Titanic and the Mystery Ship

by Senan Molony

  Moore states: ‘I went a little farther, and I turned around because it was getting far too heavy to put the ship through’ (US Inquiry, p.764). But British Solicitor General, Sir John Simon, was later curiously gentle with the Mount Temple:

  9589. [The Solicitor General, to Wireless Operator Durrant] I think you heard about 8 o’clock in the morning, your ship’s time, from the Carpathia, that she had rescued? — Twenty boat loads.

  9590. And, of course, as we know, your ship did her best but could not get to the spot in time? — No.

  One can say that the Californian made every effort – that Captain Lord risked his ship twice to cross the ice barrier, to the west and then the east, in order to reach the Carpathia’s side at 8.30 a.m. Critics would naturally say that the Californian was trying to make up for her guilt in seeing rockets the previous night and doing nothing about them.

  Meanwhile an affidavit had been given to the US Inquiry by a medical doctor stating that the Mount Temple had actually seen the Titanic (US Inquiry, p.1098):

  DOMINION OF CANADA, Province of Ontario, City of Toronto:

  Dr F. C. Quitzrau; being first duly sworn, deposes and says that he was a passenger, travelling second class, on steamer Mount Temple, which left Antwerp April 3, 1912; that about midnight Sunday, April 14, New York time, he was awakened by the sudden stopping of the engines; that he immediately went to the cabin, where were already gathered several of the stewards and passengers, who informed him that word had been received by wireless from the Titanic that the Titanic had struck an iceberg and was calling for help.

  Orders were immediately given and the Mount Temple course changed, heading straight for the Titanic. About 8 o’clock New York time, 2 o’clock ship’s time, the Titanic was sighted by some of the officers and crew; that as soon as the Titanic was seen all lights on the Mount Temple were put out and the engines stopped and the boat lay dead for about two hours; that as soon as day broke the engines were started and the Mount Temple circled the Titanic’s position, the officers insisting that this be done, although the Captain had given orders that the boat proceed on its journey.

  While encircling the Titanic’s position we sighted the Frankfurt to the northwest of us, the Birma to the south, speaking to both of these by wireless, the latter asking if we were in distress; that about 6 o’clock we saw the Carpathia, from which we had previously received a message that the Titanic had gone down; that about 8.30 the Carpathia wirelessed that it had picked up 20 lifeboats and about 720 passengers all told, and that there was no need for the Mount Temple to stand by, as the remainder of those on board were drowned.

  Dr F. C. QUITZRAU

  Subscribed and sworn to before me this 29th day of April, 1912. [Seal]

  William James Elliott, Notary Public for the Province of Ontario.

  Moore was asked about this affidavit, but the doctor’s claims certainly were not pursued with the same vigour as those of Gill (US Inquiry, p.767):

  Senator Smith: Some passengers on your vessel, Sunday night about midnight, claim to have seen these rockets from the decks of the Titanic. Have you heard anything about that?

  Moore: I have read it in the papers, sir; but as a matter of fact, I do not believe there was a passenger on deck at 12 o’clock at night. I am positive, because they would not know anything at all about this, and you may be sure that they would be in their beds. I know the steward tells me there was nobody on deck; that is, the night watchman at the aft end. At the forward end there was nobody on deck. The man in what we call the permanent steerage that passes under the bridge deck – we have a permanent steerage there, and the other, of course, is a portable one we can take down – and nobody saw a passenger on deck, sir…

  And slightly later (US Inquiry, p.769):

  Senator Smith: Do you wish to be understood as saying that you did not see, on Sunday night or Monday morning, any signal lights from the Titanic?

  Moore: I can solemnly swear that I saw no signal lights, nor did my officers on the bridge see any signal lights.

  And that was it. He also denied he could have seen the Carpathia’s rockets, which were seen in the Titanic lifeboats at 3.30 a.m. and by the Californian in the extreme distance at 3.25 a.m. This was a time when the Mount Temple said she was still 14 miles to the west of the SOS position (US Inquiry, p.777):

  Senator Smith: Let me ask you right there, did you see the rockets from the Carpathia?

  Moore: I do not think it possible, sir, because if the Carpathia was farther away it is not likely you would see her rockets. But you see, this ship says she is sending rockets up. So it is possible that other ships may have seen them. I do not know. I thought of sending rockets up, but I thought it far better to let it alone, because if other ships thought they saw them they might be coming to me, and I had not seen anything of the Titanic and did not know exactly where she was; because I think, after all, the Titanic was farther east than she gave her position, or, in fact, I am certain she was.

  The British Inquiry, which followed the senatorial hearings, asked precisely no questions about Quitzrau’s allegations or about the Mount Temple seeing rockets. His deposition is assuredly flawed, but there were many similar claims from other Mount Temple passengers aired in the Canadian and American press, all of them overlooked. Instead there was this ringing declaration from Lord Mersey in the early part of Wireless Operator Durrant’s evidence:

  [The Commissioner] This boat, the Mount Temple, was never in a position to render active assistance.

  [The Solicitor General] It was 49 miles away, and it was making for her.

  [The Commissioner] She could not possibly have reached her.

  9486. [The Solicitor General] No, not possibly. She was doing her best.

  The Mount Temple was 49 miles away at 12.30 a.m. Her top speed was something over 11 knots. She got to the empty SOS position at 4.30 a.m. But it is in regard to the four hours of daylight thereafter, until 8.30 a.m. when Carpathia picked up the last lifeboat, that questions should be asked. The British Inquiry had, after all, awarded itself an additional question to answer after hearing witnesses: ‘What vessels had the opportunity of rendering assistance to the Titanic, and if any, how was it that assistance did not reach the Titanic before the SS Carpathia arrived?’ (p.839). The answer in the official report was stark: ‘The Californian. She could have reached the Titanic if she had made the attempt when she saw the first rocket. She made no attempt’ (British Inquiry Final Report, p.71). This finding made no mention of any other vessels. It did not mention the Mount Temple, nor the ice barrier that prevented Moore from joining the Carpathia.

  Let it be remembered that the Californian took an hour and a half to get from her drifted overnight stop to the supposed disaster scene – the location given by the Titanic’s SOS, which was wrong. If Lord had been told enough, or had somehow divined the situation at 1.15 a.m. (when Stone first whistled down the speaking-tube) his vessel would have reached the SOS position (empty!) at 2.45 a.m. by the earliest (although inevitably much later because she would have been travelling in darkness instead of daylight).

  The earliest possible arrival would have been half an hour after the Titanic sank. But there would have been no lifeboats even if she had reached there, because the Titanic herself gave out the wrong position. Another trip through the ice would have been required, even though just one such trip was beyond Moore and the Mount Temple in all circumstances (US Inquiry, p.783):

  Moore: …My instructions from my company are that I must not enter field ice, no matter if it seems only light. Those are my explicit instructions from my company.

  If I was to go through ice and my ship was damaged I would have pointed out to me that those were the instructions, that I was not to go into any ice, no matter how thin. As a matter of fact, I would not attempt to go through field ice if it was thick. The usual thing, on approaching ice, at night, is to stop and wait until daylight.

  And Moore states: ‘I assure you that I did everything that was poss
ible, sir, consistent with the safety of my own ship and its passengers’ (US Inquiry, p.785).

  The Californian did the ‘usual thing’ on encountering ice at night: she stopped, drifting until daylight. She had no direct knowledge of the SOS transmission until five hours after the Mount Temple (5.11 a.m. as against 12.11 a.m., both Mount Temple time). And the Californian did risk her own safety, in Moore’s description, dashing twice through the ice barrier to reach first one scene and then the other. She got no thanks for it.

  21

  MISSING LOGS

  A log of the hours of the middle watch when the Californian saw rockets ought to have been kept by the officer of the watch – in this case, Second Officer Herbert Stone, in line with standard procedure. Industry-wide practice was that the officer of the watch kept notes on a ‘scrap log’ – often a torn-out sheet of paper – which would then be written up into the official log by the chief officer – in this case, George Stewart. It was the role of the chief officer on every vessel to keep the official log.

  Titanic’s chief officer, Henry Wilde, was responsible for that vessel’s official log. He died in the sinking and the official log was never recovered. The Californian’s official log was produced to the British Inquiry, but it turned out that the vessel’s scrap log for the night in question had been destroyed. Lord Mersey in his Final Report chose to lay particular emphasis on the absence of the scrap log (p.43):

  The Master told the Court that he made [the Californian’s overnight stop] position to be 42° 5’ N, 57° 7’ W [sic – actually 50° 7’ W]. This position is recorded in the log book, which was written up from the scrap log book by the Chief Officer. The scrap log is destroyed. It is a position about 19 miles N by E of the position of the Titanic when she foundered, and is said to have been fixed by dead reckoning and verified by observations. I am satisfied that this position is not accurate.

  Mersey has linked three things together: the claimed overnight stop position (50° 7’ W, not 57°), the absence of the scrap log, and his satisfaction that the claimed overnight stop position is ‘not accurate’. The sinister implication of Mersey’s construction is clear: the Californian’s scrap log was destroyed because its information did not concur with the position that Californian later relied upon, and which Mersey concluded was ‘not accurate’.

  We have seen in previous treatment why Mersey could believe the Californian standpoint to be ‘not accurate’ (a carefully-chosen phrase indeed), with his wrong-headed ideas about ‘speeding’ wreckage and the emerging evidence that the Titanic and Californian positions could not both be correct, which was indeed true. The missing scrap log now allows Mersey to convey shadows of dark conspiracy in further support of his judgement, and indeed the missing log has been cited many times since as a basis for the belief that the Californian falsified her position.

  Unfortunately for such theorists, the truth is rather more plain and prosaic. Virtually all vessels, including the Titanic, used the scrap log system. And all such vessels routinely disposed of the scraps after their contents had been transferred into the official log. Therefore Lord Mersey is simply not entitled to equate the routine disposal of an out-of-date scrap of paper with a conspiracy, or an organised suppression of evidence. We will examine what was said about the Californian’s scrap log by the witnesses to the British Inquiry.

  It is a fact, however, that Second Officer Herbert Stone did not offer any mention of the unusual rockets in his personal notes for that midnight–4 a.m. duty. It is odd that he was never asked about his failure to record those signals. Nor was Stone ever recalled, in the light of other witness evidence, to answer questions about his omission. Instead it was left to others to do their best to explain his actions. Lord was asked:

  7331. Is it not usual to record these things in the log? — We never realised what these rockets were, my Lord. If they had been distress rockets they would have been mentioned in the log.

  7332. But the next morning you knew the Titanic had gone down? — Yes.

  7333. Did you make no record then in your log of the signals that you had seen? — No.

  7334. Why not? — We never took them to be distress rockets. The Second Officer’s explanation to me of these rockets was that they were not distress rockets.

  7335. Why was all reference to these rockets left out of the log? — If we had realised they were distress rockets we would have entered them, my Lord.

  Chief Officer Stewart was also questioned on the issue:

  8658. It is your business to write up the log-book from the scrap log? — Yes

  8659. Who keeps the scrap log-book, and where is it kept? — It is just kept for the day, that is all.

  8660. I am not sure that I understand. You do not mean there is a new scrap log-book for every day? — It is all bits that are torn out and destroyed. The [official] log-book is written up every day and the officer signs it.

  8661. Do you mean that at the end of the day when you have written up your log from the scrap log-book you tear out the page of the scrap logbook and destroy it? — Yes.

  8672. [The Solicitor General] Why do you do that? — Because we only keep the one log.

  8673. But why? — By the company’s instructions.

  8674. [The Commissioner] I never heard of this. Are you instructed by your owners to destroy the scrap log as the voyage goes along? — Yes my Lord.

  8675. [The Solicitor General] Day by day? — Yes.

  8676. [The Commissioner] Does your steamer belong to the same company that practically owns the Titanic? — We belong to the Leyland Line, my Lord.

  8677. Yes, I know, but is that part and parcel of the International Marine? — A part of it, my Lord.

  8678. That is to say, it belongs to the same company that the Titanic belonged to? — I cannot say as to that, my Lord.

  8679. I daresay you do not understand the arrangements between them but you are part and parcel of the International Marine? — Yes.

  8680. And the Titanic was part and parcel of the International Marine? — Yes, my Lord.

  8681. Am I to understand that those instructions are given to all the steamers, controlled by that company, that is to say to the White Star, the Leyland Line and others? — I cannot say that, my Lord.

  Mr Andrew Laing (member of the advisory committee to the Board of Trade) offers clarification (questions 8686–7):

  I can tell your Lordship what the practice is. The practice, so far as the White Star vessels are concerned is that the scrap logs are not to be kept. They are torn off a block, or pad, day by day. What is called the Chief Officer’s log is kept, and handed in as soon as completed to the owners, but the scrap logs are not kept.

  Further questions are put to Stewart:

  8721. Now, I should like to follow this. As far as your memory serves you, did you enter into that log book everything that you found on the scrap log sheet [of Second Officer Stone]? — Yes.

  8722. You observe there is nothing at all in your log book about seeing distress signals? — Yes.

  8723. Is there anything? — No, nothing.

  8724. Nothing at all? — No.

  8725. No reference to any of these events of the night at all? — No.

  8726. [The Commissioner] Does that convey to you that there was no reference to those events in the scrap log? — Yes, my Lord…

  8733. [The Solicitor General] The scrap log-book is intended to be kept at the time, is it not, as the things happen? — Yes, Sir, but they generally write them up at the end of the watch.

  8734. And you were there at 4 o’clock at the end of the watch? — Yes.

  8735. And Mr Stone told you then at 4 o’clock that he had seen these signals? — Yes.

  8739. Did not it occur to you that it was odd that there was nothing entered on the scrap log-book? — I did not notice the scrap log-book at that time.

  8741. You made entries on the same sheet of paper between four and eight o’clock, didn’t you? — Not till eight o’clock.

 
8743. Didn’t you notice it then? — I noticed there was nothing on it then.

  8744. But by that time you had had the message that the Titanic had sunk? — Yes.

  8747. Then you did at eight o’clock notice there was nothing in the scrap log-book about what had happened between midnight and four? — Yes.

  8748. And you have told us, in your view, it would be right to make such entries? — Yes.

  8749. Did you ever speak to the Second Officer about it? — No.

  8750. Never? — No.

  8751. [The Commissioner] Or to the Captain? — No.

  8752. Or to anybody? — No, my Lord.

  8753. [The Solicitor General] This piece of paper, whatever it was, in the scrap log-book for 15th April, would be used until midnight on the 15th, wouldn’t it? — Yes.

  8754. Then would you write the entries into the log-book from the scrap log-book? — Yes.

  8755. And do you say you then destroyed the record for April 15th? — Yes.

  8756. When you destroyed it did you notice then there was no record on it about these distress signals, didn’t you notice that? —– No, I just copied it off as it was.

  Stewart says Stone had written up nothing for his watch. Stewart only made his own notes at the end of his watch at 8 a.m. Stewart says he himself destroyed the scrap log – which was completely insignificant in itself, since the scrap log was blank on this issue.

  Commissioner Mersey later shows himself to grasp that the issue (if any) lies not in whether the scrap log was destroyed or preserved, but in the fact that no sightings of rockets were entered by Stone (8923):

  [The Commissioner] …I may tell you that the effect of these things on my mind is this – that it is the practice to tear out the sheets of the scrap log from time to time and destroy them. But, you know, that does not get over my difficulty that apparently, if this evidence is true that has been given in the box, there was no entry of any kind in that scrap log of these rockets having been seen.