Rockets' use as signals of disaster

[Dave Gittins]

The rockets were primarily for company signals off the Irish coast. As the rules at the time allowed "Rockets or shells, throwing stars of any color or description, fired one at a time in short intervals" they could have been used if needed, though not as bright and spectacular as the socket signals.

 

[Paul Slish]

Thank you for the information Dave. From looking at your web site, I see you are an experienced yachtsman.

So to sum it up, the socket signals were the primary distress signals, but the ordinary rockets could also be used for distress if fired at short intervals. Also off the Irish coast the ordinary rockets were used with the green pyro. lights for the company signal.

Were the manwell deck flares to be used to light the deck in an emergency if the electric lights failed? I am just guessing. Were the lifebuoy lights to go in lifeboats? What were the 12 blue lights for? Were they more backup distress signals? I've been curious for years about all these other lights besides the socket signals. Until I found this web site, I never knew anyone I could ask. Any further insights on your part are appreciated.

It is interesting the Officer Boxhall had a box of the green pyro. lights (flares) put in the emergency boat he was in. Those company signals turned out to be quite useful in guiding the "Carpathia." Thanks again, Paul

 

[Paul Slish]

"Article 31, Distress Signals, At Night: First... Second: Flames on the vessel as from a burning tar barrel, oil barrel, and so forth."
(Titanic Sinking the Myths, p. 143, D.E. Bristow)
"Pyrotechnic displays approved in Titanic's time by the Board of Trade for use as distress signals on board British passenger ships included Holmes' danger signals and McKurdy's danger signals, both of which produced a simulation of 'flames on the vessel' and were regarded as equivalent to the Class 2 night distress signal of Article 31, International Rules of the Road." (Titanic Sinking the Myths, p 144).

The two Manwell Holmes deck flares carried by Titanic as part of her complement of "Distress Signals" were to be used to simulate "Flames on the Vessel" to fulfill the second class of night distress signals.

A picture with a "dying 'Holmes light'" is also present in the picture section of "Titanic and the Mystery Ship" by Senan Molony.

I hope to eventually research how the "12 blue lights, and 6 lifebuoy lights" also carried by the Titanic as distress signals were in fact used to indicate distress.

Paul Slish

 

[Samuel Halpern]

Just to clarify, its not a photo that Paul is referring to, just a drawing.

 

[Bruce Harwood]

I would like to approach this problem from a slightly different angle. Can any of the nautical types here tell us just what sequence of rockets would get their attention?

Say, for instance that you are a deck officer on a ship that is stopped by ice in 1912; you see another ship approach, stop, and then start sending up rockets. What would move you to ask the wireless operator to find out what was going on?

On the other side, on Titanic it is my understanding that Captain Smith only ordered Mr Boxhall to send up rockets without specifying number or sequence. What if he were more specific, saying for instance to send up twelve rockets in quick succession, followed ten minutes later by another twelve? Would that do the trick?

 

[Samuel Halpern]

>>What would move you to ask the wireless operator to find out what was going on?<<

A ship does not fire rockets at sea for nothing. Seeing rockets being sent up at intervals should have been enough of a reason. It was well understood in 1912 that rockets of any color fired at night at short intervals meant distress. As in today's rules, the meaning of what constitutes a "short" interval is not specifically defined. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that something may be wrong when rockets fired periodically are seen, and that much was admitted by those on Californian who witnessed rockets being fired that night. The problem was that the 2nd officer who was in charge of the watch left it for the captain to decide what to do about what he and the apprentice saw. There was no sense of urgency being conveyed. The captain, instead of going topside to see for himself what was happening, only gave instruction to the officer to try and contact the ship by Morse lamp and to let him know (by sending down the apprentice) if any reply is received. Apparently, nobody thought at the time to wake up the wireless operator because it was assumed that ship in view had no wireless.

By the way, according to letter written in 1968 by QM George Rowe, it was Capt. Smith who told him to fire distress signals at intervals of every 5 or 6 minutes. It was Rowe and 4th officer Boxhall who were firing them off and trying to contact the unresponsive vessel seen off their port bow by Morse lamp in between.

>>What if he were more specific, saying for instance to send up twelve rockets in quick succession, followed ten minutes later by another twelve? Would that do the trick?<<

In my opinion, NO. According to a memo written by 2nd officer Stone to Capt. Lord before Californian reached Boston, he informed Ca[pt. Lord about the rockets after he saw 5 of them go up. Capt. Lord only recalls being told about 1 rocket, and that is somewhat supported in a memo written by the apprentice Gibson to Lord, who said that the 2nd officer told him that the captain was informed after the 2nd rocket was seen, as the 1st one could have been mistaken for a shooting star. In either case, it was only after the ship in sight disappeared from view that the 2nd officer decided to send Gibson down to inform the captain that the ship that was firing those rockets disappeared from sight.

 

[Jim Currie]

I........Can any of the nautical types here tell us just what sequence of rockets would get their attention?"

A sequence which conveyed urgency.

Sam is correct when he points out that there is no clear definition of "short". However, there's no way that rockets alone, sent up at the frequency of 5 to 6 minutes would convey to me urgency. I would of course be curious and would would want to know more. How I would obtain more information would depend on what was being related to me. For instance if, as Apprentice Gibson wrote, Captain Lord was simply told of the second sighting after that sighting confirmed it to be a rocket, then I would do as Lord had done and instructed my officer to do the usual thing.. call the other vessel up. Find out who she was and why she fired a rocket. By the same token, if I was eventually told that altogether, the other vessel had fired a total of 8 rockets then sailed off into the night, I would have pulled the blanket up to my ears and turned on my side - particularly if I had just got my head down after being on my feet for the best part of 12 + hours.
If however, I had been told of multiple rockets, then I would have jumped up and gone aloft and called the Sparks on my way up there.
In 1912, a man of 35 years of age who had been in command for 6 years was a rarity. Think about Rostron of Carpathia! Regardless of what has been written about him since the Titanic affair, Stanley Lord was most certainly not a man who would have ignored a plea for help had he been fully aware that help was needed. In fact he acted immediately the moment he heard of Titanic's plight.

Say, for instance that you are a deck officer on a ship that is stopped by ice in 1912; you see another ship approach, stop, and then start sending up rockets. What would move you to ask the wireless operator to find out what was going on?

No one can answer that question simply because the attitude to the use of wireless in 1912 was still being formulated. The most frequent method of inter-ship communication was by flashing light at night or by flags during daylight hours. You will recall that's exactly how Californian and Carpathia communicated when they were within sight of each other on April 15.

On the other side, on Titanic it is my understanding that Captain Smith only ordered Mr Boxhall to send up rockets without specifying number or sequence.

That's because the rockets were not being used as the prime method to obtain help. The wireless was already in use to contact potential saviours out of sight and and the morse lights were being used to contact the vessel in plain sight on Titanic's port bow.

What if he were more specific, saying for instance to send up twelve rockets in quick succession, followed ten minutes later by another twelve? Would that do the trick?[

That would be a bit much! More like a celebration rather that a cry for help. What if the other vessel continued to ignore you after you quickly ran out of rockets?

Jim C

 

[Steve Dunham]

In Titanic Survivor, which I read only last month, the book's editor, John Maxtone-Graham, inserted some informational notes in Violet Jessop's memoir. On p. 135, he stated something I didn't recall hearing before:

had Titanic been merely firing White Star signals, she would have sent up two green lights, the company’s registered recognition colors. Testifying at the inquiry months later, Lord [the Californian's captain] insisted that some company signals were white. But, in fact, although some company signals may have incorporated white Roman candles, they were always displayed simultaneously with other colors: Hamburg Amerika Line vessels, for example, threw up red, white and blue stars, seven of them in quick succession while Anchor Line masters were instructed to put up red and white lights.

 

[Jim Currie]

Hello Steve.

The following is a copy of an exchange between Captain Lord and the UK Attorney General which took place on May 14th. 1912...Day 7 of the UK Inquiry. Possibly the source of John Maxton-Graham's information.

"Q7290. Do just think?
A: Company signals usually have some colours in them."

Lord has clearly told his questioner that company signals usually include some colours.

Q7291. So that if they were white it would make it quite plain to you they were distress signals?
A: No, I understand some companies have white.


Here. the questioner exhibits an abysmal lack of knowledge of the then regulations which stated that distress signals were to be of any colour. Lord would know that, therefore the questioners must have created a little mental confusion.

7292. Do really try and do yourself justice?
A: I am trying to do my best.

That was a very out-of-order, sarcastic remark. The question mark may be an error of transcript. Lord's answer sounds to me like one of condescending exasperation arising from the tone of the questioner and his obvious ignorance of the subject matter.

7293. Think you know. Mr. Lord, allow me to suggest you are not doing yourself justice. You are explaining, first of all, that you asked if they were white rockets, because companies' signals are coloured. I am asking you whether the point of your asking whether they were all white rockets was not in order to know whether they were distress signals? Was not that the object of your question, if you put it?

I believe the first sentence should be "think-you now, Mr. Lord?" and there should have been a capital at "Allow"

"You are explaining, first of all, that you asked if they were white rockets, because companies' signals are coloured."

Total rubbish! That is not what Lord explained. He said Company signals ususally have some colours in them; not that they were all coloured.

Was it any wonder that he stated "- I really do not know what was the object of my question."?

Jim C.

 

[David G. Brown]

There is oner thing most non-sailors (and particularly modern young'uns) don't understand. Pyrotechnics are hardly the best of distress signals. In no way do they match auto distress signals over marine radio, etc. which are available to modern ships. Radio signals travel in all directions from the transmitting ship. There is no built-in directional component that interferes with reception of such distress signals.

Pyro, on the other hand, is not visible to everyone in the area because it relies upon potential rescuers looking in the right direction at precisely the right moment. There are a myriad of cases where sailors have used pyro only to see potential rescue ships and planes pass oblivious to the plight of those in rafts or lifeboats. Colors are not always perceived properly by the human eye. Aerial pyro may be seen dimly by the black-and-white receptors of the eye when there are not visible to the color receptors. In this case, they are perceived as white and not colored.

Cptain Lord simply did not have enough information to make a full assessment of what his bridge team reported. But, he did know that his single-compartment, single-skinned ship was surrounded by dangerous ice on a very dark night. That reality undoubtedly had the greatest impact on his decision making. Solving the mystery of what might...or might not...have been distress signals at the risk of his crew and vessel was out of the question.

Fall boy...sacrificial goat...whipping boy...call him what you will, but there appears little doubt Captain Lord was being set up to take the blame for the great loss of life. The public was force-fed a bitter lie -- that had Lord acted "properly" everyone would have been saved. And, it's that myth we still see published in books and TV documentaries now a hundred years on. The facts be damned! Everyone knows the myths and that's what they want to read or see on the screen. Lies sell, else there wouldn't be politicians. Truth goes begging.

But...for the anti-Lordites...I ask, which captain brought his ship and crew safely through the night and which one did not?


-- David G. Brown

 

[Jim Currie]

Well said David!

For too long that man Lord has been vilified by lesser individuals and/or people who were too lazy to sit down and use the brain they were blessed with. Worse still; people who had agendas to meet.
I'm sure that you and others have seen examples of what I mean. Examples of where the facts were actually bent to fit the picture. I am at present completing yet another article for ET. In this one, I will demonstrate beyond all reasonable doubt that Californian stopped where her master said she did that fateful night. It will, among other things, also (hopefully) dispel all the nonsense written about currents.

Jim C.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

>>Cptain Lord simply did not have enough information to make a full assessment of what his bridge team reported.<<

Absolutely. That was the crux of the problem.

>>But, he did know that his single-compartment, single-skinned ship was surrounded by dangerous ice on a very dark night. That reality undoubtedly had the greatest impact on his decision making.<<

I don't think that being surrounded by small ice had anything to do with his decision making that night. He simply was not given enough information on which to act other than what he did do at the time. Unfortunately for Lord, the information given to him about seeing a white rocket by his 2/O was a bit strange, but not something to cause him to worry about or for him to wake his wireless operator. If he were told about multiple rockets being seen, then that would be a different story. In hindsight, maybe he should have instructed his 2/O to immediately let him know if the stranger to his SE fires any more rockets. What he was told later on was even stranger; that the ship fired a total of 8 rockets and steamed away to the SW.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

>>I will demonstrate beyond all reasonable doubt that Californian stopped where her master said she did <<

Can't wait to read that one.

 

[Jim Currie]

Can't wait to read that one.

Patience Sam! "All good things come to those who wait". I sent off the article a few minutes ago. If I've done it properly then you should learn something which might not be to your advantage: rolleyes:.

Jim C.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

>>then you should learn something which might not be to your advantage<<

Advantage? What advantage? Are you implying that I have, or seek, some sort of an advantage? What may that be? Your statement seems to indicate that you can prove "beyond all reasonable doubt" that Californian stopped where Lord said he did. Well I guess we will all wait and see if your claim of beyond all reasonable doubt can truly hold up.