Would it have made any difference if the Titanic blew her whistle to get the attention of the Californian?

[IanMcD]

Would it have made any difference if the Titanic repeatedly blew her whistle to get the attention of the Californian? I'm assuming the Californian would have been able to hear the whistle. Perhaps a desperate measure but if I was Captain Smith, I think I would have tried this. If the Titanic repeatedly blew her whistle could that have compelled Captain Lord to investigate what was going on or at least wake up his wireless operator?

 

[Bob Read]

Captain Lord thought the distress rockets were probably company signals so I imagine he would think the same about the whistles if they could have been heard. He really didn’t have to guess. He could have had his wireless operator turn on his set and easily would have found out exactly what was going on.

 

[Kathy S]

Would it have made any difference if the Titanic repeatedly blew her whistle to get the attention of the Californian? I'm assuming the Californian would have been able to hear the whistle. Perhaps a desperate measure but if I was Captain Smith, I think I would have tried this. If the Titanic repeatedly blew her whistle could that have compelled Captain Lord to investigate what was going on or at least wake up his wireless operator?

That's an interesting question. From what I have read, the Titanic's whistle could be heard at a range of up to 8 miles, and the Californian was approximately 6 miles away. So it would seem this may indeed have awoken Captain Lord or someone on the Californian, unless they were so deeply asleep that they didn't hear it. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about acoustics to even speculate.

I agree with Bob Read (sorry, I don't know how to quote more than one message in each post) in that Lord, if he had heard the whistle, may well have dismissed it.

 

[Kathy S]

Actually, it looks like this was addressed in the U.S. Senate inquiry. Even though the site (TIP | U.S. Senate Inquiry) says it offers searchable documents, for some reason the pdfs I pull up are not searchable on my end.

 

[Steven Christian]

If they were able to hear the whistles at that distance they probably would have heard the safeties lifting on the boilers. Yes those 2 items were blowing at different freq's but the way the crew of the Californian handled things they probably would have thought that big steamer is having a big party. It was around midnight.

Yes Mr Read. That's really about the only thing I fault the Californian for. But not just Captain Lord. Anybody on the bridge crew could have woken up the sparks and had him have a listen to see if something was going on.

 

[Steven Christian]

Actually, it looks like this was addressed in the U.S. Senate inquiry. Even though the site (TIP | U.S. Senate Inquiry) says it offers searchable documents, for some reason the pdfs I pull up are not searchable on my end.

On the right hand column at that site is a tab that says "Search the Site". The box to enter words to search is not highlighted very well. But I just tested it and it's still working.

 

[Seumas]

That's an interesting question. From what I have read, the Titanic's whistle could be heard at a range of up to 8 miles, and the Californian was approximately 6 miles away. So it would seem this may indeed have awoken Captain Lord or someone on the Californian, unless they were so deeply asleep that they didn't hear it. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about acoustics to even speculate.

I agree with Bob Read (sorry, I don't know how to quote more than one message in each post) in that Lord, if he had heard the whistle, may well have dismissed it.

The Californian was most likely about 12.5-13.5 miles away, not 6 miles.

 

[Kathy S]

On the right hand column at that site is a tab that says "Search the Site". The box to enter words to search is not highlighted very well. But I just tested it and it's still working.

Ah, OK; thanks! I was going about it the wrong way.

 

[IanMcD]

The Californian was most likely about 12.5-13.5 miles away, not 6 miles.

My bad. I thought the distance was about 10 miles. So maybe the Californian wouldn't have heard anything? On the other hand, I'm not sure how the acoustics would have worked that night. The sea was calm. It was a clear night.

 

[Julian Atkins]

Sam has established that The Californian was 12/13 miles away. The Cotton Powder Co distress signals used by Titanic performed a dual role in emitting a display of white stars very high, and a retort (bang).

Captain Lord specifically stated to the British Inquiry that Stone and Gibson did not report hearing any retort.

At no time was any question asked as to what Stone and Gibson were wearing on their head, and there was evidence of a weather cloth around and over the flying bridge. If (which they were not) in the enclosed wheelhouse below the flying bridge they certainly would have been unlikely to hear any retort.

Around 1956, (I have the exact date somewhere) Groves wrote to Walter Lord that things on The Californian were not dead quiet in any event.

Leslie Reade in TSTSS was provided with expert advice that even at the closer distance he argued The Californian would not have heard the retorts from Titanic’s distress signals.

I’ve certainly heard modern firework displays explode from a distance of 4 - 6 miles away, so although I understand the physics, I’m not sure that my empirical evidence backs up Leslie Reade. I don’t think that I have exceptional hearing!

I find Boxhall’s assessment of the distance of Titanic to The Californian to be perverse.

Equally, Captain Lord, Stone, and Gibson thought they were seeing a small ship at closer proximity not realising it was a much bigger ship further away and not broadside to them. Groves got it approximately right in a rather tortuous explanation - a passenger steamer with a lot of lights about 10 miles away that then turned to show little of her lights. (I have much simplified Groves’s evidence).

 

[Steven Christian]

My bad. I thought the distance was about 10 miles. So maybe the Californian wouldn't have heard anything? On the other hand, I'm not sure how the acoustics would have worked that night. The sea was calm. It was a clear night.

From what I remember nuclear power plants emergency sirens are supposed to cover anyone within a 10 mile radius. But that's multiple omnidirectional sirens. Those are much louder than a steam whistle. But your right to bring up acoustics. Acoustics and terrain play a factor. The only thing I can go by is I once saw an F-4 Phantom break the sound barrier over a russian trawler at tree top level about a half mile from the ship. It wasn't all that loud by the time it got to us but I'm sure it rattled their teeth. So I doubt the Californian would have heard anything from the Titanic that night.

 

[Milos Grkovic]

There's also a mention of this in one of Tom Lynskey's livestreams on his channel Part Time Explorer. It's also the question that I think Ken Marschall went over to explain including the points about a distance the ship's whistle would cover.

 

[Mike Spooner]

The only nonqualified seamen who believed Californian was less than 10 miles away, where the legal men in charge of the British Inquiry.
Therefore if the ship was more than 10 miles no chance hearing the whistle. However if captain Smith had communicated with his officers what laid ahead all chance no iceberg collision would of have taken place.

 

[Scott Mills]

That's an interesting question. From what I have read, the Titanic's whistle could be heard at a range of up to 8 miles, and the Californian was approximately 6 miles away. So it would seem this may indeed have awoken Captain Lord or someone on the Californian, unless they were so deeply asleep that they didn't hear it. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about acoustics to even speculate.

I agree with Bob Read (sorry, I don't know how to quote more than one message in each post) in that Lord, if he had heard the whistle, may well have dismissed it.

I am still not convinced there was not another ship between Titanic and Californian; with that being said, if the 'whistle' could have been heard from that distance, would it not also be the case that the noise of Titanic venting her steam should have also been heard?

 

[Mike Spooner]

Since we have two quoted figures from qualified navigators how away the Californian was one at 12-13 miles and the other captain Lord 17-19 miles. Therefore the whistle couldn't be heard. However it was reported a ship light could be seen about 5 miles away as the early lifeboats where told to row for. What type of ship or boat it was we will never know. Could well been a fishing boat. But if I was the captain of such a boat and depended on fishing as my life living, I would certainly not get myself involved in any rescue tempt in fear of been overrun and lost time in attending inquiries to follow on.