Dave Gittins
Member
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
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.
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