Why didn't Titanic see Californian's Morse Lamps?

[Jim Currie]

People make terrible eyewitnesses, especially when questioned weeks after an event took place. It's hard to know who or what to believe. Take 5/O Lowe for example. This is what he wrote in his deposition given to the British consulate in May concerning the mysterious vessel that he saw that night:

As I was putting over the starboard emergency boat somebody mentioned something about a ship on the port bow. I glanced in that direction and saw a steamer showing her red light about 5 miles to the northward of us.
At this time fourth officer Boxhall was firing off signals of distress, and we also Morsed to the ship by the electric Morse lamps on the bridge.
When I had got these boats tied together I still saw these in the same position, and shortly afterwards she seemed to alter her position and open her green. I knew a few minutes afterwards all the lights went out, and I did not see any more lights until I saw the lights of the Carpathia.

The boats he mentioned were four regular lifeboats and a collapsible:

I took two boats away with me; that is, excluding my own. I was in boat 14. I took them to a distance of about 150 yards from the ship. I then returned and escorted another boat to the other two boats. I then returned again to the ship and escorted a collapsible to these other three boats. I then made all the boats make fast to each other fore and aft, and also made them all set their masts ready for any emergency, such as wind. I then tied my own boat at the head of the string of boats.
The ship by this time was settling down rapidly by the head, and sank in about 20 minutes. The lights were burning up to 5 minutes before the stern disappeared. I did not hear anything that I should call explosions. A kind of distant smothered rumblings. I thought at the time it was produced by the sinking of the ship.

Boxhall said that he saw the mystery vessel's green sidelight before he saw the red:

I saw the masthead lights first, the two steaming lights; and then, as she drew up closer, I saw her side lights through my glasses, and eventually I saw the red light. I had seen the green, but I saw the red most of the time. I saw the red light with my naked eye...I think I saw the green light before I saw the red light, as a matter of fact. But the ship was meeting us. I am covering the whole thing by saying the ship was meeting us.

So did this mystery vessel first show red then green as Lowe described, or was it green then red as Boxhall described?

The other interesting thing is that QM Rowe, who was on the bridge more or less the same time as Boxhall and firing rockets and using the Morse signaling lamp, only described seeing a single white light from the time he got on the bridge. Boxhall, who saw the vessel's two masthead lights through glasses, saw a single white light which he took for a stern light when he was sent away to take charge of boat #2, about 1/2 hour before the ship sank according to his story.

To the foregoing, you should add the lights seen by AB William Lucas and QM Walter Wynne. Both these men saw a red light and a single white steaming light whiule Boxhall was very specific that he saw two white steaming lightsthen a single white light.

Quartermaster Wynne" 13342. (The Commissioner.) Then I do not understand it. I thought you first saw a red light, and then it disappeared, and then you saw a white light? A: - I saw the red and white, and then the red and white disappeared, and then I saw the white light remain.
13343. You saw both the red and the white light at the same time? A: - Yes.

AB Lucas: "1580. Did you see any other light beside the red light? A: - Yes, the steaming light.

These guys were seeing a vessel other than the one seen by Boxhall which had two white steaming lights. Like Boxhall, the one they saw was not Californian. Californian was showing two white steaming lights and unlike Boxhall's vessel, was stopped.

 

[Vocabo]

G'Day Mike, and Lord can hardly claim to be unaware of anything. Whether the effort to inform him was half hearted or not, he was informed.

A little nautical point to keep in mind, the Captain of a ship is NEVER off duty. Absolutely never. Not even in his bunk. he remains on call and on duty 24/7, all holidays included until the day he's releived of his command

You're comment in about his not trying to do anything is the one sticking point in all of this which never goes away. The Californian saw the rockets, and Lord was informed of them. This much is so well established that I've never heard of anyone on either side of the debate that really questions it very seriously. Explain it away, yes. Attempt to debunk, no. Nor is there any doubt that White equaled distress. A fact that any master or any other officer would have known.

This is why Lord ends up behind the 8 ball every time. He could have done something and should have...he was obligated to try...but didn't.(Shrug)

Cordially,
Michael H. Standart

For what it's worth (not very much since I am not an expert on these matters, although I HAVE read the transcripts of both inquests), I completely agree with Michael's view expressed in the above-quoted post. -- Paul Heath (Vocabo)