Titanic fired rockets at regular intervals, but the Californian was nearly twenty miles away, they were completely out of audible range of the exploding rockets - which in itself proves they were not between 5 to 12 miles away as stated by some - and very nearly out of visual range as well, this is borne out by the testimony of Californian's Second Officer Herbert Stone who testified he thought he saw a number of rockets, how many he couldn't say, but they were very distant and almost momentary, and were not being fired at regular intervals as he saw them. Stone said he spoke to Captain Lord on the whistle tube about the rockets, but there is a discrepancy between what Stone said and what Lord heard; Stone said he told Lord of multiple rockets being fired, whilst Lord remembers Stone telling him of a single rocket. Lord instructed Stone to use the morse lamp to contact the ship firing rockets and then heard nothing for the rest of the night. Stone said he sent Apprentice Gibson to tell Lord at around 2:00am that the ship firing rockets had sailed off, but Lord only remembered Gibson entering the chart room (where Lord was sleeping) and leaving again without saying anything. That was the full extent of pertinent information Lord was given that fateful night.With all that in mind, what else could Lord have done given the very limited information handed to him? There was no ship in distress becuse the ship in question seen by the Californian (which was not the Titanic) didn't answer the morse lamp and sailed off into the distance, there was no reason to wake Cyril Evans, the Californian wireless operator, because the unidentified ship in question didn't answer the lamp and did not appear in distress (how could it be if it eventually sailed away into the distance?), and there was no reason for Lord to risk the safety of his own ship by attempting to traverse an ice field in pitch dark if no ship was in distress as he saw the situation at that time... you see a pattern emerging here?It's easy with the benefit of 103 years' hindsight to say Lord should have acted differently, but he acted correctly given the information - or lack thereof - given to him. If there's a fault in the whole tragic story, it's that of Titanic wireless operator Jack Phillips who failed to deliver to the bridge the crucial wireless message from the Mesaba at around 9:30pm warning of icebergs in Titanic's path as he should have done, and which would have undoubtedly led Second Officer Lightoller, the officer on watch at the time, making a small course correction to avoid the icebergs as he himself stated in his later autobiography he would have done had the Mesaba message been handed to the bridge.Whether the ship seen by the Californian that night was or was not Titanic is very relevant indeed, it was for Lord who's name and reputation was blackened and who's abilities and competency as Captain was called into question. Even if Lord had for some reason decided to wake Evans the wireless operator to ascertain who the so-called mystery ship was, the Californian still would not have arrived in time prior to Titanic foundering... and THAT is the most relevant and ultimately tragic fact of all regarding the Californian incident.
3.) Rockets or shells, throwing stars of any color or description, fired one at a time at short intervals. (4.) A continuous sounding with any fog-signal apparatus.The Titanic fired rockets one at a time at short intervals - complying with the distress signals.At the very least Lord's could have taken more steps to investigate - if only waking the wireless operator to check the signals.Whether the vessel was or was not the Titanic is less relevant than whether the vessel was in distress.
