Titanic and the Mystery Ship

by Senan Molony

  And it is clear that use of the word ‘eventually’ refers only to the mystery steamer turning to starboard as she came closer, thus showing her red. The following extract shows that Boxhall saw the red light almost from the beginning (US Inquiry, p.236):

  Senator Smith: Were the two masthead lights the first lights that you could see? — The first lights.

  Sen. Smith: And what other lights? — And then, as she got closer, she showed her side light, her red light.

  Sen. Smith: So you were quite sure she was coming in your direction? — Quite sure.

  In other words, the red light that Boxhall sees arrives too quickly to be the product of the Californian drifting clockwise interminably until she finally shows the red light on her port side. Officer Lowe, we have established, also saw a red light when he casually glanced up at the stranger while working at lifeboat No.1 at 1.10 a.m.

  So, who else saw a red light on the mystery ship? Nightwatchman James Johnson:

  3482. Did you see that light from the deck of the Titanic? — I should think we saw it for about twenty minutes on the port bow…

  3486. I should consider it would be about eight or ten miles off…

  And later:

  3503. When we got away it disappeared altogether.

  3504. What coloured light was it? — I think it was red. I think there were two lights, in fact, a red and a white light.

  3505. [The Commissioner] Are you sure? — I can discern any sort of colour, racing, a mile and a quarter off, and I think I could see a red light.

  3506. Are you sure? — I am certain.

  Quartermaster Walter Wynn:

  13336. While you were in the (life)boat did you see any light or lights? — I did.

  13337. What did you see? — I saw a red light first, and then the red light disappeared, and I saw a white one.

  13338. What did you think the red light was? — I could not say; I put it down to a steamer.

  13339. You thought it was the port light of a steamer? — Yes.

  13350. …It went away, and then I saw the white light about 10 or 15 minutes afterwards again in the same direction.

  13351. I think you mean this, do you not, that you assumed that the white light you saw on the later occasion was the white light you had been seeing before? — Or it might have been a stern light.

  And Steward Alfred Crawford gives the following evidence:

  17847. And before you left the ship’s side did Captain Smith give you any directions with regard to a light? — Yes, he pointed to a light on the port side…

  17850. I should say she was 5 to 7 miles away from us…

  17852. The Captain gave the directions? — Yes, he pointed the ship out…

  17870. Did you yourself ever see any side-lights? — Yes…

  17872. What side-light or side-lights of that steamer did you see? — There was the red and the green light.

  17873. You saw them both? — Yes…

  17968. [The Commissioner] This was about one o’clock in the morning? — About 1 a.m., yes…

  18000. At what time was it you first saw her? — Just after one, when the Captain pointed it out.

  18001. And how long had you her under observation? — Nearly all the night.

  18002. What happened to her afterwards; did she come nearer to you, or did she disappear?

  — I could not say. We saw the Carpathia coming up, and we turned round and made for that one.

  The evidence of AB William Lucas follows:

  1566. Did you see any light? — Well, I did see a light, a faint side light of another ship…

  1569. Where was it? — Off my port hand as I was in the boat.

  1570. Do you mean it was a port light? Was it a red or a green light? — A red light, a side light.

  And Bathroom Steward Charles Donald Mackay gave the following responses:

  10803. Did you see what you thought was a light? — Yes, we thought there was a ship’s stern light.

  10804. Was it a white light or a coloured light? — It was a reddish light [he thinks on the starboard side of the Titanic].

  Only Assistant Cook John Collins thought he saw a green light alone (US Inquiry, p.629):

  …I looked back at her [Titanic’s] stern end and I saw a green light.

  Senator Bourne: What did you think it was, one of your own boats?

  Collins: No, sir; I did not really think of what it was until the firemen and sailors came up and said that it was a boat.

  Sen. Bourne: That is, a ship?

  Collins: Yes, sir.

  Sen. Bourne: What became of it?

  Collins: Sir, it disappeared.

  Sen. Bourne: How long was it visible?

  Collins: About 20 minutes or half an hour, I am sure it was.

  How far away, would you think, from the Titanic? — I guess it would be about 4 miles; I am sure, 3 or 4 miles.

  Some of Titanic’s lifeboats had green lights. However Collins is the only Titanic witness to specify a ship showing solely a green light. Later in his testimony he reveals:

  We were drifting about there; we drifted, I am sure, a mile and a half from the Titanic, from where she sank, and there was some lifeboat that had a green light on it, and we thought it was a boat after the Titanic had sunk. We thought this green light was some boat, and we commenced to shout. All we saw was the green light. We were drifting about for two hours, and then we saw the lights of the Carpathia.

  Green flares were burned during the night by Officer Boxhall in lifeboat No.2. The cumulative evidence shows that the mystery ship was showing her red light for a long time. There is no evidence whatsoever from Titanic witnesses that the mystery ship was showing simply a green side light. Yet, if the mystery ship was to be the Californian, she should have been showing her green light from the very start; a green light alone, and still a green light until all hope of rescue was cruelly extinguished.

  WHY COULDN’T THEY REACH A STATIONARY SHIP?

  A number of Titanic witnesses say the light, at the time they saw it, was ‘stationary,’ or ‘always seemed the same distance away’. It was even said to be ‘there all night’. Of course, if it was there, and never moved at all, then it must have been even more visible in daylight! How is it then, that a vessel, stationary all night, was not seen in the morning? Why did all boats turn around and head for the Carpathia?

  This is not an academic point. It is pure common sense. A stationary ship, whose red light and masthead lights had already been seen, must be visible in the morning after hours of pulling towards her, if she remained stationary (as Californian did until 6 a.m.). Dawn broke on the morning of 15 April 1912, no later than 4.30 a.m., three quarters of an hour before the Californian engaged engines for the first time (5.15 a.m. engines started). Daylight thus came a full hour and a half before the Californian began to move. Alfred Crawford gives the following evidence relating to the time of daybreak (US Inquiry, p.114):

  Senator Smith: What time did the day break on Monday?

  Steward Alfred Crawford: About 4 o’clock, I should say, it began to get light.

  And here is James Gibson, Apprentice Officer aboard SS Californian:

  7594. If it was twenty minutes to four it was not very far off the beginning of dawn, was it? — No, dawn was just breaking.

  Harold Cottam, wireless operator aboard SS Carpathia, states (US Inquiry, p.109):

  About 20 to half past 4, ship’s time, just as the dawn was coming on; about half past 4 in the morning.

  Senator Smith: It was nearing dawn?

  Mr Cottam: Yes, sir.

  Arthur Rostron, captain of the Carpathia (question 25551) claimed that ‘it was daylight at about 4.20 a.m.’ Herbert Pitman, Titanic Third Officer, gave the following evidence (US Inquiry, p.292):

  Yes; that must have been about 4 o’clock.

  Senator Smith: Daybreak?

  Pitman: It was just breaking day; yes.

  And passenger Major Arthur Peuchen agreed (US Inquiry, p.350):

&nbs
p; Senator Newlands: What time did the dawn come?

  Peuchen: We could just commence to distinguish light, I think, about near 4 o’clock.

  The Californian was stationary in the after-dawn (up to 6 a.m.), as it had been stationary all night. Not a single person in any lifeboat gave sworn evidence of seeing the mystery ship in daylight after hours of hard rowing in her direction. If she was still there, they might at least have carefully marked her funnel colour, the most basic aid to identification. The Californian’s funnel was pink. But nobody saw anything of the ship they had pursued. Crawford, quoted above about the dawn, was in boat No.8. He and his occupants had made most progress of all towards the light, and were furthest from the Carpathia, the ship which eventually arrived to rescue survivors.

  Crawford is questioned below:

  18052. You have not told us what distance you rowed in the direction of these lights? — I should say between 3 and 4 miles [see Titanic officer estimates of the ship being around 5 miles away]. By the time the morning came we were furthest away from the Carpathia.

  18053. Did they [the lights] ever appear to get any nearer? — No.

  Lookout Reginald Lee said (question 565): ‘There was a ship apparently ahead of the Titanic, as she was then, but that ship was supposed to have disappeared. Anyway, we did not see her in the morning.’

  Passengers could, however, see icebergs; survivor Arthur Peuchen estimating one to be 5 miles away, while Titanic Third Officer Herbert Pitman saw the lights of the eventual rescue vessel Carpathia ‘about half past three, as near as I can recollect… we could see the masthead light over five miles on a clear night’. They had rowed strenuously towards a mystery light, and now with a clear view in daylight, they could not see any other steamer.

  Perhaps, like Fleet, Lee, Captain Smith, Fourth Officer Boxhall, Fifth Officer Lowe, and so many others, they were all mistaken. How many mistakes of blindness would that be? There were 712 survivors, therefore 712 ‘mistakes’… Yet the 712 did not make any mistake in seeing the smoke, then the funnel, then the faint shapes, then the reality of the Carpathia. They should have seen two ships. They should have had a choice. They only saw one ship – Carpathia – and had no choice.

  Think about the Carpathia, with a huge height advantage over the lifeboats. If there was a stationary ship within a 5 mile radius, the Carpathia could not have helped but see her. And, unlike the Titanic, there was nothing to stop her eventually reaching such a vessel, as would be required, to check whether she had any survivors, being so close to the scene. But the arriving Carpathia saw no such ship in the vicinity. That ship had gone.

  The problem is summed up by Crawford in boat No.8 (US Inquiry, pp.829–830):

  Senator Fletcher: But you could see the lights very distinctly?

  Crawford: Very distinctly; yes, sir.

  Senator Fletcher: How was it that when day broke, and the sun rose, you could not see any ship?

  Crawford: I could not say. We saw the other ship coming to us, and we turned around for it.

  Senator Fletcher: But you could see nothing in the way of a ship or vessel, or anything, where these lights were?

  Crawford: No, sir.

  The same dilemma confronted Quartermaster Arthur Bright in collapsible ‘D’ (US Inquiry, p.838):

  Senator Fletcher: You did not see any ship or vessel of any sort next morning, in the direction of the light that you had seen during the night?

  Bright: No. That seemed to disappear all at once. The next we saw was the Carpathia, just before daylight.

  Sen. Fletcher: How far were you from her when you first saw the Carpathia?

  Bright: About 4 miles.

  Sen. Fletcher: You say that was before daylight?

  Bright: Just before daylight, she came in sight.

  The mystery ship was not there all night because she was demonstrably not there in the morning. She had moved. Californian did not move. Therefore Californian is not the mystery ship.

  An alternative is, as many puzzled and exhausted passengers and crew came to believe, that the mystery light was ‘imaginary’, a figment of nature, or a star. If this is the case, then it automatically exculpates the Californian. But stars do not have red and green lights and masthead lights and they certainly do not approach.

  The ‘imaginary light’ suggestion cannot explain what was patiently watched by experienced officers who were using binoculars on the boat deck. And so it must be found that a close ship, with coloured lights, did indeed exist and did indeed come very close at one point to the sinking Titanic.

  We should also bear in mind that a light on the horizon will always look stationary from a lifeboat – until it disappears. This is like watching a ship from the beach on a trip to the seaside, except that at night there are no visible landmarks by which to check progress. There is also the point that, for some of the night at least, the mystery ship, having approached, was stationary (in Boxhall and Buley’s expressed view) before pulling away.

  Some of the ‘stationary’ evidence undoubtedly backs up Boxhall, but fails to mention the disappearance, and the reasons for this can only be guessed at. However, it can be readily observed that the quality of being stationary can be a moveable feast – a witness who says ‘the light was stationary’ does not inherently exclude the possibility that it later vanished, as indeed it did and must have done.

  It is perhaps wise to beware of inexperienced witnesses giving impressions from a hopeless vantage point, as is the case with the accounts of civilian passengers in lifeboats. Yet those who insist Californian must be the mystery ship would have us believe the impressions of just some of these members of the British and American public, untrained in observation, sitting flat on the sea, who say ‘the light was stationary’ as if this were a categorical position the whole night. Because ‘morning-after evidence’ refutes it completely.

  No, surely it is preferable to rely on the night-before accounts of Joseph Boxhall and his experienced fellow officers. These were trained men, with long years of night observations behind them, and with Boxhall and Smith using binoculars. And all the officers had a better vantage point: Titanic’s deck, 70ft up. Now consider the poor vantage point of the lifeboats, whose limited field of vision will prove a key point in the debate. Those in the Titanic lifeboats continued to see not just the masthead light, but the red side light of the mystery ship even after they got down on the water. This kills the idea that the mystery ship was any distance away other than the closeness described by Titanic officers.

  The horizon of the lifeboats is small. How can occupants of such craft, set adrift on the New York track, see a vessel on the Boston track (Boston-bound Californian being labelled the mystery ship)?

  The mystery ship was near. Quartermaster Walter Wynn (lifeboat No.9) claims:

  13336. While you were in the (life)boat did you see any light or lights? — I did.

  13337. What did you see? — I saw a red light first, and then the red light disappeared, and I saw a white one.

  13338. What did you think the red light was? — I could not say; I put it down to a steamer.

  The side light was below the bridge of the ship observed, far below the masthead light! AB William Lucas (collapsible ‘D’) gives the following responses:

  1566. Did you see any light? — Well, I did see a light, a faint side light of another ship.

  1569. Where was it? — Off my port hand as I was in the (life)boat. Do you mean it was a port light? Was it a red or a green light? — A red light – a side light.

  To recall the evidence of nightwatchman James Johnson (lifeboat No.2):

  3502. Then you had not gone very far towards the light? — A mile and a half. I am certain we pulled that.

  3503. Did this light seem to get fainter or did it disappear suddenly?— When we got away it disappeared altogether.

  3504. What coloured light was it? — I think it was red. I think there were two lights, in fact, a red and a white light.

  3505. [Lord Mersey] Ar
e you sure? — I can discern any sort of colour, racing, a mile and a quarter off, and I think I could see a red light.

  3506. Are you sure? — I am certain.

  And, in addition, here is the evidence of Bathroom Steward Charles Mackay (lifeboat No.11):

  10802. Did you see a light while you were in the [life]boat? — A supposed light do you mean?

  10803. Well, I do not know whether it was a supposed light or not. Did you see what you thought was a light? — Yes, we thought there was a ship’s stern light.

  10804. Was it a white light or a coloured light? — It was a reddish light.

  10805. And you thought it was the stern light of a ship? — Yes.

  10809. And did you row towards that light? — For a matter of about two hours as hard as we could row.

  To develop this point further: the height of the crossbench or ‘thwart’ in a Titanic lifeboat was less than 2ft (most chair seats are only 18in high). Imagine that a man is standing up on the thwart – and furthermore that he happens to be the tallest man in the world at the time, a strapping 7½ft tall. Lop off 6in to get 7ft as the height of his eye. Plus 2ft for the thwart height, gives 9ft off the water. Now we will find the mileage from the lifeboat to the horizon, which has retracted sharply from standing on the Titanic because of the reduced height of the observer. An age-old formula says it is 1.17 times the square root of the height of one’s eye (9ft in this case). Square root is three. Three times 1.17 is 3.51 nautical miles. The lifeboat horizon for the world’s tallest man, then, is a maximum of 3½ miles. This must be added to 7.8 miles (the Californian’s own visible horizon) for any element of a ship the height of the Californian to be seen. This amounts to 11.3 miles. For the tallest man in the world, standing up on a thwart, just glimpsing the looming of a masthead light, with everything else hull down. Any further and nothing at all will be seen. Just the darkness.