Why did the disaster happen?
We don't know exactly if some of the ice warning messages reached the bridge of Titanic except we can piece together a picture of that Sunday evening. We know which messages definitely got to Titanic's bridge because Captain Smith replied to them.
Julian, you seem hell bent on blaming the radio operators as the primary cause of the disaster. While I admit that they were to blame to some extent, IMO the Captain and some of his officers should take the primary responsibility as monitoring and navigation of the ship were
their responsibility and not that of the radio operators. To understand that,
rather than going on and on about the ice messages that Phillips and Bride did not take to the bridge, consider those that they did deliver and what the Captain and/or his officers did with them.
It was you who drew my attention to that Paul Lee link, which I read carefully. It is an excellent piece of research work but the conclusions drawn by Lee do not necessarily tally with your own. In fact, Lee highlights the vagueness, convenient alterations and hiding under the "I don't clearly recall" blanket by the surviving deck officers, especially Lightoller.
The very first ice message was probably that of
La Touraine, received at about 7:10 pm
Titanic Time (TT) on Friday 12th April 1912. This was
delivered to the bridge and acknowledged and posted on the chart board. Later Boxhall noted that the location of the ice field was well north of the
Titanic's track. Boxhall also alluded to another ice message received the same night but after that of
La Touriane but could not recall the name of the ship.
On Saturday 14th April 1912, the first ice message was from
Caronia received at 9:12 am TT that was
delivered to the bridge and acknowledged by Captain Smith. Lightoller claimed later that the Captain had shown him that message around 12:45 pm TT but afterwards seemed to suggest that he found out about it when he 'glanced at the chart'. Lightoller was rather vague when mentioning whether he had discussed it with First Officer Murdoch when the latter returned from his lunch break. Pitman also indicated that he might have seen it at some stage but 'could not recall' when or where. Boxhall appears to have claimed two slightly different things about the
Caronia ice message - first that he 'copied' it to the board at around 4 pm TT but elsewhere that he had simply seen it between 4 pm and 6 pm TT but one thing he seemed certain was that the position given of the ice field was north of the
Titanic' s track. Lowe also mentioned seeing it but like Pitman, did not recall when or where; Lee writes that Lowe was not unduly concerned about the message, did not communicate with any of his colleagues about it and later did not even glance at the board.
The ice message from the
Noordham was relayed via the
Caronia at 11:47 am TT and the
Titanic's response was received quickly within the hour. It was an official Captain's acknowledgement, meaning that Phillips or Bride
delivered it to the bridge and Captain Smith certainly saw it. Murdoch was on duty in the Bridge at the time but it is uncertain if he or any of the other officers saw it. Lee thinks that during the investigation there was some confusion about the ice messages from
Caronia and
Noordham because the former not only sent its own ice message to the
Titanic but also relayed the one from the latter.
The ice warning from the
Amerika might be more important - even crucial - but for some reason it is not discussed at length. It was received at 1:47 pm TT and was
delivered to the bridge because Boxhall recalled the message from "the German ship
Amerika". The
Amerika's message reportedly was not designated MSG and so was probably not shown to the Captain or posted on the board. But Boxhall recalled enough to say that this position too was to the north of the
Titanic's track. However, Paul L.ee believes that the position sent by the
Amerika was several miles
south of the Titanic's intended track. If that is correct, then the later decision to delay 'turning the corner' late might have put the
Titanic directly in the path of the ice field seen and reported by
Amerika.
The
Baltic's ice message and what happened to it has been discussed at length before. It was received at 1:57 pm TT and one of the radio operators, presumably Bride,
delivered it directly to Captain Smith. Instead of posting the message in the chart room, Smith gave it to Ismay, who had it on his person for at least 3 hours, during which time he showed it to Mrs Ryerson & Mrs Thayer. Captain Smith did not reclaim the message from Ismay till around 7:10 pm but then was seen soon afterwards in attendance at the Widener's dinner party. Therefore, it is probably safe to assume that Smith did not stop by the bridge to post
Baltic's message and among others Boxhall, who spent a lot of time in the chart room that evening, had not seen the message.
Whether the Captain mentioned or even gave the
Baltic's message to Lightoller when he visited the bridge at 8:55 pm is anybody's guess. I personally believe that the captain left the party to check with Lightoller
and give him that message before returning to the Wideners' table. But the fact that no one else, including Boxhall, saw the
Baltic message suggests that Lightoller might have missed posting it. It is speculation, of course but something happened to that crucial message.
There is even a suggestion that the
Baltic might have sent further ice messages to the
Titanic soon afterwards, one of them probably received from
Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm.
Sometime after 5:00 pm, The
Californian sent an ice message to its sister Leyland ship the
Antillan. This was heard on the
Titanic, which called the Californian at 7:37 TT about it; the Californian offered a Service Gram ice report but the
Titanic seemingly knew about the location of that particular ice field from the earlier intercepted message.. Bride claimed that he delivered it to the Captain around 5:30 pm (in which case it would have been the earlier intercepted one) but later changed his story to make the time later and
delivery to the 'officer of the bridge' whom he did not know. Lightoller was on duty on the bridge at the time but did not recall receiving that message. Lightoller also suggested the message might have been delivered at a time when Murdoch relieved him for dinner but this seems a bit too pat on part of the Second Officer, shifting the blame onto a man who could not defend himself while appearing not to do so at all.
Another rather odd statement that Lightoller made was that when he came on duty at 6 pm that evening, he instructed Sixth officer Moody to work out the time the
Titanic would reach the ice field and Moody is supposed to have done this and decided that it was around 11:00 pm TT but Lightoller himself computed that it would be earlier, around 9:30 pm. Lightoller was rather vague about what information he was basing those times on but if he knew about the
Californian message, Moody's 11 pm calculation would be closer to the correct position. By calculating that the ship would reach the ice field much earlier, was Lightoller absolving himself from any knowledge of the
Californian message (or by proxy suggest that Moody did?) Of course, Moody did not survive to testify in any other way. Paul Lee does not rule out the possibility that Lightoller might have "reverse engineered" his estimations with hindsight that he later had and something that Murdoch or Moody could never dispute.
Boxhall was reported to be in the Chart Room between 8 pm and 10 pm and did not see any new messages come in and he admitted that he did not look at the board. Lightoller was vague inhis memories about what he told Murdoch about the ice when the latter relieved him on the bridge at 10 pm. On Paul Lee's page, Lightoller's answers about that in the US and later in the UK were different.
It is possible that the ice warning from the
Mesaba which reached the Titanic at 9:40 pm TT may not have reached the bridge. Phillips was working Cape Race at the time; he acknowledged the message but the
Mesaba did not receive the Captains response. But when you consider Lightoller's tall story about Phillips practically confessing to him before dying atop
Collapsible B about taking responsibility for not delivering the
Mesaba message to the bridge, there are question marks. Lightoller was on duty on the bridge when the
Mesaba message arrived in the wireless room of the
Titanic.
Finally, there is the
Californian's second message sent at 11:07 and Phillips infamous "shut up!" response. I think it is safe to say that message never reached the bridge.
Looking at it from a wider perspective, Phillips and Bride were certainly guilty of not taking the
Californian's second message to the bridge; they probably did not report the
Mesaba one either but IMO this is conjectural and we cannot be certain. But they certainly did report several other messages previously, including the one from
Baltic which did strange rounds and likely never reached the chart room notice board. Based on that, I don't think anyone can say that Phillips and Bride were primarily responsible for the disaster.
