by Senan Molony
Boxhall: Mr Murdoch also said, ‘I intended to port around it’.
Senator Smith: ‘I intended to port around it’?
Boxhall: ‘But she hit before I could do any more’.
But the evidence is that some form of starboard twist, if not an outright turn, did happen. AB Joseph Scarrott recalls:
352. Was it close to? — No, it seemed the ship was acting on her helm and we had swung clear of the iceberg.
354. You speak of this ship as if answering her helm – as if answering under which helm? — Under the starboard helm – under the port helm.
355. Get it right? — Under port helm. Her stern was slewing off the iceberg. Her starboard quarter was going off the iceberg, and the starboard bow was going as if to make a circle round it.
356. She was acting as if under port helm, her head going to starboard? — That is correct.
However Hichens, at the wheel, denied this took place:
1314. You were given the order to hard-a-starboard? — Yes.
1315. Was that the only order you had as to the helm? — Yes.
[Mr Holmes] Because, if your Lordship will remember, the evidence of the witness Scarrott on Friday was quite the contrary, when he came up on deck. He said that the ship appeared to be under a port helm, and appeared to be going around the iceberg towards the starboard side.
Hichens had previously said that Sixth Officer James Moody (who was lost) called out the original hard-a-starboard (to go left, or south of west) to the first officer, who was in command:
1014. Then you had put the helm hard-a-starboard and Mr Moody had reported it hard-a-starboard to Mr Murdoch? — Yes.
1019. After she struck, did you notice at all what happened? — No.
1020. Did you notice whether the ship had stopped? — Oh, yes, the ship had stopped.
1021. Can you tell us how long it was after the collision that you noticed that the ship had stopped? — Immediately.
Hichens thus implies the other helm order, hard-a-port to save the stern, was not carried out – but Scarrott, who had rushed on deck, had some backing from Quartermaster George Rowe, who was on the aft docking bridge at the stern. Rowe saw the berg strike on the starboard side – but leave the starboard quarter untouched (US Inquiry, p.522):
Rowe: It was so near that I thought it was going to strike the [aft docking] bridge.
Senator Burton: Did it strike the bridge? — No sir; never.
Sen. Burton: Only 10 or 20 feet away? — Not that far, sir.
Sen. Burton: Could you hear the ice scraping along on the boat where you were?
Rowe: No, sir.
Sen. Burton: So you do not know whether it was rubbing against the hull there or not?
Rowe: No, sir.
Sen. Burton: What is your best judgment about that?
Rowe: I do not think it was.
Sen. Burton: You are positive you heard no rubbing?
Rowe: Yes, sir.
Sen. Burton: Do you not think that if the helm had been hard a-starboard the stern would have been up against the berg?
Rowe: It stands to reason it would, sir, if the helm were hard a-starboard.
These are the only accounts of the helm movement at the time. Taken together, they suggest a turn to starboard was carried out in some form, inching the Titanic’s starboard quarter away from the berg before stopping. It does not appear to have been a very pronounced turn – indeed time was short – which would account for Murdoch’s sense of incompletion (‘I was going to port round it’) and Hichens’ missing it altogether.
Quartermaster Alfred Olliver also insists such a turn happened, and that it was sharp (US Inquiry, p.527–8):
Olliver: I know the orders I heard when I was on the bridge was after we had struck the iceberg. I heard hard a-port, and there was the man at the wheel and the officer. The officer was seeing it was carried out right.
Senator Burton: What officer was it?
Olliver: Mr Moody, the Sixth Officer, was stationed in the wheelhouse.
Sen. Burton: Who was the man at the wheel?
Olliver: Hichens, quartermaster.
Sen. Burton: You do not know whether the helm was put hard a-starboard first, or not?
Olliver: No, sir; I do not know that.
Sen. Burton: But you know it was put hard a-port after you got there?
Olliver: After I got there; yes, sir.
Sen. Burton: Where was the iceberg, do you think, when the helm was shifted?
Olliver: The iceberg was away up stern.
Sen. Burton: That is when the order ‘hard a-port’ was given?
Olliver: That is when the order ‘hard a-port’ was given; yes, sir.
Sen. Burton: Who gave the order?
Olliver: The First Officer.
Sen. Burton: And that order was immediately executed, was it?
Olliver: Immediately executed, and the Sixth Officer saw that it was carried out.
So, if there is a second turn, then the simplest argument, perhaps, is that these port and starboard turns cancelled each other out and left the Titanic still heading broadly westward – not northward. Yet even after the collision and the stopping of the ship, there is evidence that the Titanic moved on her way again – once in reverse, while also forward for a time. This is consistent with testing for damage, or backing off an iceshelf. In this context, the Titanic might have experimentally resumed her normal heading (westward).
The following are the engine accounts that should give pause to the proponents of a collision-led northward facing. Here is Thomas Patrick Dillon (on duty in the engine room):
3719. You just heard it ring. Then a few seconds after that you felt a slight shock [berg collision]? — Yes.
3720. Was anything done to the engines? Did they stop or did they go on? — They stopped.
3721. Was that immediately after you felt the shock or some little time after? — About a minute and a half.
3722. Did they continue stopped or did they go on again after that? — They went slow astern.
3723. How long were they stopped for before they began to go slow astern? — About half a minute.
3724. For how long did they go slow astern? — About two minutes.
3725. Two or three did you say? — Two minutes.
3726. And then did they stop again? — Yes.
3727. And did they go on again after that? — They went ahead again.
3728. For how long? — For about two minutes.
3729. Then did they stop the boat after that? — Yes.
And this is Greaser Frederick Scott (also on duty in the engine room):
5609. …They rang down ‘Stop’, and two greasers on the bottom rang the telegraph back to answer it. Then they rang down ‘Slow ahead’. For ten minutes she was going ahead. Then they rang down ‘Stop’, and she went astern, for five minutes.
5610. [The Commissioner] The orders were ‘Stop’, ‘Slow ahead’, and then ‘Astern’? — No, it was ‘Stop’, and then ‘Astern’ [1. Stop; 2. Slow Ahead; 3. Stop; 4. Astern]. She went astern for five minutes. Then they rang down ‘Stop’…
5613. [Attorney General] Did you hear the order about ‘Astern’? — Well, it was on the telegraph.
5614. What was the order? — ‘Go astern’ – ‘Slow astern’. Then they rang down ‘Stop’, and I do not think the telegraph went after that.
So, here are two engine room survivors who say the Titanic went gingerly both ahead and astern after coming to rest. Where is the necessary northward heading now (in order for her mystery ship to be the Californian)?
This is Boxhall in evidence:
15505. I also recollect that we have been told in the evidence that after the collision you went astern? — The engines were going full speed astern for quite a little time.
15506. Did you go forward after that? — Not that I know of.
And here is Third Officer Pitman (US Inquiry, p.313):
Senator Smith: I want to know whether the engines were reversed
and the ship was permitted to drift, or whether she kept under her power.
Pitman: Oh, as far as I heard, she went full astern immediately after the collision.
She reversed her engines? — She reversed her engines and went full astern.
Sen. Smith: She reversed her engines, then, and receded from the point of contact? — She was past it then, I think. We brought the ship to a standstill.
Sen. Smith: Did you ever see that ship move after it was brought to a standstill, except when it sank in the sea? — I did not, sir.
Others do not remember any such happening. Here is Second Officer Lightoller:
13757. When you came out on deck was the ship already stopped or slowing down through the water? — She was proceeding slowly, a matter of perhaps six knots or something like that.
13758. Were the engines still stopped? — I could not exactly say what the engines were doing after once I got up. It was when I was lying still in my bunk I could feel the engines were stopped.
13759. Can you help us as to whether the engines were put full speed astern? — No, I cannot say I remember feeling the engines going full speed astern.
And AB William Lucas:
1577. [Mr Rowlatt] We cannot tell how she was moving. Did you notice whether the Titanic moved at all after the collision? — No, I do not think she did.
1578. She lay pointing in the same direction? — Yes.
It is a recipe for confusion. But all the officer evidence, including Lightoller’s, is that the Titanic was moving after the collision. The only other senior survivor, Fifth Officer Lowe, was not awoken by the collision. When he was later roused by voices, he saw passengers in lifejackets.
Passenger Lawrence Beesley, who wrote a 1912 book about the disaster, had meanwhile been to investigate: ‘I stayed on deck some minutes, walking about vigorously to keep warm and occasionally looking downward to the sea as if something there would indicate the reason for delay. The ship had now resumed her course, moving very slowly through the water with a little white line of foam on each side’ (The Loss of the SS Titanic: Its Story and Its Lessons, p.30). Other passengers also mention the ship starting again, and Quartermaster Alfred Olliver, the man who emphasised the post-collision hard a-port, related:
Senator Burton. Were the engines reversed; was she backed?
Olliver: Not whilst I was on the bridge; but whilst on the bridge she went ahead, after she struck; she went half speed ahead.
Sen. Burton: The engines went half speed ahead, or the ship?
Olliver: Half speed ahead, after she hit the ice.
Sen Burton: Who gave the order?
Olliver: The Captain telegraphed half speed ahead.
Sen. Burton: Had the engines been backing before he did that?
Olliver: That I could not say, sir.
Sen. Burton: Did she have much way on when he put the engines half speed ahead?
Olliver: No, sir. I reckon the ship was almost stopped.
At some stage, the Titanic, having been moving after the initial impact, finally came to rest for the last time and would never move again.
After all of this, how can we have any confidence in a northerly heading, immediately after the collision, that stayed that way? We can see that it must be unreliable in the extreme. The possibility exists that the Titanic was brought back onto her course line. Her captain was back on duty and had the compass (binnacle) as guide. He could see immediately what direction was west (to New York). Why on earth would he leave a busy shipping lane to journey north into No Man’s Land, when the next major track, to Boston, was some 20 miles away?
How could he find help by leaving his well-worn path, and why would he suicidally choose to leave a latitude forming a key component of his ship’s distress call?
Credibly and notably, Fourth Officer Boxhall thought she ultimately stopped facing west (US Inquiry, p.914):
Senator Fletcher: Apparently that [mystery] 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.
Sen. Fletcher: In westerly direction; almost in the direction which she had come? — Yes, sir.
Crucially, he had earlier said of that mystery ship’s appearance (US Inquiry, p.910):
Boxhall: She was headed toward us, meeting us.
Sen. Fletcher: Was she a little toward your port bow?
Boxhall: Just about half a point off our port bow.
Sen. Fletcher: And apparently coming toward you? — Yes.
Both these quotes, taken together, seem to indicate the Titanic was pointing westward, as she had been first. Boxhall will be supported in a westward heading by Third Officer Pitman, and by Steward Alfred Crawford.
The meaning of this argument, if the Titanic did indeed come to rest facing west, is that the oncoming vessel therefore ended up slightly south of west, whereas the Californian’s claimed stop position was to the north-north-west of where we now know the Titanic actually sank. Meanwhile Titanic Steward Alfred Crawford agrees the mystery ship was seen to the south-west:
Senator Fletcher: Did you move [your lifeboat] in the direction in which the Titanic was moving when she went down?
Crawford: No; we were the other way; that way [indicating].
Senator Fletcher: If the Titanic was moving west you moved south-west?
Crawford: Probably so.
Senator Fletcher: Toward the light?
Crawford: Yes, sir.
Senator Fletcher: And then the Carpathia appeared in what direction?
Crawford: She came right up around and started to pick up the boats.
Senator Fletcher: She came from the north-east from you, then?
Crawford: Probably so.
Senator Fletcher: Assuming you had been going south-west?
Crawford: Yes, sir.
Senator Fletcher: She appeared from the north-east…
Crawford’s account is credible, given what we know today of the layout of the scene. It is a perception issue – Crawford’s lifeboat leads the race to the mystery ship. He says that vessel was to the south-west. If his lifeboat line crosses the Carpathia’s diagonal course line (set north-west, towards the empty SOS position) in a kind of ‘X’, then when the lifeboat is in the lower left hand corner of the ‘X’, the Carpathia in the centre (heading to top left) will appear north-east of the lifeboat.
Here is Third Officer Pitman’s corroboration of a final Titanic stop position that was heading to the westward:
Pitman: I saw one white light.
Senator Smith: Where?
Pitman: Away on the horizon. We could not make anything out of it.
Senator Smith: At what time?
Pitman: About half past one.
Senator Smith: While you were lying on your oars in the lifeboat?
Pitman: Yes.
Senator Smith: In what position was it?
Pitman: It was to the westward. Right ahead.
Senator Smith: Right on the course of the Titanic?
Pitman: Exactly.
Senator Smith: Did you hear the testimony of Mr Boxhall on that point?
Pitman: No, I did not. I have heard him speak about it.
Two surviving officers – Boxhall and Pitman – thus both say the RMS Titanic finished up facing to the west, not to the north! Second Officer Lightoller would write in private correspondence in December 1912: ‘I have not the faintest idea how her head was’. Only one ranking crew member says her head finished north, and this Quartermaster George Rowe:
17667. When you saw this light did you notice whether the head of the Titanic was altering either to port or starboard? — Yes.
17668. You did notice? — Yes.
17669. Was your vessel’s head swinging at the time you saw this light of this other vessel? — I put it down that her stern was swinging.
17670. Which way was her stern swinging? — Practically dead south, I beli
eve, then.
17671. Do you mean her head was facing south? — No, her head was facing north. She was coming round to starboard.
When all is said and done, the evidence as to how the Titanic was facing when the mystery ship was seen, as the Attorney General divined, is utterly inconclusive. Yet she must be facing north if the Californian is to be the mystery ship, which was seen off the Titanic’s port bow. All other points of the compass favour the Californian as not being the mystery ship. The odds, on this point alone, are with Captain Lord.
Now let us return to the treatment of the Californian in 1912 in the British Inquiry Report.
LORD MERSEY’S CONCLUSIONS
It is informative, in returning to the judgement of the British Inquiry, to look behind other aspects of Lord Mersey’s Final Report as it touches on the Californian. Written in a way that immediately equates Californian’s nearby stranger with the Titanic, Mersey subtly introduced the word ‘proximity’ into his report to imply at an early stage that the Californian was close to the Titanic. In fact she was merely closer than Cape Race, a wireless station many hundreds of miles away. This is from Lord Mersey’s Final Report (p.43):
At about 11 p.m. a steamer’s light was seen approaching from the eastward. The Master went to Evans’ room and asked, ‘What ships he had’. The latter replied: ‘I think the Titanic is near us. I have got her’. The Master said: ‘You had better advise the Titanic we are stopped and surrounded with ice’. This Evans did, calling up the Titanic and sending: ‘We are stopped and surrounded by ice’. The Titanic replied: ‘Keep out’. The Titanic was in communication with Cape Race, which station was then sending messages to her. The reason why the Titanic answered, ‘Keep out’, was that her Marconi operator could not hear what Cape Race was saying, as from her proximity, the message from the Californian was much stronger than any message being taken in by the Titanic from Cape Race, which was much further off.
The effect on the reader calculated to be achieved by the previous extract is that the Titanic was the Californian’s approaching light, and that the two vessels were close to each other. Mersey does not trouble to explain Evans’ concept of ‘near us’, nor his ready concession immediately after that remark (questions 8984–8985) that he never had the Titanic’s position. Evans formed his impression thus:
