The SS Californian ship, which was as close to the iceberg as the Titanic, could have prevented the Titanic from sinking, prevented the loss of life, and even if it sank, it could have saved people without suffering from hypothermia.
Of course, all of these assumptions are what would happen if the SS Californian ship did exactly what it was supposed to do. We are already curious about your comments when you read the role of the ship’s captain and crew in the Titanic story.
The beginning of the story, as we all know.
Titanic, which could not see the iceberg in the pitch darkness of the night, hit the iceberg at 23.40. Distress signals were sent at 00.00, and 20 minutes later, women and children were put on the lifeboats. Around 00.25, RMS Carpathia reported that they were heading to Titanic, but it would take approximately 4 hours to arrive.
At 02.20, Titanic sank into the dark waters of the Atlantic. At 04.10 RMS Carpathia arrived and rescued 705 survivors and took them directly to New York. 1,500 people died in the cold waters.
From the beginning of the story, there was someone watching the event from afar.
The SS Californian was another ship that, like the Titanic, was close to the iceberg. The ship radioed Titanic around 19:00 and warned about the iceberg. Captain Stanley Lord of the SS Californian, remembered as the villain of maritime history, decided to stop his ship for the night and saw the lights of the Titanic about 5 miles away before leaving duty and going to sleep.
Lord, he radioed again. Titanic’s communications were disrupted by the strength of the radio signal. Meanwhile, messages were being conveyed over the radio to the families of the people on the Titanic. One of the reasons why this was done was because it made pretty good money. But Titanic’s wireless operator, Jack Phillips, responded to the SS Californian’s message with a scolding, saying: Shut up. Shut your mouth. I’m busy.
Following this rebuff, SS Californian turned off the radio at 23.30 and 10 minutes later, Titanic hit the iceberg. 25 minutes after Titanic’s bridge, the SS Californian was spotted and distress rockets were fired.
While 1,500 people died due to Lord’s inaction, 705 people were saved thanks to the efforts of RMS Carpathia.
Those on the ship saw the rockets, but they were not sure whether it was a distress call or not, so they woke up the sleeping ship captain Lord and informed him. They also said they saw the Titanic looking very strange, as if it had a much larger side out of the water. The Lord said to contact the ship with the Morse lamp. It was supposed to wake up the wireless operator as well, but it didn’t.
Titanic’s firing of 8 white rockets at 02:00 was perceived by the SS Californian as leaving the area. These rockets were also told to Lord, but the captain continued his inaction. More rockets were seen by the crew of the SS Californian after the sinking of the Titanic at 02.20. These rockets were a warning from RMS Carpathia, who wanted to announce that she was coming to help Titanic. RMS Carpathia was at the scene around 04:00.
At 04.30, the Lord finally woke up. While he was thinking about how to cross the ice and move west, he asked about the fate of the ship they saw. After learning that the Titanic had sunk, he told the crew to head to the scene. However, during the subsequent investigation, it was learned that the route given to the Titanic was circuitous.
It was 08:30 when the SS Californian reached the Titanic. Meanwhile, RMS Carpathia had collected the survivors and told SS Californian to search for survivors. However, Lord and his team found only empty lifeboats and lifeless bodies and set out for America.
Stanley Lord’s inaction went unpunished.
The US Senate investigation decided that if the SS Californian had responded immediately to the distress rockets, it would have saved many or even all of the dead. The Senate criticized Captain Lord and condemned his inaction.
The Lord was left with only reprimands and received no formal charges. Lord continued to challenge the results of the investigation and sought to clear his name throughout his life.
The SS Californian ship was sunk in the Eastern Mediterranean by German submarines on November 9, 1915, during the First World War.
Many investigations were opened on the subject and various comments were made, but whether the Lord was found guilty or not, the sad end of the Titanic did not change. It is unknown how much Lord and his team could have saved under the conditions of that day, but it is obvious that they did not put in as much effort as RMS Carpathia.
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