>>Wouldn't this be dereliction of duty, or leaving an assigned post without authorization or some such? I know you can't do that in the armed forces, so I really doubt it would pass in the Merchant Marine.<<
See Philip's answer. One does not simply walk away from ones post without one helluva compellingly good reason, especially if all one has to say is "I don't know
what's going on, but something
is so you better get up here."
Something like that...especially with the words "...you better..." delivered to the
Captain by a junior officer in 1912 would have gone over as well as offering v~~~~~® to the attendees at a eunoch's convention! The consequences would not be pleasant!
What they should have done was wake the Chief Officer, spell out the situation, and let him go to the skipper. Unfortunately, this didn't happen.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch's homepage can be accessed at dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_control/documents/contentservertemplate/dft_index.hcst?n=5464&l=1
The report itself is at dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_maritmesafety/documants/page/dft_msafety_507706,pdf
It requires an Adobe Acrobat Reader to access. The document is 1498 Kb so it may take a spell to download if you're on a dial up modem.
Noel, the plan I have is an illustration that was part of Leslie Reade's private collection and it appears in the section with the illustrations. It has "S.S. Californian No.159" along with a few basic dimensions set to one side so it certainly looks legit. I don't see where else he could have obtained them.
If you have access to the Lloyd's records at some point, I'd be interested in what they have to say.