Dave Gittins,
Nice article. Very well articulated views. Congratulations!
Your southerly border theory is quite interesting, but I have one question about it:
did you factor in Apprentice Gibson seeing the detonationg flash and upward trail of one of the rockets before he saw it burst over the mystery ship to the south (which was Titanic, IMO) and the other ship to the south that was seen an hour after the rockets from the
Carpathia were observed?
This, IMHO, indicates that the Californian was actually close to the scene of disaster the whole time. Boxhall's green flares or no.
It is true that Gibson caught the rocket details via binoculars, but unless his glasses were super powerful ones, Gibson couldn't have picked up such details at 10-15 miles away. Unless it all was an optical illusion of some sort he really saw.
The other ship, noted by Second Officer Stone and Chief Officer Stewart at around 4. a.m., was almost certainly the
Carpathia herself. For Stone said the ship had four masts and two masthead lights. Stewart concurred and added that she had alot of lights amidship. That's just what the Carpathia looked like that night (the lights Stewart noted must at least have partially been the electric sprays Rostron ordered hung over the side and in the gangways, btw).
Californian certainly had to have drifted closer to the mysterious stranger in order for the Carpathia to have been observed scarcely an hour after her rockets being seen.
No offense, just my two bits worth.
Richard K.