by Senan Molony
7697. What did you think they were sent up for? — I thought they were some private signals.
Gibson appears to be suspecting two contradictory things at once – that is, if he is to be believed about his list. He thought he was witnessing private signals (company signals) from a ship that he also thought was sliding heavily to starboard! A most unfortunate state of affairs, but perhaps the truth is that he only saw puzzling lights.
Gibson, in evidence, has already mentioned the starboard list (contradicted by the evidence of those on the Titanic) when he tells the court of his belief that the steamer was sending only private signals. And he was certainly well satisfied with Stone’s explanation that the ship under view was manoeuvring to avoid obstructions before coming back on her course again. We can assume this, since the captain was not notified again (according to Gibson’s timings), until more than an hour had elapsed from the time when Gibson walked on to the bridge at 12.55 a.m.
A FLASH AND A FAINT STREAK
We return to the matter of the ‘deck flash’.
In Gibson’s original written statement for Captain Stanley Lord of the Californian, composed on board that ship within a few days of the tragedy while still at sea, he wrote that he had been told by Stone on arriving on the bridge that the nearby tramp steamer had fired rockets. And this is what he says happened next:
I then watched her for some time and then went over to the keyboard and called her up continuously for about three minutes. I then got the binoculars and had just got them focused on the vessel when I observed a white flash apparently on her deck, followed by a faint streak towards the sky which then burst into white stars.
It has been said that because Gibson saw this flash on her deck, the steamer they were looking at must have been the one firing all the rockets. The counter-argument, of course, is that if Gibson really can see a flash on her deck – and if the sole vessel firing rockets is the Titanic – then Gibson has no excuse for not immediately identifying this vessel as a gigantic passenger steamer, the largest ship ever to go down the ways. And if he can see a flash on her deck, then he must be extraordinarily close to this monster of the seas, whose deck was 70ft above the water. But Gibson does not perceive any height to that deck – at least, he does not mention it.
Gibson can also see a ‘faint streak’ towards the sky, which then bursts into stars. But this is what Lightoller, second officer of the Titanic, had to say about the rockets his ship fired:
14150. Now then, about signals from your boat. You have rockets on board, have you not? Were they fired? — You quite understand they are termed rockets, but they are actually distress signals; they do not leave a trail of fire.
14151. Distress signals? — Yes. I just mention that, not to confuse them with the old rockets, which leave a trail of fire.
It is not disputed that the Californian saw the Titanic’s distress rockets. But Second Officer Stone, who was on watch throughout, did not see any trail nor any ‘faint streak’. And one should not expect him to by Lightoller’s evidence (although Boxhall did say (question 15397): ‘you see a luminous tail behind them’).
In fact, Californian Chief Officer George Stewart stated that Stone was emphatic that the rockets he saw did not leave a trail:
8863. Did you ask him [Stone] what kind of rockets they were – whether they made any report or anything of that kind? — [Stewart] Yes Sir.
8864. What did he say? — He said, No, they did not make any report, and they did not leave any trail in the sky, and they did not seem to go any higher than the masthead lights.
Indeed, in Stone’s earliest written account, composed at sea on 18 April 1912, the direct equivalent of Gibson’s statement, he had this to say:
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.
Two things are perhaps instructive about Gibson’s early flash-on-deck account:
1) Captain Lord retained it and later made it publicly available, when on the face of it his position would be stronger if this reference simply did not exist;
2) Gibson, when called to give evidence, no longer mentioned seeing a flash on deck or a streak skywards (he never saw Morsing from the stranger, involving a multiplicity of flashes, as sent by Titanic). Instead he abandoned those contentions.
This is what Gibson said to the British Inquiry of the first rocket he saw:
7495. …Well, I called her up for about three minutes, and I had just got the glasses on to her when I saw her fire the rocket. That was the first one.
7497. You say you had just got the glasses on to her. Did you see it through the glasses? — Yes… [No mention of a flash on deck, or a streak skywards. And Gibson soon gets another opportunity to comment again on this first rocket he saw]
7502. When you got your glasses on the vessel and saw the first rocket going up through them, could you make out the vessel at all? — No, Sir, just her lights. [He does not mention seeing the ‘flash on the deck’. Now he can only see the lights of the vessel]
7503. [The Commissioner] Still this glare of light? — Yes.
7504. Did that indicate, that glare of light, that this was a passenger steamer? — No, Sir.
Gibson still maintains that he was looking at a tramp steamer, 4 to 7 miles away (questions 7548–9). He will repeatedly maintain (7706, 7728) that there was nothing at all about her to resemble a passenger steamer. He could not see how many funnels she had. In this overall context, one is tempted to the conclusion that Gibson saw no such flash on deck and no streak to the sky and was initially over-imaginative about what he saw.
Alternatively, he did see a single rocket fired by a tramp steamer, purpose unknown (possibly to respond to Californian’s signals, as Lord thought, or to acknowledge other rockets being fired by a ship further to the southward,as Stone suggested).
But the Titanic saw no answering rocket – although some claim to have seen lights elsewhere than off the port bow.
Perhaps the nearby stranger to the Californian did indeed fire one rocket, because this is what Stone declares all of a sudden in his British evidence:
7923. That pointed to this, that the rockets did come from this steamer? — It does, although I saw no actual evidence of their being fired from the deck of the steamer except in one case.
7924. [Mr Butler Aspinall] Which is the one case? — One rocket that I saw that appeared to be much brighter than the others.
7925. Was that one of the five or one of the three? — One of the three. [Seen by Stone and Gibson together]
7926. That, you felt confident, came from the vessel that was showing you these navigation lights? — I am sure of it.
7927. That you were sure of? — Yes.
7928. And you had further confirmation in the fact as you have told my Lord, that when the navigation lights altered their bearing, the rockets altered their bearings in a corresponding manner? — Yes.
7929. That would tell you as a sailor that it was almost certain that those rockets were being fired from that steamer which was showing you those navigation lights? — Almost certain, yes.
7930. I suppose, at any rate, now you have not any doubt but that that ship which was showing you the navigation lights was the ship which was showing you these series of rockets? — Except, as I say, that they were very low; they did not appear to go high enough to me.
It is sometimes said that Stone, as some kind of ‘co-defendant’, had a motive for claiming the rockets were ‘low-lying’ and seeming to come from a greater distance beyond the near ship. This reference gives the lie to his lying – because he himself suggests he is close to a vessel firing a rocket or rockets.
It is impossible to know what Gibson actually saw with his first rocket that night in 1912. Because it was his first sighting, it might have become more dramatic in his mind. The streak skywards is entir
ely out-of-keeping with Stone’s low-lying rockets reaching only halfway to the height of the nearby ship’s masthead light. And it defies not only Stone’s evidence, but some from the RMS Titanic.
Stone, on the other hand, described no qualitative difference at the time it happened between any of the rockets, but later, in court, cites one brighter than the rest. He now seems to ‘remember’ the flash that Gibson in court will ‘forget’.
Again, these inconsistencies are evidence of testimony given in good faith – the two men have no agreed script. One omits an inconsistency and the other brings it up, unhelpful and all as it is to their case.
Meanwhile, were it not for Stone’s later remarks, we could argue that, because Gibson himself has discarded his purple description of the first rocket, the appropriate course is for us to discard it too.
The reader will have to make up his or her own mind as to what is happening here.
12
A STEAMER STEAMING
This is Stone’s original statement, 18 April 1912:
The other steamer meanwhile had shut in her red side light and showed us her stern light, and her masthead’s glow was just visible.
I observed the steamer to be steaming away to the SW and altering her bearing fast. We were also swinging slowly all the time through S and at 1.50 were heading about WSW and the other steamer bearing SW by W.
At 2 a.m. the vessel was steaming away fast and only just her stern light was visible and bearing SW a half W.
There is an important distinction here that was not grasped by counsel at the British Inquiry. Heading means the direction a ship’s head is pointing, and does not necessarily indicate that she is going that way – it has nothing to do with her position from the observer. Bearing has everything to do with an object’s position from the observer.
Apprentice officer Gibson’s account (his original statement, from around 18 April 1912) does not conflict with Stone’s analysis, except that he suggests Stone thought the nearby stranger was steering away slowly instead of altering her bearing fast:
Shortly after that I observed that her side light had disappeared but her masthead light was just visible, and the Second Officer remarked after taking another bearing of her, that she was slowly steering away towards the SW. Between one point on the starboard bow and one point on the port bow I called her up on the Morse lamp but received no answer.
The British Inquiry expected Stone and Gibson to be able to see a green light – the departing steamer’s starboard light as she moved to the south-west. They did not see it, and instead saw only the stern light. Here is Gibson:
7769. Did you continue to see her red light? — Yes, it was about 2 points on the starboard bow.
7770. When the officer told you she was going away to the SW were you still seeing her red light? — No, it had disappeared then.
7771. Did you ever see her green? — No.
7777. I understand you to say you got to WSW? — Yes.
7778. What was causing that? — We were swinging round.
7779. You told us you never saw the green light of this vessel? — No.
7786. Did you see her turn round? — No.
And this is Stone:
8056. Did you ever see this vessel’s green light? — No.
8057. If she was going away SW she must have gone under your stern? — No, she went across our bow.
8058. Were you turned round? — We were slowly swinging.
8059. She could not cross your bow showing you a red light? — Why not?
8060. Well, I do not think so; I may be wrong? — That is the light she would show, her red light.
8061. If you turn round – heading WSW. I think you said? — We were heading ENE at the beginning of the watch and slowly turned round to WSW. When I lost sight of this steamer we would be heading then about WSW and she would be about 2 points on our port bow. I saw then her stern light, not her red light. She shut in her red light.
8062. You must have seen her green light if it was showing, before she shut in her stern light? — If she shut in her red light [Stone corrects counsel, who seems hopelessly confused]. I did not say she shut in her stern light. She did not shut her stern light in at all the whole period…
8069. And she goes away to the SW? — Yes as near as I could judge. That was approximate.
8070. She must open her green light to you? — No.
8071. [The Commissioner] Is not that so? She must have opened her green light to you? — To steam away to the SW?
8072. Yes? — No.
Stone does not entertain the landlubber’s notions, even though they are those of the president of the Court of Inquiry. Nonetheless, just consider the lamentable lack of understanding displayed in what is an Admiralty case, with Lord Mersey assisted by no fewer than five nautical assessors. Why is Stone’s entirely reasonable exposition of what happened being so powerfully resisted?
Is it, perhaps, because the Titanic, which the court would like to have facing north while sinking (towards the Californian – to accommodate Groves and little light) cannot next turn 180 degrees to show her stern light to Stone?
Stone had to demonstrate his concept by using two little model ships in court!
He would have held the model Californian bows stationary for effect (we can represent the bows here with the symbol ‘r’) while passing the departing ship from right to left in front of them (‘<’ across at right angles). This means the other vessel is showing the red light on her port side all the while. As this vessel then turns to starboard (represented by ‘’) she closes in her red and exposes the white stern light instead.
It will be seen at once that if this other vessel were to be the sinking and immobile Titanic, then she cannot possibly change her bearing (her direction from the observer) as dramatically as Stone describes.
There then follows this exchange:
8079. How far did you get? — To WSW.
8080. That is about it? — Yes.
8081. Now where does she go to? — To the SW.
8083. [The Commissioner] She went across your bows? — It was merely our swinging that brought her across our bows.
8085. [The Commissioner] How did she do it without showing her green light? — I did not see her green light at all. She ported. She shut in her red side light and showed her stern light.
Stone says she ‘ported’. He means ‘ported her helm’, or turned to starboard, which was the effect in 1912 of porting one’s helm (to go to port, one would starboard the helm). What he should have said for the layman was that she turned right as she went away – not turning around left to go away, as Lord Mersey and his counsel seem to think, in which case she would indeed show her green light to the Californian to the northward.
Still Mersey cannot grasp it. And Stone displays further patience in his explanation:
8087. [The Commissioner] She must have shown her green light, you know? — We are heading WSW and the steamer’s stern was SW ahead of us. All we would see is her stern light. I did not see any side light at all after she started to steam away.
This lack of understanding by the court in 1912 was seized upon by the author of a book published in 1993. In The Ship That Stood Still, which seeks to implicate the Californian as Titanic’s mystery ship, it is claimed that for the departing steamer not to have shown her green light, she must have reversed to the south-west. This attempt to make a nonsense of Stone and Gibson’s concurring evidence – and thereby liars of them both – is a transparent deceit.
A VISIT TO THE SKIPPER
Here again is Stone’s original statement:
I sent Gibson down to you and told him to wake you and tell you we had seen altogether eight white rockets and that the steamer had gone out of sight to the SW. Also that we were heading WSW.
When he came back he reported he had told you we had called him [the steamer] up repeatedly and got no answer, and you replied: ‘All right, are you sure there were no colours in them,’ and Gibson replied ‘No, t
hey were all white’.
And here is Stone in evidence:
7948. At the end… did you then send Gibson to report to the Captain? — Yes.
7949. What report did you tell Gibson to give to the Captain? — I told Gibson to go down to the Master and be sure and wake him up and tell him that altogether we had seen eight of these white lights, like white rockets, in the direction of this other steamer; that this steamer was disappearing in the SW; and that we had called her up repeatedly on the Morse lamp and received no information whatsoever…
7952. When Gibson returned did he tell you what had passed between him and the Captain? — He told me he had woken the Captain up and given him my report; the Captain asked him the time and asked him if he were sure there were no colours in them, red or green.
7953. You mean the rockets? — Gibson assured him they were white rockets.
Compare Stone with Gibson. Here is Gibson’s original statement:
Just after two o’clock she was then about two points on the port bow, she disappeared from sight and nothing was seen of her again.
The Second Officer then said, ‘Call the Captain and tell him that that ship has disappeared in the SW, that we are heading WSW, and that altogether she has fired eight rockets.’ I then went down below to the chartroom and called the Captain and told him, and he asked me if there were any colours in the rockets. I told him that they were all white. He then asked me what time it was, and I went on the bridge and told the Second Officer what the Captain had said.
And this is Gibson in evidence:
7552. What were the orders which the Second Officer gave you when she disappeared? — ‘Call the Captain and tell him that that ship has disappeared in the south-west; that we are heading west-south-west, and that she has fired altogether eight rockets’.