steaming away to the south-west, is almost out of sight. It is now logical to make that second report to the captain. It appears from Gibson’s account that the steamer, towards the latter part of their observation, was moving away more rapidly. If point-to-point gaps were indeed seven minutes by now, it would mean that, as Gibson was sent down to tell Lord just after 2 a.m., the last rocket had been fired at 1.54 a.m., Californian time. This clashes with Stone’s 1.40 estimate, but would tie in with his account, not of a drifting ship, but of one actively moving (‘I should say that at different times she was going at different speeds’ (7962)). And as he wrote in his original statement: ‘I observed the steamer to be steaming away to the south-west, and altering her bearing fast’. It also seems arguable that the last rocket would be fired shortly before the observed vessel finally seemed to be disappearing, so that the combination of both should lead to Gibson being sent down to the captain – while Stone watched in case of more rockets. The truth might thus lie
somewhere in between 1.40 and 1.54, Californian time. The timings offered by both men are inconsistent – but at least Gibson has been down below on a few occasions and has seen the wheelhouse clock at least once, at 2.05 a.m. There was no clock on the upper bridge.

  It is important to point out that nowhere does Gibson say that the rockets he saw were fired in close succession (if Stone is right about three or four minute intervals, then Gibson must inescapably know, and know very soon, that several rockets have been fired within a very brief period; in these circumstances, would Gibson himself not want to tell the captain of the rapid-fire developments?)

  All the above examination of timings and intervals must be compared to what the 1912 distress regulations specifically say, as previously seen:

  1199. [The Attorney General] Article 31, dealing with distress signals: ‘When a vessel is in distress and requires assistance from other vessels, or from the shore, the following shall be the signals to be used or displayed by her, either together or separately’; and then, as your Lordship pointed out, ‘At night’ number three is ‘Rockets or shells, throwing stars of any colour or description, fired one at a time, at short intervals’.

  Stone’s suggestion of short intervals in one part of his evidence can be disproved, while Gibson’s intervals are not short. And Stone meanwhile gave this reply in another part of his evidence:

  8039. But for a long time while this ship was stationary like your own, you noticed at frequent intervals that she was sending up rocket after rocket? — No.

  All of which goes to suggest that either the Titanic was paying no respect to what the distress regulations actually required, and fired only eight rockets over a long period –almost as a chore – or else the Californian missed some, or many, of Titanic’s distress rockets.

  Could this have been because the Titanic was over the horizon and a great distance away? We shall return to this important point when we examine various claims by Titanic witnesses as to the number of rockets fired in total.

  11

  APPEARANCES

  Captain Lord, we remember, asked whether the rocket he was first told about was a company signal. Stone replied he did not know. Lord prescribed more Morsing, ordered the apprentice to be sent down ‘at once’ as soon as her name became known, and fell asleep. We have just seen that rockets at night do not automatically mean distress. The regulations, dictated by the Attorney General in the British Inquiry (question 1199), say distress signals at night could be, as one option, not the exclusive option, ‘rockets or shells, throwing stars of any colour or description, fired one at a time, at short intervals’. Different regulations were in force for daytime distress! The regulations were vague. And the truth is that rockets were fired at night for all kinds of reasons. It may be hard for the modern reader to grasp this fact, but Fourth Officer Boxhall of the Titanic makes it quite clear (US Inquiry p.910):

  Senator Fletcher: It seems that an officer on the Californian reported to the commander of the Californian that he had seen signals; but he said they were not distress signals. Do you know whether or not under the regulations in vogue, and according to the custom at sea, rockets fired, such as the Titanic sent up, would be regarded as anything but distress signals?

  Boxhall: I am hardly in a position to state that, because it is the first time I have seen distress rockets sent off, and I could not very well judge what they would be like, standing as I was underneath them firing them myself. I do not know what they would look like in the distance.

  Sen. Fletcher: Have you ever seen any rockets sent off such as you say are private signals?

  Boxhall: Yes, sir.

  Sen. Fletcher: Under what circumstances?

  Boxhall: Ships passing in the night, signalling to one another.

  So Boxhall has seen rockets fired by ships at night and interpreted them as signalling, not as distress. Stone interprets the rockets as signals, and so does Lord, asking if the rockets are company signals. Indeed, Lord himself, ironically, had fired distress signals as a handy identification custom among ships of the West India Co. in which he previously served. In an incident recounted in Leslie Harrison’s 1986 book A Titanic Myth, Lord was instructed by his captain to fire a distress rocket as a greeting from the SS Darien to the SS Atlantian – which in return fired one back.

  Meanwhile Apprentice Officer James Gibson will also see rockets from the deck of the Californian in 1912 – and he will also conclude that they are signals, not indications of distress:

  7696. Did you know when the rockets were being sent up that they were being sent up as danger signals? — No.

  7697. What did you think they were sent up for? — I thought they were some private signals.

  7698. Who told you they were private signals? — Nobody told me.

  7699. Had you ever seen private signals of that kind? — No.

  7700. And never heard of private signals of that kind? — I have heard of private rockets, private signal rockets.

  Both men watching did not know what those rockets meant and were hardly in a position to tell their captain. There is nothing to distinguish distress rockets from any other rockets at night except the ‘short intervals’. Otherwise they can be of ‘any colour or description’. A recipe for confusion. And confusion is what resulted.

  COMPANY SIGNALS

  Ships used rockets for signalling at night during Titanic’s time. Almost all liners – including the Titanic herself – carried ‘company signal’ rockets showing different colours for identification purposes. This, after all, is why Captain Lord took an interest in rocket colour. He hoped to identify the shipping line to which the stranger belonged. After all, there was no point in asking about colour in the case of distress rockets, which could be ‘of any colour or description’. Lord said: ‘We sometimes get these company’s signals which resemble rockets; they do not shoot as high and they do not explode’ (6937). Stone saw the rockets as ‘low-lying’ and ‘half the height of the masthead light’. The first white flash in the sky had been ‘immediately above this other steamer’ (7832). And here is Lord:

  7290. Do just think? — Company signals usually have some colours in them.

  7291. So that if they were white it would make it quite plain to you they were distress signals? — No, I understand some companies have white.

  There was no colour for distress. Mayday rockets could be of any colour. Here are further questions about company signals (British Inquiry, questions 8006 and 8007):

  The Commissioner: What sort of signal is it [a company signal]?

  Mr Laing: It is a made-up signal to show what particular line the ship belongs to.

  The Commissioner: But how is the signal different from distress signals?

  Mr Laing: I think they burn different coloured flares or candles, or something of that sort. Sometimes they throw rockets. They throw balls, I know, sometimes – Roman candles. [Mr Laing seems personal proof of the confusion. He ‘thinks’ that ‘something of the sort’ sometimes happens…]

  The Commissioner: But Roman candles do not go up in the air. [But they did…]

  Mr Laing: No, but they throw up balls. It is dealt with by section 733 of the Merchant Shipping Act.

  More confusion. The only one who expressed certainty was Charles Lightoller, second officer of the Titanic, who was understandably aggrieved at the Titanic’s nearby ship not coming to the rescue:

  14169. Are there signals of a definite kind and appearance that are known as distress signals? — Yes, there is no ship allowed on the high seas to fire a rocket or anything resembling a rocket unless she requires assistance [this statement does not accord with the reality, nor with the experience of his brother officer, Mr Boxhall, who has seen rockets fired at night, for signalling purposes].

  14170. If you had seen signals like those sent up from another ship would you have known, for certain what they were? — I have seen them and known immediately.

  14171. We have heard something about companies’ signals. Do they r
esemble these at all? — In no way, to my knowledge.

  14172. Would you have any difficulty in distinguishing one from the other? — I never have had.

  But Second Officer Lightoller also said of distress rockets, such as those fired from the Titanic:

  14153. What sort of light do they show? — A shell bursts at a great height in the air [several hundred feet], throwing out a great number of stars.

  Yet the strange signals seen by the Californian simply did not burst at a ‘great height’ over their nearby steamer. And this is another feature of company signals – Cunard had Roman candles fired ‘in quick succession’ to a height ‘not exceeding 150ft’; Hamburg–Amerika had the same, to a height ‘not exceeding 50ft’; Manchester Liners again ‘not exceeding 50ft’… And all three used them on the high seas, contrary to what Lightoller asserted. And incidentally, it might be asked why Cunard fired company rockets in ‘quick succession’ when they were operating within a system that equated ‘short intervals’ with distress!

  It is a reasonable assumption from the evidence above that Lord might also have initially thought of company signals because of something said about a lack of height in Stone’s first report. Here is Lord talking on this subject:

  6937. …We sometimes get these company’s signals which resemble rockets; they do not shoot as high… [That is exactly what Stone had seen; Stone who told the master about the lights and ‘left it for him to judge.’]

  Gibson now continues the story of what was seen between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., while Lord slept, and discloses the conversations that took place between himself and Stone:

  7515. What had you noticed between one o’clock and twenty minutes past one, looking at her through your glasses? — The Second Officer remarked to me, ‘Look at her now; she looks very queer out of the water; her lights look queer’.