Tom,
I'm no sailor, and with all due respect, setting a large signal fire on deck seems dangerous and prone to provoke a shipwide panic.
It surprises me that doing such a thing is actually recommended in maritime convention.
Besides, how could the light of a fire actually outshine all the blazing electric lights normally seen on a liner at night? Unless it was of tremendous size and intensity. Could a fire of that size even have been constructed and managed by the crew?
I suppose they could have searched around and found some type of explosive and detonated it on the top deck of the bow. The flash, report and mushroom cloud perhaps would have been witnessed by the watch officers on Californian and caused them some alarm. Enough to investigate further.
Going back to the larger argument though, even if they had been more alarmed by Titanic that night, it seems doubtful to me that they could have, or even should have, attempted any serious type of rescue.
For that matter, what type of rescue could
Carpathia have mounted if they had arrived before Titanic went under? All they really did was pick up those boats already in the water. That's about all California could have done.
But I see your point Tom. It brings up the question of why didn't Titanic's crew, (i.e. Smith), try more radical ways to save lives. Like roping together chairs, furniture or luggage to make large floating rafts? Or why not have the lifeboats all tie up together near the ship and string anything that would float around them, again in attempt to make a raft. Or flash the ship's main lights all together as a morse signal.
And perhaps such ideas were even discussed that night. Just overruled or dismissed as impossible. Not enough men, not enough time, or whatever. We'll never know. But I can't imagine holding the officers criminally negligent for not lighting a fire on deck. That seems extreme to me.
Most respectfully,
Yuri
