What Lord meant in that BOT letter concerning being 17 miles away is that he sent his position to Antillian, a message that was also picked up by Titanic, that showed that Californian was at a latitude that turned out to be 17 miles north of the latitude later transmitted by Titanic in her SOS calls. He did not mean that at 6:30pm ATS on the 14th he was that distance from Titanic. His purpose in writing about that was show he was far north of SOS position. What he did not make clear is that he was heading almost due west and therefore remained at that latitude until he stopped.
Hi Sam,
As you know well, what
Captain Lord wrote to the Board of Trade in his handwritten letter dated 10th August 1912 in the latter part of the 2nd paragraph was:-
“14 April 6.30pm I sent my position to the Antillian and Titanic; this gives me seventeen miles away, and you will see it was sent some hours before the disaster. 15th April about 6.30am I gave my position to SS Virginian before I heard where Titanic sunk; that also gave me seventeen miles away. I understand the original Marconigrams were in court”.
The above part of the letter may have been poorly worded by Captain Lord. I accept that one interpretation is that as per your post 46 above. But it isn’t crystal clear, is it?
The same Captain Lord who wrote in his Ships Log (or relied upon what Stewart wrote up) that the Polar Star sight put them on the same latitude at 7.30pm as at noon on the 14th April (42 degrees 5 minutes), and stated in cross examination that the MSG sent to the Antillian was the same latitude whereas we know for certain the latitude sent as a MSG to the Antillian was 42 degrees 3 minutes north.
If Captain Lord meant to say in his 10th August 1912 letter to the Board of Trade that he was always on the same latitude since noon on the 14th April, he didn’t make that clear.
It certainly isn’t clear to me. A ‘position’ is 2 coordinates all dependent on time and speed and direction travelling in.
Then we have the ‘6.30am 15th August position sent to the SS Virginian also equating to 17 miles away’. We don’t yet have the Marconigram for this. I believe
The Californian sent MSGs to the Virginian from 5.45am Californian ATS, 30 minutes after Durrant on the Mount Temple messaged Evans at 5.15am that Titanic had sunk and Titanic’s CQD position. Accepted chronology is that The Californian received the MSG of Titanic’s position from the Virginian at 6.05am Californian ATS. (I believe that The Californian sent it’s position to the Virginian some 15 to 20 minutes earlier).
According to the 10th August 1912 letter, Captain Lord claims his position was sent to the Virginian (at 6.30am) some 40 to 45 minutes after I consider it actually was sent, and by then he had been told of the Mount Temple message received at 5.15pm and that from the Frankfurt shortly afterwards - both of which included Titanic’s CQD position, and had already received the MSG from the Virginian of Titanic’s CQD at 6.05am.
He already had been told where Titanic had sunk by 6.30am!
This letter, in the above paragraph excerpt, is so riven with inaccuracies and inconsistencies, and which undermines the basis of Captain Lord’s testimony to the British Inquiry (42 degrees 5 minutes latitude and the Polar Star sight) that I treat it with considerable caution. It also undermines the basis of Captain Lord’s 1959 Affidavit that when he received the MSG from the Virginian that The Californian was 19 1/2 miles away from the CQD position sent by the Virginian.
I also don’t think that Captain Gambell comes out particularly well. He gave the impression that the Virginian pretty much got to the CQD position. It didn’t.
