by Senan Molony
8476. Never mind about your heading I am only dealing with her bearings. She is bearing SSE of you – south-easterly? — About south.
8477. She is south of you and apparently proceeding to the westward? — Yes, some course to the westward.
8478. Does it follow from that, that the side which she was showing to you at that time must have been her starboard side [with green light]? — [Groves] No, it does not follow at all. If she is steering a direct west course, yes [as the RMS Titanic was…].
8479. Did you see her green light at all? — Never.
So Groves, by his own account, did not see the RMS Titanic, which was heading virtually due west and showing her green light to any observer ship located to the northward. He clashes completely with his captain, as he will later clash with his other colleagues. Is Groves any kind of reliable witness? Or is he a man who can see a steamer approach from the south and stop, only to later confirm she is the largest passenger steamer ever built, heading west, which then steams a sustained change of course to the north – and this, before 11.40 p.m. Californian time, when Groves agrees she suddenly turns to port ‘to escape ice’ and shuts in all her ‘brilliant’ deck lights to him, thereafter presenting just a handful of lights to all other witnesses?
His first evidence has been:
8455. How did those deck lights communicate to you that this was a large passenger steamer? —Well, as I said before, by the number of her lights, there was such a glare from them.
8456. You mean from the brilliance of the lights? — Yes, from the brilliance of the lights…
It is perhaps appropriate that, with that steamer now stopped, showing only a few minor lights, a very un-Titanic ‘three or four’, Groves goes off duty and leaves the stage.
8
FORCING A RED LIGHT
Second Officer Herbert Stone, taking over just after midnight, along with apprentice officer James Gibson, would now stand the Californian’s middle watch (midnight until 4 a.m.) when drama unfolded elsewhere. Stone and Gibson saw a small or tramp steamer in their vicinity. Both say so. And like Groves, they could see her red side light, meaning she was presenting her port side. Captain Lord had pointed out the other steamer to Second Officer Stone. Stone described her (in response to question 8088) as ‘a smallish steamer’. Judging from the appearance of the lights, it could ‘not by any means’ have been the Titanic (question 8089). Stone could see only one masthead light, a red side light and ‘two or three small indistinct lights’. Apprentice Officer James Gibson thought she was a tramp steamer (question 7545). He is questioned further:
7706. Why did you think so? — She had no appearance at all of a passenger boat.
7707. What time did it first dawn on you that this was a tramp steamer? — As soon as I looked at her.
7728. [The Commissioner] What was it made you think it was a tramp steamer? You saw nothing but the lights? — Well, I have seen nearly all the large passenger boats out at sea, and there was nothing at all about it to resemble a passenger boat.
Pressed that she must have ‘seemed a big steamer’, Gibson would only adjust to ‘a medium size steamer’ (question 7733).
So Captain Lord, Second Officer Stone, and Apprentice Officer Gibson all agree that they could not have been looking at the Titanic. Only Groves is out of step. Gibson said he first saw the other ship’s light at about twenty minutes past twelve (question 7424 and 7425). He saw a white masthead light and a red side light: ‘I could see the red light with the glasses’ (question 7426). Ships carry a red light on their port side. The other side light is green (starboard). This, then, is the contention of those who suggest the Californian’s stranger was the Titanic: that the Titanic had turned or voyaged conveniently to the north, showing her red light to a northern observer (being the Californian).
It’s a nice theory, isn’t it? A Titanic turn would go some distance to cancel the troubling fact of the red light witnessed by Groves, Stone and Gibson. Because if the Titanic was heading west– to New York – and was south of the Californian, as all agree, then she would have been showing her green starboard light to any northern vessel.
She must therefore not just turn to starboard, to the north, in order to show her red light (along with the green), but make another half-turn to starboard again to shut out her green light. It would mean moving her bows from facing 9 o’clock on a clock dial to point not just at 12 o’clock, but to at least 1 o’clock.
Obviously, one would hope for evidence to back up this theory, because otherwise, in forcing the Titanic to fit the Californian facts, there must be a grave danger of wish-fulfilment. What we do know, however, is that the Titanic, rather than turning to starboard, in fact first turned sharply to port in an effort to avoid her iceberg. In other words, she went to the south of west:
Not an encouraging start for the theory-builders… And in fact there is no solid evidence for the direction in which the Titanic’s head was pointing when she came to rest. No less a luminary than the Attorney General himself admitted as much at the British Inquiry (6851): ‘Of course… it is rather difficult to know, after she struck the iceberg, how she was heading. We have not any very definite or clear evidence how the Titanic was heading. We cannot tell’.
Let’s look at some alternatives. Could Titanic have been pointing west after impact? This is indicated in an exchange between Boxhall and Senator Fletcher (US Inquiry, p.914):
[Fletcher] Apparently that ship came within 4 or 5 miles of the Titanic, and then turned and went away; in what direction, westward or southward? — [Boxhall] I do not know whether it was southwestward. I should say it was westerly.
The mystery ship had first approached almost straight on to the Titanic’s bow, Boxhall described.
Perhaps the Titanic was pointing to the east? Senator Fletcher questioned Major Arthur Peuchen, a passenger in First Class (US Inquiry, p.346):
[Fletcher] …you proceeded to row in the direction in which the ship had been moving, westward? — [Peuchen] No; we started right off from the port side of the boat, directly straight off from her about amidships on the port side, right directly north, I think it would be, because the northern lights appeared where this light we had been looking at in that direction appeared shortly afterwards.
We will leave it with the Attorney General: we cannot tell how the Titanic’s bow finished up. A turn that leaves her facing north may be necessary for the theory to work, but there is no clear evidence that this happened. But let us further examine the validity of the theory, for the sake of argument, because it has a fatal flaw.
Here it is: the ship seen two points off the Titanic’s bow is argued to be the Californian. The Californian, then, displays her starboard sidelight, which is green. Because the Californian is heading north-east, the Titanic, no matter which way she herself is facing, will always see Californian’s green sidelight. Groves is questioned about this:
8387. In the position to which you had swung round, just at the time you were leaving the bridge, if any person from that ship or from a boat lower down saw you, would they have seen the light you were showing then, your red starboard light? — It is a green light.
8388. I beg your pardon – your green light? — Yes.
But immediately we have a problem. This is simply the wrong colour, according to the evidence of Lowe, Boxhall and others. The Titanic observers saw a red sidelight throughout on their mystery ship. This is a massive problem if Californian is to be the mystery ship. How can she be?
So, was there then an intervening ship?
The ‘ship in-between’ theory has long been popular. But it completely dissolves upon examination of its credentials. The Californian observers saw a red port light on their mystery ship. And the Titanic observers also saw a red port light from their mystery ship. So if there is just an intervening ship, visible to both Californian and Titanic, she either has two red lights or is pointing in two directions at once. This is clearly impossible. A single stranger, the so-called ‘third ship’
, will just not fit the evidence.
Nor will she fit it if she was to move towards Californian, turn to starboard, move away, approach Titanic, turn to starboard once more, and head away to the south-west. Because the timings show that Titanic and Californian witnesses are seeing red lights simultaneously.
It is tempting to offer the ‘ship in-between’ theory. But the evidence is clear-cut. This did not happen. The only alternative, on establishing that the Californian was not the mystery ship, is that she and the Titanic were each seeing separate unidentified ships, making a grand total of four vessels altogether.
This may seem too many at first, too big an idea – but it may not be so extraordinary. The area was a busy Atlantic highway of different tracks to and from various destinations. The theory would suggest that there are two pairs of ships in operation. Each pair involves ships close to each other, but the pairs are distant from one another over the visible horizon. It is, at minimum, another theory. Yet it is one that cannot be accepted by those who want Californian to be the mystery ship, the sole mystery ship – Titanic’s nearby stranger.
Therefore, the proponents of a scenario involving Titanic and Californian alone, sighting each other, must somehow force the Californian to show her red light to the Titanic when she is actually showing green to any vessel close by and to the south. We know the Californian is showing green all the while. And yet it is beyond contradiction that Titanic witnesses saw only red. Therefore the direct clash, on the facts, has to be fudged. Once more the theory is king. And a theory there was. A book written in 1993 seemed to offer an explanation to wedge the stubborn Californian with the ‘wrong light’ into the unanimous Titanic evidence. Leslie Reade, author of The Ship That Stood Still, argued that, because the Californian was swinging in a clockwise fashion, she would eventually present her red light to the Titanic witnesses.
This is true. Even Captain Lord stated: ‘After midnight we slowly blew around and showed him our red light’ (US Inquiry, p.732). But the key words are ‘slowly’ and ‘eventually’. And the evidence is that Titanic witnesses saw their red light very early in the night. While Californian was indeed swinging clockwise, she was doing so very slowly, and would not have presented her red light to the Titanic until panic and chaos ruled on the maiden voyager and no-one was interested any more in patient observations of a mystery ship.
Lord claimed his vessel was pointing north-east when it came to rest at 10.21 p.m. that night. But Apprentice Officer Gibson went on duty two hours later and found, at 12.20 a.m., that she was pointing ‘east-northeast’ (question 7437). So the Californian had drifted precisely two points in two hours, or one point of the compass per hour. She was east-north-east, and would have to drift fully another ten points to place her bow due south. So how slowly was the Californian swinging? Captain Lord said ‘slowly’, but consider the view of Charles Groves, the dissenter, who became convinced the vessel he saw to southward was the Titanic: ‘At that time we would be heading NE when I saw that steamer first, but we were swinging all the time… swinging, but very, very slowly’ (question 8150). Secondly, the Titanic evidence is that the red light of their stranger was there from the first until the sinking and even thereafter, and there is no credible evidence of a green light ever being seen, except when she initially steamed close shortly after 12.30 a.m., presenting both side lights in her head-on approach. By 1 a.m., that oncoming vessel had turned to starboard and was presenting her red light to all Titanic observers. Boxhall thought the reason she did so was because she had ‘probably gotten into the ice’. Thirdly, for the swinging Californian to work according to the theory, the Titanic must paradoxically stay still in the same current – the current somehow not working on the Titanic but on the Californian alone, even though both ships are supposedly so close to each other. Yet if the same current had been in operation, Titanic might have been swinging anti-clockwise. This could have shown the Californian the Titanic’s green starboard light. But the Californian never saw a green light on the ship near to her. Fourthly, and the reader will have to take this on trust for the time being, the swinging theory requires Officer Boxhall of the Titanic to fire a large number of distress rockets in quick succession – before waiting, without firing any for at least fifteen minutes, until he fires his last rocket at a time supposedly coincidental with the appearance of Californian’s red light. This scenario is obviously unlikely and will be shown to be a complete travesty of the evidence. Fifthly, and finally, detailed evidence as to the Californian’s rate of drift makes it problematical that she could have shown her red light to her nearby stranger in the time required by the ‘swing theory’.
All of the five points above will now have to be supported by evidence to finally demolish this notion, which has taken a firm grip among those needful of a plausibly ‘scientific’ basis for their insistence that the Californian must be Titanic’s mystery ship.
Regarding swinging slowly: Groves says ‘We were swinging, but very, very slowly’ (question 8150), while Stone says ‘We were slowly swinging’ (question 7969).
The Titanic saw a red light all night, and not just later in the night, as the swing theory requires. This has all been dealt with earlier. The repeated evidence is that the Titanic’s stranger showed her red light from the moment of arrival when she turned side-on and stopped. Both Fleet and Lowe specifically refer to seeing the red light at 1 a.m., quite apart from Boxhall, who saw it ‘most of the time’: ‘And then, as she got closer, she showed her side light, her red light’ (US Inquiry, p.236).
Was the Californian’s other ship affected by the current? She should have been if they were in the same locality. But there is no evidence she was.
Stone claimed ‘She [the stranger] was not swinging so far as I could tell, she was steaming away’ (question 8046). Gibson, on the other hand, said he could not see whether she was steaming away (7741). Neither did he suggest at any time that she was ‘swinging,’ but said she was ‘disappearing’.
Neither of the two post-midnight Californian witnesses saw a green light on the vessel they had under observation. Here is Gibson:
7771. Did you ever see her green? — No.
7779. You told us you never saw the green light of this vessel? — No.
Stone is in agreement: ‘Did you ever see this vessel’s green light? — No’ (question 8056). And what do the Titanic witnesses say of any current swing by their vessel after the collision? Boxhall is asked (question 15419) ‘Do you know at all whether the Titanic was swinging at this time?’, to which he answers ‘No, I do not see how it was possible for the Titanic to be swinging after the engines were stopped. I forget when it was I noticed the engines were stopped, but I did notice it; and there was absolutely nothing to cause the Titanic to swing’. So, if Titanic was not swinging, she was not in the Californian’s current. So if the Titanic was Californian’s nearby ship, then the Californian was in a current as localised as a tiny river eddy, rather than the centre of the North Atlantic…
Quartermaster George Rowe, meanwhile, on board the Titanic, saw the mystery ship move from almost ahead to further along the Titanic’s port bow and concluded that this was an effect caused by the Titanic swinging clockwise. Other Titanic witnesses, as we know, knew the mystery ship to be moving. Rowe himself later acknowledged that ‘toward daylight… she sort of hauled off from us’ (US Inquiry, p.524). Here is what he says:
17669. Was your vessel’s head swinging at the time you saw this light of this other vessel? — I put it down that her [Titanic’s] stern was swinging.
17670. Which way was her stern swinging? — Practically dead south, I believe, then.
17671. Do you mean her head was facing south? — No, her head was facing north. She was coming round to starboard.
17672. The stern was swung to the south? — Yes.
17673. And at that time you saw this white light? — Yes.
17674. How was it bearing from you? — When I first saw it, it was half a point on the port bow, and roughly a
bout two points when I left the bridge.
This evidence from Rowe clashes with Boxhall’s ‘no swing for Titanic’ testimony. But Rowe’s swing appears at odds with that of the Californian. This may illustrate how ill-founded any theory is that relies on a current to somehow get it out of a hole.
The logical conclusion is that if the Titanic was within 5 miles of a swinging Californian, then the Titanic should have followed the same pattern. This is what was indeed concluded by those in the British Government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) in their 1992 re-appraisal of the evidence relating to the Californian, when they assumed that the same current would apply over 20 miles: ‘Between the collision and sinking, both ships will in all probability have drifted similarly’ (MAIB final report, p.11).
As shall be demonstrated later, it is the contention of Second Officer Stone that the Californian’s unknown ship did not drift, but actually and actively steamed away. Gibson would state that she ‘disappeared’ or went ‘out of sight’.
So, to recap, the swing theory requires the Californian to be actively affected by a vigorous localised current (far more vigorous than the ‘slow’ drift apparently felt by those on the ship) and the Titanic not to be affected by any current whatsoever – even though it is clear from the wreck site location, being south of the streamer track, that a current was acting on the Titanic after she stopped, slowly pushing her south-west and off her former course. One current for the Californian and none for the Titanic? It may be possible, but it seems unlikely.
The swing theory also requires an unlikely pattern of distress rocket firing by the Titanic. The book advocating the Californian swing theory claims that Titanic Fourth Officer Boxhall fired ‘altogether seven rockets while he could see the green light of the other ship’ (The Ship That Stood Still, p.148). It asserts: ‘Boxhall later saw the other ship’s red sidelight alone. He fired off one more rocket, his last. The last went off about 1.30 a.m.’
