by Senan Molony
This vessel, [Californian] … could steam as much as 13 knots, but was certainly able to steam 11 knots, and putting it even further than the five to seven miles, it still gave her ample time to get there…
Yet it took the Californian five times as long as it should have done, by the Attorney General’s own certainty (established on weight of Titanic evidence), to reach the scene next morning. The Californian quite simply took two and a half hours (from 6 a.m. to 8.30 a.m.) to reach the Carpathia’s side, although admittedly she went the long way – and still did not reach the actual sinking site.
We can also see a massive contradiction contained in these next remarks from the Attorney General about the Californian’s necessary proximity if the ship she sees is to be the Titanic – compared to the British Inquiry’s later anxiety that she should be pushed further away (British Inquiry, p.900): ‘She [Titanic] must have been within an easy distance in order that her masthead lights and her side lights were seen, as they were, by the Californian…’ There are no two ways about it. But Lord Mersey was determined to have his double-indemnity insurance. He would apply arguments from one scenario against difficulties arising in the other, and vice versa, fleeing from one refuge to another as pressure arose.
If Californian was close to Titanic, why did the latter ship not appear like the giant she was? If they were far, how could each ship see the other’s side lights (must be seen at 2 miles)? If they were close, why were the rockets low-lying? If they were far, how could they see a flickering masthead light and skylights, open windows, alleyways? If they were close why could they not hear the rocket explosions? And so on.
Yet there is another factor here too, which arises since the discovery of the Titanic wreck, found over 13 miles east of her SOS position – it is this: if the Titanic’s mystery ship is seen at 5 or 6 miles to the north-west of the wreck site, this being the actual sinking spot (because the Californian saw rockets to the south-east), and if the insistence remains that this enigma is the Californian, then the Californian is not stopped at the ice barrier. She is nowhere near the ice barrier, but still in miles and miles of open sea. And yet the Californian was stopped by the field ice! But let us experimentally accept Mersey’s distance of 8–10 miles, which was adopted purely and selfishly for the protection of the court’s judgement in its damning verdict.
Let us agree with Mersey that 8–10 miles was, in fact, the separation. It remains an enormous distance for either vessel to see coloured side lights, but let that pass. We now have a situation in which it is argued that the Titanic came to rest at 11.40 p.m., her time at a distance 8–10 miles from the stationary Californian. The Titanic had been doing 22 knots before she was halted. In the previous half hour, back to 11.10 p.m., she would therefore have steamed 11 nautical miles.
If she was 8–10 miles from the Californian at 11.40, then she was 19–21 miles from the Californian at 11.10 p.m. – when she was first seen by Groves (who specifies both times, from first noticing his ‘obliquely approaching’ steamer until she stopped in front of the icefield). The figure of 19–21 miles is reached by factoring in Titanic’s speed over the half an hour when Groves saw an approaching vessel, backtracked from Lord Mersey’s determination that the final gap between Titanic and mystery ship at 11.40 p.m. was 8–10 miles.
If this is true, then Groves was first seeing his oncoming vessel at a distance that was many miles over the Californian’s visible horizon. He could not have seen her light at 19–21 miles. Titanic’s speed until she stopped shows she made 11 nautical miles between 11.10 p.m. and 11.40 p.m. (half an hour at 22 knots). But Groves himself said this ship made only 5 miles in that half an hour – a Titanic trudge!
8384. You said when you first saw the ship she appeared to be about ten miles from you? — Ten to twelve, I said.
8385. When she came to a stop what was the distance? — Well, I should think about five to seven miles. [A declination of 5 miles]
By Lord Mersey’s own account, Groves could not have seen an approaching ship at 19–21 miles away at 11.10 p.m. But he did see a ship, as Lord had seen her forty minutes earlier, when he says he first discussed with Groves whether it could be a star. Even at 10.55 p.m. – fifteen minutes before Groves says he ‘noticed her first’ – the approaching ship light was being discussed on the Californian by Captain Lord, Evans, and Chief Engineer W.S.A. Mahon. Three witnesses, although Mahon was not called. Lord says he noticed her first at 10.30 p.m. Californian time and that she stopped at 11.30 p.m. (Groves claims 11.40 p.m. stop, Californian time). In an hour, the Titanic, wherever she is, will have steamed 22 nautical miles (she was powering along at 22 knots before she hit her berg at 11.40 p.m. her time).
But we must still add in Lord Mersey’s ‘stop-gap’ of 8–10 miles in order to get the Titanic’s distance from the Californian when Captain Lord first saw a light so low on the south-east horizon that it might have been a star – until it later resolved itself into a steamer. This means, according to Mersey’s final figures, that Captain Lord would have first seen the Titanic – for that is what Lord Mersey says she was – at a massive distance!
The Titanic did 22 miles to the west on a course of S 86 W in the hour to 11.30 p.m. She did at least 3 miles more for the extra ten minutes to 11.40 p.m., since that is the Californian time that Officer Groves said she stopped, and which Lord Mersey chose to accept for obvious reasons. That is a distance of 25 nautical miles from 10.30 p.m. until 11.40 p.m. stop. She is then said to bear 8–10 miles south-south-east of the Californian, making two sides of a triangle where the closing of a triangle against these two sides will give the direct distance that Captain Lord first saw her light at 10.30 p.m. If we apply trigonometry, assuming a 10 mile final separation, this works out at a gigantic and impossible 30.35 nautical miles. Lord cannot see anything like so far. This multiplies the Californian’s visible horizon (7.8 nautical miles) four times! And Captain Lord said he watched the light not from the flying bridge, but from a lower vantage point: ‘I was just noticing it casually from the deck’ (6718). Even using the lowest parameter of 8 miles as the stop-gap, Captain Lord is seeing his light at 29.2 nautical miles (29.76 at 9 miles). This means that Titanic, with its great height, ought to have seen the stationary Californian, if she was the mystery ship, for an eternity prior to the crash!
Of course, Titanic did not see anything, and neither was Californian’s nearby stranger doing anything remotely resembling the Titanic’s speed, else Lord could not have seen her so early and for so long. The approaching light was nothing like the distance away that Lord Mersey must assume, since Captain Lord next estimates her distance at 11 p.m., half an hour before he says she stopped, and thirty minutes after he had first seen her: ‘At 11 o’clock… I suppose she was six or seven miles away. That is only approximately’ (6731–2). Captain Lord also testified that, at some stage between 11 p.m. and 11.30 p.m., this vessel was ‘about five miles’ away (6761). Lord added later, in a further response, that when she stopped his vessel was ‘about four or five – four to five miles’ off (6960). The stranger has come down from 6–7 miles to 5 miles, and then to 4–5 miles. By Lord’s account she has travelled a maximum of 3 miles (a speed of 6 knots) in this half hour from 11 p.m. to 11.30 p.m.
This then, is a steamer that is proceeding slowly, as indeed it may have done because it had seen the ice in the vicinity. Lord’s 6 knots stands miserable comparison to the Titanic’s 22 knots, but it bears comparison to Groves’ separately observed slow speed.
Lord Mersey might be inclined to dismiss Captain Lord’s early sighting as falsehood, were it not for the fact that Captain Lord independently discusses the approaching ship with his wireless operator and chief engineer before Groves notices it. Evans’ 11 p.m. Marconigram and testimony both prove a ship was seen long before Groves cottoned on. Yet Lord Mersey totally relies on Groves. Unfortunately for him, if Groves is correct about an oblique approach, then that ship is too slow to be the Titanic, and she is also steering a bizarre course to whi
ch Titanic witnesses never testified.
If Captain Lord is correct about the ship first being seen in the south-east and steaming on a course close to due west, then his ship is also far too slow to be the Titanic. Captain Lord’s stop position for his own ship, with which Groves did not disagree, would also put this ship, if the Titanic, more than a dozen miles out of her track! In short, if either man is correct, the ship cannot be the Titanic. And surely both men – Lord and Groves – cannot be wrong about a ship that was ‘in fact’ the Titanic.
The actual Titanic was behaving in a wholly different manner to that which these men observed. It cannot be possible for Captain Lord and Officer Groves (separately and together) to fail to notice what the Titanic actually did, and to describe instead something else entirely! Thus it is utterly impossible for the Californian to have seen the RMS Titanic, largest moving object ever built to that point – the ship that the British Inquiry so desperately wanted her to see. It is equally impossible that the Californian was another ship in turn, the Titanic’s mystery ship, which the British Inquiry so earnestly desired her to be, even if the hanging judge should have decided to allow her so much ‘extra rope’ (in the form of extra mileage) in order that Californian witnesses might mistake a sea-going colossus for Lord, Gibson and Stone’s modest tramp steamer.
20
CAPTAINS CONTRASTED
There is an obvious difference in the British Inquiry’s treatment of two captains – Smith of the Titanic and Lord of the Californian. But there is a further glaring difference in its treatment of Lord of the Californian and Moore of the Mount Temple. It is no part of this assessment to attempt to ‘divert’ blame towards Captain Moore – far from it – but merely to show that there was yet another egregious double standard displayed by the British Inquiry.
We have seen the treatment meted out to Lord. Yet it is a fact that Lord’s Californian was the first vessel to reach the side of the rescue vessel Carpathia the next morning, despite starting from a position much further away than the Mount Temple. Captain Lord crossed through the ice barrier three times; Captain Moore did not penetrate it once. Yet Captain Moore knew about the SOS emergency all night, while Lord did not. Lord first crossed the ice barrier westbound between 6 a.m.–6.30 a.m. before hurrying down to the Mount Temple at the SOS position. The Californian passed the Mount Temple thereabouts at 7.30 a.m.
The Mount Temple had been looking for a way through the ice shortly before, to the south, and had returned north to the SOS position, where she had previously been stopped at 4.46 a.m. She had moreover come to a stop even before first arriving at the transmitted location of distress. Moore says (US Inquiry, p.761):
Moore: …At 3.25 a.m. by our time we stopped.
Senator Smith: Where were you then; in what position was your ship?
Moore: I should say we were then about 14 miles off the Titanic’s position.
Sen. Smith: Can you tell me just what your position was; did you take it?
Moore: I could not; I could not take any position. There was nothing – I could not see…
Why did the Mount Temple stop when a ship was sinking 14 miles away according to its best information? Moore claims (US Inquiry, 762–3):
Moore: …after 3 o’clock… I stopped her on account of the ice getting so thick, sir. As a matter of fact, I did not stop her altogether; I simply stopped the engines and let the way run off the ship and then proceeded slowly.
And here is Moore at the British Inquiry:
9238. Later on, I think, about 3.25, did you meet pack ice? — Yes; I had met scattered ice before that, but that was the time I met the heavier ice.
9239. I think from that time onwards you continued to meet heavy ice? — Oh, yes.
9240. And at about daylight [4.30 a.m.] did you come up to the [SOS] position? — In the vicinity of that position.
9242. Did you see any signs of wreckage? — None whatever.
Moore also states: ‘I reached the Titanic’s position. I reckon I was very close to that position, either that position or very close to it, at 4.30 in the morning sir’ (US Inquiry, p.764). And elsewhere: ‘Half past 4, sir; that is, I reckoned we were at that position at half past 4, sir’ (US Inquiry, p.766).
At 4.30 a.m. therefore, and certainly at 4.46 a.m. when it is known from a wireless transmission that she was stopped, the Mount Temple was at the SOS position. But she did nothing, even though she quickly realised the Titanic must have struck on the other side of the ice barrier. The survivors were still in lifeboats. The last Titanic lifeboat, No.12, would not be picked up by the Carpathia until 8.30 a.m. Here is Moore:
9243. And were you, as you were proceeding to get there, getting messages from various steamers as to this disaster? — Yes.
9244. And I think shortly before 8 a.m. you came in sight of the Carpathia and the Californian? — Yes.
What had Moore and the Mount Temple been doing for over three hours while human beings died of exposure in lifeboats less than an hour’s steaming away? Effectively nothing. Here is Moore’s reason why:
9262. Just tell us what your instructions are? — Those instructions we usually get [are] that we are not to enter field ice, no matter how light it may appear.
9263. Not even in daylight? — At any time. We are not to enter field ice at any time, no matter how light it may appear…
9405. Your instructions seem to be that you are not to enter field ice? — Not to enter it on any account.
No matter what the overriding requirements of the dictates of humanity?
The author has uncovered another reason for what may seem like excessive caution (The Spectator, Nova Scotia, December 1907):
STEAMER CRASHES ON ROCKS
Terrible Catastrophe Narrowly Averted
Seven hundred and thirty-two persons stared death in the face yet came through the ordeal unscathed when the C.P.R. liner, Mount Temple, driven far out of her course in a blinding snow storm was wrecked on Ironbound Island, at the mouth of the LaHave river on Sunday night.
It was between 11 and 12 o’clock when the steamer went ashore. For several hours she had been in shoal water and immediately she struck, a tremendous sea swept her broadside on against the rocks. Sea after sea swept over her and when the frightened emigrants, who were chiefly Austrians, Russians, Poles, Gallicians, and Jews, rushed up from below, the decks were waist deep in water.
Pandemonium broke out. In an instant the frightened foreigners were panic stricken and cries and shrieks arose above even the howling of the gale and the crash of the waves as they surged over the ship.
Quickly the officers and crew calmed the frenzied passengers; life preservers were served out and a line shot ashore, while the old order, the first thought of a British seaman, ‘Women and children first!’ rang out.
There were about one hundred women and children on board and these were sent ashore in the breeches buoy while the men were transferred in boats. Only a portion of the passengers could be landed during the night as the seas were running very high.
Those that did get ashore spent a very uncomfortable night. Fires were lit and the lightkeeper and his family did everything in their power to relieve their sufferings, but nevertheless the night proved a terrible hardship to many. In the morning assistance was received from Lunenburg fishermen and local steamers.
A Reuters telegram from Halifax, Nova Scotia, dated 3 December says (the Times of London, 4 December 1907, p.8):
The Government steamer Laurier has landed 500 passengers of the Mount Temple here. They spent the night on a barren island sleeping on the snow, protected by mattresses and blankets from the wreck. Huge camp fires made the winter weather endurable. The steamer is in a bad position, but she may be saved if the weather continues fair. All the holds are full of water, there being 18ft in the forward hold.
Just four years and four months earlier, in other words, the Mount Temple had almost been lost. Captain Hubert Boothby, commander on that occasion, was sacked by Canadian Pacific even
though he had been exonerated and even praised by a court of inquiry.
By April 1912, the memory of her striking resilient objects and having holds full of water must have been horribly fresh in the mind. At the same time however, the Mount Temple and her new captain were not in the slightest doubt about the gravity of the Titanic’s situation. The Mount Temple, according to the evidence of her wireless operator, John Durrant, had known the Titanic’s engine rooms were getting flooded since 1.27 a.m. But he noted at 4.46 a.m., that is a quarter to five in the morning ship’s time: ‘All quiet. We are stopped amongst pack ice’ (9573).
The Californian would not make her first call for information for another twenty-five minutes! And the Californian responded immediately on learning the news, steaming into the pack ice, whereas the Mount Temple would only belatedly begin to skirt down to southward looking for a way through. Moore says: ‘I went to the southward later on in the morning, when it got daylight’ (US Inquiry, p.764). The Mount Temple never did venture into that ice. Ever.