by Senan Molony
The Californian was stationary. But it is clear that Boxhall saw a ship approaching head on, corroborating Buley’s statement, showing both her side lights, until this ‘four-masted steamer’ turned to starboard, easing away to the left as the Titanic watched, showing her port (left) side light – the red one – to the Titanic.
‘At last’ she showed her stern light, which is always white, and the mystery ship eventually moved away.
Boxhall says the captain of the Titanic, E.J. Smith, ‘was standing by, at different times, watching this steamer’. Smith, a vastly experienced mariner, the most senior captain of the White Star Line, thus implicitly agrees with Boxhall that the mystery ship was initially coming closer. More than that, Captain Smith instructed Boxhall to send Morse code flashes with the message ‘come at once, we are sinking’. This was no mere SOS, but a detailed transmission, sent with the expectation that the other ship would be able to read and understand the detail due to its close proximity.
Boxhall states (US Inquiry, p.235):
…She got close enough, as I thought, to read our electric Morse signal, and I signalled to her; I told her to come at once, we were sinking; and the Captain was standing… I told the Captain about this ship, and he was with me most of the time when we were signalling.
Senator Smith: Did he also see it?
Boxhall: Yes, sir.
Sen. Smith: Did he tell you to do anything else to arrest its attention?
Boxhall: I went over and started the Morse signal. He said, ‘Tell him to come at once, we are sinking’.
This is a Morse lamp, which flashes dots and dashes in Morse and can typically be seen for a range of 5 miles. Boxhall says, in answer to question 15409: ‘I judged her to be between 5 and 6 miles when I Morsed to her’.
Stanley Lord of the Californian would tell the US Inquiry that his vessel had ‘a very powerful Morse lamp’, adding: ‘I suppose you can see that about 10 miles’ (p.729). The Titanic’s Morse lamp, in other words, would certainly have been visible to the new arrival, especially on such a clear night. One Morse lamp was mounted on top of each bridge-wing, with its flashes operated from a keyboard located below.
A ship’s Morse lamp was a powerful communications tool. The Titanic had two, located on top of the wing-cabs on either side of the bridge. The flashes ought to have been easily discernible, but Titanic’s appeals were ignored by the mystery ship. Captain Lord testified that the Californian’s own lamp could be read at a distance of 10 miles. He ordered repeated sessions of signalling to his vessel’s nearby steamer, but it too remained unresponsive.
Yet despite the Titanic being only 5 or 6 miles distant from the mystery ship in the estimate of Boxhall (and in the implied agreement of Captain Smith), the officers aboard the critically-wounded new luxury liner could not detect any positive response whatsoever to their Morsing:
15412. Did [anyone on Titanic see the mystery ship] Morsing in answer to your Morse signals? —
[Boxhall] They did not say she Morsed, but they said she showed a light. Then I got the Quartermaster [George Rowe] who was with me to call her up with our lamps, so that I could use the glasses to see if I could see signs of any answer; but I could not see any.
15413. You could not see any with the glasses? — No; and Captain Smith also looked, and he could not see any answer.
15414. He also looked at her through the glasses? — Yes.
It will be shown later that the Californian, coincidentally, could also see an unknown ship in her own location. This is a coincidence too far for some, but will be closely examined later. Meanwhile it is important to note that the Californian’s evidence was that she herself flashed a Morse lamp repeatedly at her own stranger and never received an answer.
Those who were Morsing the neighbouring vessel from Californian said their stranger was a small to medium-sized cargo steamer only 5 miles away. But if the Californian, with her ‘powerful’ Morse lamp, really lay only 5 to 6 miles from Titanic, then her visual signals ought to have been clearly seen on the Titanic on a night of brilliant visibility. After all, Captain Smith of the RMS Titanic imagined that his mystery ship could read a complicated message: ‘come at once, we are sinking’. Californian’s Morse light, being very powerful, should have been seen at ‘about ten miles’. The Titanic, lying 5 to 6 miles away from a puzzling presence, could detect no Morse replies.
Since neither inquiry ever disputed the evidence that the Californian repeatedly Morsed a vessel that approached her and stopped, the implication must be, once again, that the stationary yet Morsing Californian was not the RMS Titanic’s approaching and uncommunicative stranger.
Let us return to the suggestion from the evidence that Captain Smith shares Boxhall’s conviction that the Titanic’s mystery ship has moved close. Bedroom steward Alfred Crawford separately provides corroboration of Captain Smith’s conclusion that the mystery ship was close enough to Morse by lamp. Crawford went away in boat No.8, one of the early boats, launched from the port side at 1.10 a.m. He said he was ordered to use his oars to row to the nearby vessel! In question 17964 at the British Inquiry, Commissioner Mersey suggested: ‘The gentleman who gave you that order must, I suppose, have thought that the lights that were visible were close to? Did Captain Smith say to you “Make for those lights”?’ Crawford replied: ‘He did’. Mersey went on to ask whether Smith ordered Crawford to ‘Put your passengers on board that ship with those lights and then come back here’ (17965). Crawford replied ‘Yes, my Lord’. The Commissioner continued: ‘Then I presume – I do not know – that he must have thought those lights were close to. I do not at present think he is right about that’.
The first part of this observation by the President of the British Inquiry makes sense, and is in accordance with the evidence. The latter part indicates, perhaps, a desire that it should be the other way! Commissioner Mersey would eventually convict the Californian of being the mystery ship.
Seaman Thomas Jones and passenger Mrs J. Stuart White were both also in boat No.8, and back up Crawford (US Inquiry, p.570):
Jones: This No.8 boat was there… I jumped in the boat. The Captain asked me was the plug in the boat, and I answered, ‘Yes, sir’… He told me to row for the light, and land the passengers and return to the ship. I pulled for the light, and I found that I could not get near… I had to carry out the Captain’s orders and pull for that light; so I did so.
Senator Newlands: Who was the officer on the port side who gave you your directions? — The Captain.
Sen. Newlands: The Captain himself? — Yes, sir.
And Mrs White’s evidence follows (US Inquiry, p.1007):
Mrs White: We simply rowed away. We had the order, on leaving the ship, to do that. The officer who put us in the boat – (I do not know who he was whether an officer or the Captain) – gave strict orders to the seamen, or the men, to make for the light opposite and land the passengers and get back just as soon as possible. That was the light that everybody saw in the distance.
Further corroboration is given by the Countess of Rothes in an interview with The Journal of Commerce, 24 April 1912:
Captain Smith stood next to me as we got in, and told Tom Jones, a sailor who acted nobly, to row straight for those ship lights over there, land the passengers aboard, and return as soon as possible.
For three hours we pulled steadily for the lights seen three miles away; then we saw a port light vanish and the masthead lights grow dimmer until they disappeared.
The Countess is clearly talking about ship lights that subsequently moved away. The Californian, by the evidence of all aboard, did not move at all during this timeframe.
Meanwhile, Captain Smith was still giving those same orders later, to boat No.6, launched after No.8. Mrs Lucian P. Smith recalled that: ‘The Captain looked over to see us… there was a small light on the horizon that we were told to row towards’ (US Inquiry, p.1150); Quartermaster Robert Hichens states: ‘I think I got in No.6 boat, sir; put in charge of her by the second off
icer, Mr Lightoller. We lowered away from the ship, sir, and were told to “Pull toward that light”’ (US Inquiry, p.451).
Nightwatchman James Johnson was saved with Fourth Officer Boxhall in boat No.2, whose departure was officially put at 1.45 a.m. He suggested Captain Smith could still see the light at this late stage:
3677. Did you hear any order given by the Captain as to the sending away of your boat? — I think it was the Captain told us to make for that light and come back again.
3678. Did you hear him tell the fourth officer to go away? —Yes, and come back.
And, from the US Inquiry affidavit of Mrs Mahala Douglas (p.1101):
Mr Boxhall was trying to get the boat off, and called to the Captain on the bridge, ‘There’s a boat coming up over there’. The Captain said ‘I want a megaphone’…
So Captain Smith agreed with Boxhall that the ship had approached, and he believed her to be coming closer; indeed, so close that he might finally be able to hail her to issue instructions. Such closeness is simply inconsistent with both Titanic and Californian missing Morse.
TITANIC’S OTHER OFFICERS
Three considerations, arguably, ought to guide the reader on the movement question surrounding the Titanic’s mystery ship.
Firstly, most credibility should be given to those who watched that ship, being tasked to that essential duty if all aboard Titanic were to be saved, rather than to those who commented on the basis of casual glances or impressions. Essentially this means concentrating on Fourth Officer Boxhall, whose account is unwavering about an approaching ship, and who finds implied support in his account from Captain Smith (who did not survive) as well as specific support from fellow officers who were saved.
Secondly, weight must be placed where it properly resides for observations at sea at night: with those trained to the task. This means officers of the watch and lookouts. Fred Fleet testified that he and Lee saw no other ship before or after the collision until a light was reported after they had climbed down from the crow’s nest and were on duty at the boats.
Thirdly, we should favour observations from the boat deck of the Titanic, with its 70ft vantage point above sea level, rather than impressions gained from the hopelessly unreliable sea level viewpoint of a person in a lifeboat.
To recap a moment: Do we imagine both lookouts could have missed the stationary Californian over forty-five minutes? And do we also imagine that Boxhall is next in error by managing to see the immobile Californian, yet somehow imagining her to be moving instead of stationary? Do we further imagine that Captain Smith of the Titanic, while not making the ‘invisible’ mistake of Fleet and Lee, happens to make a different mistake about that ship, yet the same mistake as Boxhall, which led Boxhall to believe that Smith fully agreed with his assessment of the mystery ship’s approach?
These four glaring ‘mistakes’ by key eyewitnesses must each happen in turn, it would appear, if the Californian is to be even considered as the mystery ship. Lookouts Fleet and Lee, Officer Boxhall and Captain Smith must all, separately and together, be mistaken on that night in 1912 if we are to believe those who later equated the Californian with the mystery ship. The Californian cannot have been moving: she was indeed stopped. So if she was stopped, the lookouts should have seen her. And when Boxhall and Smith saw her to be moving, they should instead have seen her as stationary. By far the greater likelihood, one would imagine, is that Fleet, Lee, Boxhall and Smith are correct, as the testimony (or implied witness) of all four is consistent with the late appearance of a moving ship and nothing else.
Let us examine now the evidence of those men to whom we must give the greatest weight in evidence. Not Titanic cooks or bedroom stewards, nor barbers nor greasers, nor even landlubber passengers. But the other officers of the RMS Titanic.
Chief Officer Wilde, First Officer Murdoch and Sixth Officer Moody were all lost in the disaster and offered no evidence to the inquiries. Captain Smith was lost too, but we have second-hand accounts of his attitude and behaviour. What of the surviving officers? Take these prime survivors in order: Second Officer Charles Lightoller, Third Officer Herbert Pitman, Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall (already mentioned), and Fifth Officer Harold Lowe.
Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller saw:
14138. A white light about two points on the port bow; whether it was one or two lights I could not say. As to whether it was a mast-head light or a stern light, I could not say. I was perfectly sure it was a light attached to a vessel, whether a steamship or a sailing ship I could not say. I could not distinguish any other coloured lights, but merely it was a white light, distinct and plain.
14140. [The Commissioner] Can you form any estimate of the distance of the light from the Titanic? — Yes, my Lord; certainly not over 5 miles away.
And a little later in the Inquiry:
14145. Did you observe it yourself, or was your attention called to it? — No, I noticed it.
14147. Other people saw it, too, I suppose. Did you continue to see it when you looked from that time forward until the ship went down, or did it disappear?
Lightoller — I cannot say how long I noticed it. I saw it perhaps half an hour, probably about half an hour. I can recollect seeing it for about half an hour.
Lightoller elsewhere insisted this vessel was stationary – which it could have been, by the time he saw it, and he noticed it for just half an hour. Lightoller, who was phenomenally busy all night, also mentions a stern light. Boxhall’s mystery ship, having been stationary, eventually turned until all he could see was a stern light, going away, as he told the British Inquiry, in reponse to question 15409.
Third Officer Herbert Pitman, who also saw the light as stationary, stated:
15061. Whilst you were in the (life)boat and before the ship sank, did you see any light or lights which you took to be the light or lights of another steamer? — [Pitman] I saw a white light which I took to be the stern light of a sailing ship.
15062. How far away did you judge it to be? — I thought it was about five miles.
15063. That would be a good distance to see a stern light, would it not? — Yes, it may have been less.
15064. Was it a good night for seeing a light; for seeing a good stern light? — An excellent night.
This is the evidence of Fifth Officer Harold Lowe:
15825. Did you look for any lights at this time at all? — [Lowe] As I was getting the emergency boat ready, No.1, Mr Boxhall was firing the detonators, the distress signals, and somebody mentioned something about a ship on the port bow, and I glanced over in that direction casually and I saw a steamer there.
15826. What did you see of her? — I saw her two masthead and her red side lights.
Fifth Officer Lowe therefore agrees with Fourth Officer Boxhall. He too saw a red side light. Lowe was working at boat No.1 at the time, which went off around 1.10 a.m. Pitman and Boxhall would seem to agree on seeing a late stern light. Lightoller could only distinguish a vessel near at hand.
So here we are: all the surviving Titanic officers – Lightoller, Lowe, Boxhall and Pitman – see a close ship, at an average estimation of 5 miles away. That ship was not seen previously. The surviving officers all first see her long after the iceberg collision. And Boxhall, like Captain Smith, observed her with binoculars. Boxhall, who survived, said he was ‘absolutely sure’ about the steamer’s approach.
Consider Boxhall’s critical duty and onerous responsibility at this time of emergency. Would he really report his time-consuming observations utterly incorrectly? He needs glasses to make out the light at first, but later says he can see her side light with his naked eye, just as Lowe (and other crew, as we shall see) can also see it and identify its colour with their naked eyes, all in complete agreement. And this, after lookouts previously couldn’t see any light, never mind anything as close as red or green side lights (designed to be visible at 2 miles). It is submitted that there can only be one conclusion, based on the evidence: That the mystery ship was moving at some s
tage. Yet it is uncontested that the Californian was stationary all night.
4
A RED LIGHT’S IMPORTANCE
The official verdict in 1912 – that the Titanic’s mystery ship was the Californian – pays no attention to the testimony about the mystery ship eventually showing a stern light, as outlined by the officer witnesses in the previous chapter.
Yet because the Californian was pointing north-east when she stopped at 10.21 a.m. (see the beginning of this book), and knowing her rate of drift, it is inescapably true that she would never have shown her stern light to the Titanic that night. Pointing north-east, and drifting very slowly in a clockwise direction, the Californian would have shown any observer to the southward and eastward a green side light, on her starboard side (red light showing to port). And it is known from the location of the wreck site that the Titanic was indeed both to the south and east of the Californian’s cited stop position. Therefore the Titanic ought to have seen the Californian’s green side light, not her red. It is critically important to grasp this irreducible verity.
A ship has two side lights. The Californian pointing north-east would have thrown light like this ‘%’, the circles to either side of the percentage sign representing her port and starboard lights. The port light, left side, was red. The starboard light, right side, was green. If the mystery ship was the Californian, then not only should she have been stopped instead of moving, but she should also have shown the Titanic her green light, not her red.
Boxhall (US Inquiry, p.933) states:
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.
