Rocket Colours

[Roy Kristiansen]

And it's not easy winning a conviction for the defendants simply being a passel of dullards.

If Stone had awakened Evans, Evans would have gotten Titanic's CQD position and they'd have seen there wasn't a chance in the world of their reaching it at night. Then one can only hope to heaven they'd have had the presence of mind to ask about the ship to the south that had been firing off "rockets" since about 12:45. At least they might have picked up the people in the lifeboats a little earlier.

The other variable is that, if Cottam had gone to bed and missed the Titanic's CQD/SOS, the Mount Temple and Californian would have headed for the CQD position at daylight, been the first ships to arrive, found nothing, and had absolutely no further incentive for exploring 13 miles to the east. Yikes!

(I hope I'm stating all this correctly.)

 

[Paul Lee]

If the MMSA's (well, Harrison's) article in 1962 is anything to go by (entitled 'The Californian Incident - An Echo of the Titanic Disaster'), a legal opinion of the 1912 position of the British court listed no fewer than 8 points upon which Captain Lord's censure by Lord Mersey was illegal, or highly dubious. If this was the case, and the Board of Trade realised this, then they might have known that a case against Lord could be quashed.

Paul

Pre-order my Titanic/Californain ebook at http://www.paullee.com/book_details.php

 

[Paul Lee]

Hi Roy,
Your other point about Cottam going to bed is a good one. If Carpathia hadn't got there, the Mount Temple, Californian (and - the Almerian??) to the west of the icefield would have been hard pressed to see the lifeboats against a backdrop of blazing white, with a rising sun in the same direction.

The only other option would have been the Frankfurt, which traversed the south-eastern edge of the ice field shortly before midday, and the Birma, which rounded the southern tip of the field at about 12.15pm. Whether these would have seen the boats is debatable.

But with a rising, choppy sea, and with Titanic's lifeboats sitting in the middle of a busy shipping lane (and as you say, ships would have been inclined to have searched to the west), everyone might have been lost!

 

[Samuel Halpern]

Forget about Cottom going to sleep and missing the CQD. If Boxhall hadn't put those green flairs into his boat, Carpathia could have easily ran into the ice field she was steaming toward.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>And it's not easy winning a conviction for the defendants simply being a passel of dullards.<<

Tell that to a prosecutor or a judge. Remember, all the defence needs to do is show reasonable doubt, and short of suborning purjury, the defence doesn't have to be especially honest about it. When all you need to do to achieve that end is to obfuscate and confuse, that makes their job a lot easier then it is for the guy who's obligation is to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

>>Forget about Cottom going to sleep and missing the CQD.

Well, it's called speculation.

 

[Jim Currie]

A great deal has been said in these pages about how 2nd Officer Stone was incompetent and unable to recognise distress rockets when her saw them.
Here's a page from history - 1910 in fact.

http://www.kellscraft.com/ShipsandShipping/ShipsandShippingCh10.html

If this was accepted practice in 1912 then all those who condemned Lord and Co. for not recognising the signals Stone saw as distress signals, were behaving in a totally outrageous manner and very well knew it. It is equally outrageous For modern researchers to compound the felony by agreeing that somehow Stone was able to sort out the wheat from the chaff; particularly when the regulations of the day (also in this article) clearly state:
"3. Rockets or shells, throwing stars of any colour or description, fired one at a time, at short intervals;"