So, Stone and then Gibson did not realize the significance of the odd appearance of the lights from the other ship and then the early rockets; at some stage they felt that something was out of the ordinary and reported to Captain Lord, but his sluggish responses meant that it was too late by the time anyone on board the Californian realized that something was seriously wrong with the other ship. After that, their self-preservation modes, both individual and collective, kicked-in.
Stone and Gibson did realize the significance of the odd appearance of the ship's lights after rocket after rocket was being sent up. As they said, a ship is not going to send up rockets at sea for nothing. But Stone's attitude was something along the lines of, well I told him I saw a rocket and he didn't seemed too concerned about it, so why should I? Gibson was an apprentice and was not going to act on his own. He could only question Stone, tell him what he sees, and maybe hope Stone does the right thing. They were talking about it pretty much all the time until Stone finally sent Gibson down to wake up Lord, but that was after the lights of the steamer disappeared from sight.
Stone, however, was the OOW and had full authority to do what was needed, including waking up Evans. Unfortunately, he took on a very passive role and probably didn't communicate with Lord very effectively. Lord himself admitted he was not satisfied with Stones' responses to his questions, but for some unknown reason, he stayed below, a decision he later admitted, was a mistake on his part.
From Lord's letter to the BOT on Aug 12th:
"With regard to my own conduct on the night in question, I should like to add a little more. I had taken every precaution for the safety of my own ship, and left her in charge of a responsible officer at 00.40 am with instructions to call me if he wanted anything, and I lay down fully dressed. At 1.15 am (25 minutes after he had seen the first signal) the officer on watch reported the steamer we had in sight was altering her bearing, in other words was steaming away, and had fired a rocket. I did not anticipate any disaster to a vessel that had been stopped nearly for an hour, and had ignored my Morse signals, and was then steaming away. I asked him was it a Company’s signal, and to signal her and let me know the result.
It is a matter of great regret to me that I did not go on deck myself at this time, but I didn’t think it possible for any seaman to mistake a Company’s signal for a distress signal, so I relied on the officer on watch."
The nonsense about the steamer steaming away was not told to Lord at the time he said it was. That invention came up during the inquiry hearings as an excuse for not recognizing distress signals for what they were. The disappearance of the steamer's red sidelight was seen after the 7th rocket was sighted according to Gibson's written statement of Apr 18, well after Stone spoke to Lord on the speaking tube. It was after that 7th rocket when Stone first mentioned to Gibson that the steamer appeared to be altering her bearing.
