The SS Californian: The Ship That Watched Titanic Sink

JASON PONICMAR 24, 2022 2:22 AM EDT

Vilified forever in the epic tragedy as the 'Ship Who

Watched Titanic Sink', the SS Californian remains one of
the biggest unanswered questions in the immortal saga of
tragedy.

Captain Stanley Lord's life would never be the same after

that night. The American and British Inquiries in the wake
of the sinking both found Lord's actions that night both
unprofessional and negligible. While no formal charges
were ever filed, the court of public opinion ruined the
man's career and shattered his life.

Ironically, the SS Californian herself disappeared from

history not long after the sinking. During World War I, a
fate almost poetic in nature, the ship was sunk during the
war and has never been found.

the-ss-californian-the-ship-that-ignored-titanics-distress-
calls
The Californian Timeline on April 15, 1912.
What exactly transpired on the decks of the Californian
that fateful night is forever lost to the voids of history and
time. What we can deduce is pieced together from
testimony given by Californian's captain and officers
during the Official Inquires, and the only first hand record
of the events of the tragedy ever to be produced. The
following timeline is constructed from those very
testimonies which can be viewed in full detail, word for
word, in the digitized transcript link at the bottom of this
article.
The Reconstructed Timeline
The Californian radioed Titanic at approximately 19:00
hours warning of an ice field in which the Californian
nearly collided with herself.
Captain Stanley Lord ordered the Californian to stop for
the night, concluding it was too dangerous to proceed. As
he was going off duty, he spotted the Titanic's lights on the
horizon about 5 miles away.
Californian radioed Titanic again, warning that they had
stopped and were surrounded by ice. The radio signal was
so strong, it interrupted Titanic's regular communication
and Titanic's reply was "Shut Up. Shut Up. I am Busy."
Californian shut down its wireless at 23:30, Titanic struck
the iceberg ten minutes later.
Californian was spotted from Titanic's bridge 25 minutes
after that and distress rockets were fired.
Officers aboard Californian observed several rockets and
called down to Captain Lord, who had since gone to bed,
to report this.
Lord suggested the Californian contact the vessel via
morse lamp. No effort was ever made to wake the wireless
operator. ( We should note that that wireless was still a
very new technology in 1912 and many 'Old Guard'
captains had not yet embraced this technology as
invaluable.) Lord suggested that the rockets were company
signals of some kind. Testimony given during the British
Inquiry suggests mix ideas about the rockets they saw.
Some of Californian's officers believed there was a more
serious nature behind the rockets.
At 0200, Titanic appeared to "be leaving the area" after
firing a total of eight white rockets. This was also reported
to Captain Lord who did nothing. Titanic sank at 0220
hours.
At 0300, officers of the Californian sited rockets coming
from the south. These were from RMS Carpathia who had
traveled all night towards Titanic from some 50 miles
away.
At 0416, A crew shift change resulted in Californian's
wireless operator, now wake, to inquire about why a ship
had fired rockets earlier. Radio chatter regarding Titanic's
SOS signal completely overwhelmed the airwaves. The
news was sent to Captain Lord.

At 0530, Captain Lord, now awake, ordered the

Californian to Titanic's position but instead of a direct
route, Lord ordered a twisted, longer route that he would
later claim, in the inquiry, was to Titanic's last broadcasted
position.
Californian arrives alongside Carpathia who just finished
collecting all survivors. After Carpathia departs for New
York, Californian stays behind to continue the search only
to find wreckage.
Californian continues to Boston.
This map illustrates Californian's close proximity to
Titanic that night. Less than 20 nautical miles Northwest
of the sinking ship.
This map illustrates Californian's close proximity to
Titanic that night. Less than 20 nautical miles Northwest
of the sinking ship.

Encyclopedia Titanica

The Aftermath
SS Californian arrived in Boston on April 19, 1912,
unnoticed as the world had not yet learned of her
significance. The American Inquiry by the US Senate,
which was launched the same day as the sinking, learned
of Californian's involvement on April 20th when members
of her crew, including Captain Lord, leaked stories to the
media about seeing the Titanic's distress rockets that night.
Lord claimed his ship was thirty miles from the Titanic but
other crew claimed it was less than twenty. When
reporters pressed Lord, he replied that the exact location
was a classified state secret. Lord gave a conflicting story
as to why his wireless was offline that night. He claimed it
was due to shutting down for the evening. Other details
also conflicted with his crew's accounts, including how
long the Californian searched for survivors upon arriving
at the wreck site, how many rockets the crew saw and its
location relative to Titanic during that fateful night.

It didn't take long for the American Inquiry to subpoena

Lord and the Californian crew which they did on April 23,
1912. While the crew's accounts were largely consistent in
their recollection, Captain Lord's was conflicting and
incomplete. Lord's knowledge of Titanic's rockets made
up a large part of Lord's inconsistent testimony. What he
told reporters, his American testimony, and later in his
testimony to the British Inquiry on May 5, 1912, were all
different. First he denied ever seeing rockets, then he
admitted seeing rockets from a third ship, not Titanic. He
also openly disputed testimony given by the US Navy and
other vessels pinning Californian within visual distance of
Titanic.
More incriminating evidence, or a suspicious lack thereof,
came in the form of Californian's logs. Its scrap log, where
daily voyage notes are taken, mysteriously disappeared
sometime between the night of the disaster and
Californian's arrival in Boston. The official log gave no
mention of Titanic, a nearby ship, or rockets of any kind.

Ultimately both Inquires, independent of each other,

concluded Californian's position to be closer than Captain
Lord's claim of twenty nautical miles and therefore
concluded that Lord failed to act appropriately. The
British Inquiry even went further in saying that
Californian could have saved an untold number of
additional lives had she responded immediately to
Titanic's rockets.

Read Captain Lord's Sworn Testimony

Electronic - Fully Searchable - transcripts of the complete
U.S. Senate and British Board of Trade inquiries, and
reports, into the sinking of the S.S. 'Titanic.'
Captain Stanley Lord
Captain Stanley Lord

Legacy
Ironically, the Californian's inaction would prompt
considerable changes in international maritime law. In
1912, International radio treaties were adopted mandated
24-hour radio duty and later treaties saw the
standardization of distress flares and rockets, regardless of
company, vessel, nation or time of year.

The conclusions of both Inquiries, on record, officially

placed blame on Captain Stanley Lord of the SS
Californian for his inaction of the disaster, a verdict that
ultimately ruined both his career and his life. Even after a
formal censure from both sides of the Atlantic, no criminal
charges were ever filed against him in either the United
States or United Kingdom. This was due to the evidence
against him being largely circumstantial and other legal
technicalities.

The social verdict, however, marked Captain Lord in the

public's eye as a coward and incompetent. He was mocked
and scorned wherever he went. His ridicule rivaled that of
J. Bruce Ismay, the disgraced chairman of the White Star
Line, who infamously survived the sinking. Californian's
owner, the Leyland Line, fired Captain Lord in August
1912 after bad publicity.

In 1913, one Leyland Line board member did show

sympathy to Lord believing the captain was made a
scapegoat and managed to get him hired at another
steamship companying, Nitrate Producers. There he would
remain until 1927 when health problems, accelerated by
his social ridicule, forced his permanent retirement.

For the remainder of his life, the ruined mariner would

fight unsuccessfully to clear his name. In 1958, he
petitioned the Mercantile Marine Service Association, an
advocacy group for mariners, to petition the British Board
of Trade to reexamine the facts. They agreed to the case
and began the process. This unfortunately turned out to be
a painfully slow endeavor and Captain Lord would not
live to see the verdict.

That same year, the very first big budget film depiction of
the Titanic Disaster was released: A Night To Remember.
This movie made a point to vilify Stanley Lord as a
disinterested captain who was asleep in his warm cabin
when the Titanic went down. While Lord himself never
saw the film, he read several newspaper reviews that
attacked him. It ripped open the old festering wound that
had never healed. A new wave of hatred for the real life
Captain Lord that followed in Britain ultimately led to the
final decline of the wrecked man. Lord would die four
years later, aged 84, completely broken and ruined.

It wouldn't be until 1965 that the British Board of Trade

ruled on Captain Lords original petition as 'denied', citing
that Lord failed to offer new evidence to his benefit.
Lord's son, Tutton Lord would also spend the rest of his
life, until his passing in 1994 attempting to clear his
father's name. These efforts too, were unsuccessful.

For the next eighty years, official reexaminations of the

evidence including one as recent as 1992, in part due to
Tutton Lord's efforts, all concluded the same results as the
original investigations. Experts, scholars, historians and
filmmakers would vilify Captain Lord in all forms of
media from books to movies. In the 21st Century, social
media continues to debate his guilt, even after 110 years.
Unofficial reexaminations of the events by historical
societies and history buffs continue to this day.
Fate of the SS Californian
The Californian herself existed only for a short time after
her commanding officer was dismissed. When World War
I broke out in 1914, the ship was pressed into service as a
troop transport by the British government. In 1915,
German U-Boat, U-35, torpedoed Californian off the coast
of Greece. She sank with only one life lost. The wreck has
yet to be found.

Source
Titanic Inquiry Project
Electronic - Fully Searchable - transcripts of the complete
U.S. Senate and British Board of Trade inquiries, and
reports, into the sinking of the S.S. 'Titanic.'
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s
knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and
individualized advice from a qualified professional.

Comments
Not as f***ed in the head as Ash on May 21, 2020:

@Ash Even if there were just rich people aboard (which

there was not), letting people die because they were rude
is pretty messed up.

Ash on March 21, 2020:

Just a thought. But could classism played any part? Every

movie about the titanic brings up the class divide and
decadence. Could people on the outside have hated the
people on the boat too? The Californian started out trying
to be nice. And the titanic responded shut up! I'd take that
personally. Rich **cks. Let 'me drown.

Bill on March 15, 2019:

Officers on the Californian watched the Titanic shoot off

eight rockets without understanding their significance.
Perhaps because the technology was fairly new, it never
occurred to the crew to turn their wireless unit back on.
The captain wasn't a coward, but he WAS extremely
negligent, and paid the price for his negligence. He, and
the watch officers on duty that night, were fools, and
because of their foolishness, over a thousand people died
in the cold Atlantic Ocean that morning as they sat, (fat,
happy, and warm,) on their ship less than twenty miles
away! How the captain and officers of the Californian
looked at themselves in the mirror afterwards, without the
urge to cut their own throats, is a mystery...

Kim on February 25, 2019:

I agree why blame another man for the Titanic sinking

when the whole world including Ishmay and Captain
Smith swore the ship was unsinkable. just like man and
society to blame someone else for someone else’s
irresponsible behavior and sin (pride)

Joey7 on January 09, 2019:

Think that's a bit strong, If Lord knew the titanic was

sinking what courage was needed to sail towards her. I
doubt the ppl on the California knew, in time, that the
Titanic was sinking and decided to do nothing about it.
Don't forget at the time it was reported all over the world
that the Titanic was unsinkable, so even if one thought the
titanic was in a bit of trouble the last thing to pop into your
head was that she was sinking. It was reported that the
Titanic radio operator told the radio operator on the
California to "Shut Up" 10 mins before she hit the iceberg.
The radio operator on the California had turned off his
radio and gone to bed, he was not woken again telling me
that the California was confused about what was going on
aboard the Titanic.

What I found most distasteful about the whole debacle

was how the price of your ticket determined your chance
of survival and unfortunately I am not completely
convinced if a similar thing happened today the same
would not be true.

Spencer Slate on December 28, 2018:

Read the book, the Ship that Stood still, clearly Capt. Lord
was a coward, whether on purpose or not, his crew left
him when the ship docked in NY, clearly indication they
knew he was a coward in not responding to the Titanic.
History would surely be much better if the Californian has
come to the aid of the Titanic. Passengers interviewed
their entire life remember the shlp that stood still and
clearly saw the outline of the Californian....sad and Lord
rightly should have suffered his remaining life!

boss on November 08, 2018:

vary helpful in informative

Henry Adam on August 12, 2018:

An alternative explanation, and well supported by

evidence. Data on sea temperatures were collected hourly
by most, if not all, ships crossing by that route. That data
is held in Berlin.

Mirages at sea are common - caused by layers of air at

different temperatures having different refractive indices.
On the fateful night - no moon, no clouds, just a sky full of
stars (remarked on by all). The Titanic had just crossed
from the gulf stream (warm, flowing north) into the
Humboldt current (cold, flowing south) causing layers of
differently dense air, raising the horizon and causing the
bergs to be invisible below that horizon. For the same
reason, the Californian - the nearest ship, may not have
come to the rescue as the Titanic was rendered by optical
illusion as to be too small to be the Titanic. A freak
accident caused by freak circumstances. No-one to blame,
really, including the poor and possibly wrongly vilified (to
his grave) captain of the Californian.

Jim W. on April 30, 2018:

The ice encountered by califonia was field ice, quite

different than icebergs.....

reality checker on March 04, 2018:

Night time on the water is difficult at best. Shapes look

different, nothing is as it should be, but nonetheless many
on the Californian felt that they should act and Captain
Lord over-ruled them. On the water you always err on the
side of caution. Capt. Lord could have negotiated the
icebergs quicker than Carpathian as he was much closer.

At the very least he should have started radio

communications and in lieu of that if it failed he should
have started to make his way toward the Titanic. As the
Californian got closer light signal codes would become
more visible and he would have the necessary intelligence
needed to make the right decision.

The apparent stubbornness of Capt. Lord and maybe

others on the Californian,to make good decisions early on
resulted in the bigger tragedy.

If Californian started toward Titanic itself at a slow rate

and hit an iceberg itself probably only causing survivable
damage, Capt Lord would have been totally justified in not
proceeding farther.

I tend to think Capt. Lord saw the ice field and was not a
brave enough man to try moving toward Titanic so he
played dumb just enough to save his own butt. However
when Carpthia came barreling onto the scene, he could do
nothing else but go toward Titanic as they showed the ice
field could be negotiated and from a much greater
distance.

All that being said, I wasn't there and I didn't see how
much ice there was and I'm glad I didn't have to make that
decision, but I know I would have moved my ship slowly
toward Titanic using my light and radio signals until I was
sure they did not need help.
Human nature being what it is, after all disasters
retribution is the order of the day. From what we know
after repeated investigations I think he got off easy, even
though his life and career were destroyed.

Itsanarchydog on March 03, 2018:

anyone that said that the californian couldn't have saved

the titanic because of all the danger, look up the carpathian
comes to the titanic rescue they dodge ice bergs and race
to get to the titanic while the californian just sat there and
watched.

Sunset on February 05, 2018:

They could've have tried taking action but when they tried
warning, they got the rude response to shut up.....so how
are they at full blame of negligence

Californian Not Able to Save Titanic on February 03,

2018:

Anyone who believes that Californian could have saved all

of Titanics passengers and crew is very nieve!

It took the Californian two hours to thread its way through

the pack ice the next morning to reach Titanics position.
Captain Stanley Lord was first advised of the rockets
being fired at 1.10am (Second officer Herbert Stones own
testimony at the US enquiry). So Californian would have
reached Titanic by 3.10am but Titanic had sunk by
2.20am.
It was pitch black without moonlight and the most
Californian would have been able to do would have been
to send its 4 small lifeboats to try to seach for living
people in the water. Most people would have been dead by
the time Californian got to the disaster scene.

Regards,

Ajmal

Jerry on January 17, 2018:

The iceberg meant nothin to to the titanic, it was it's fatal

fire that actually sunk it, the iceberg was a help so it
wouldn't capsize.

Birgit on January 14, 2018:

I think that Californian surely would have reached Titanic

in time.. Sure ice bergs all around them but still the
Carpathia basically had full speed and they dodged ice
bergs to get to Titanic. So in my eyes Californian surely
would have reached the Titanic.. Just really sad that Lord
ignored it..

Ama on November 25, 2017:

Quoting... "For the next eighty years, official

reexaminations of the evidence including one in 1992 all
concluded the same results as the original investigations."
That speaks volume. (80 years) is a lot of investigations
and a lot of evidences, that all yield the same result.

Weird on August 18, 2017:

So that was ship that turned back around when they

thought people on Titanic was having party when they saw
flares shooting up at sky they didnt bother by checking on
them see if they was allright

Jeff on May 05, 2017:

So if the SS Californian was surrounded by icebergs 9 to

20 miles away, how did RMS Carpathia manage to make
it to Titanic from 50 miles out? Also, the story says the
Californian was sunk in 1915 and 1918. It was actually
torpedoed in November 1918.

Jokester Titan on May 01, 2017:

The Californian was surrounded by icebergs and wireless

communication was shut off by Titanic's wireless, so there
was still NO way for it to hurry and save Titanic.

Jokester Titan on April 27, 2017:

F.Y.I. The Californian, on the fatal night, was surrounded

by icebergs and even if they tried, they wouldn't reach
Titanic in time.

Also Titanic's wireless communicator shut them out so

that meant Californian's wireless communicator shut his
off and quit for the night. Californian didn't have a chance.
wedmar80 on April 15, 2017:

As to the colors of the rockets fired from Titanic,

eyewitnesses on Titanic, made the following verbatim
statements from the 1912 inquires:

QM Robert Hichens: “I did not take no particular notice of

the colour, Sir. Some were green, some were red, and
some were blue - all kinds of colours - and some white,
Sir. I think, if I remember rightly, they were blue.”

QM Reginald Lee: “No, coloured rockets.” after being

asked if they were colored or only white.

First class passenger Arthur Peuchen: “A good deal like an

ordinary skyrocket, going up and breaking, and the
different colors flying down.”

Third Officer Herbert Pitman: “Various colors.” when

asked if they were red.

h on April 04, 2017:

I did not know that

Jonathan Fight on January 20, 2017:

I wonder how close California was situated from Titanic. I

think she could have aided Titanic in some way.

leo on January 13, 2017:

Rockets fired by Titanice were WHITE. Distress Rockets
would have been of the colors Red, Blue or Green.

Lord was OK to have ignored them, thinking they were

fired for amusement of passangers.

Danny Gray on October 14, 2016:

for one thing, i'm a big titanic fanatic, at approximately 9

miles away sat the Titanic's fate off the Californians port
bow. they had seen the same amount of rockets shout from
the titanic, exactly 8. there ain't no doubt in my mind it
was. so Lord got every thing the damn bastard deserved
yet still not enough. had Lord directed his ship in the
direction of the Titanic, more if not all of her passengers
would have been saved. Lord doesn't even deserve to be
called captain, nor allowed near any shipping lines ever
again.

James Pat on June 19, 2016:

Herbert Stone; second in command is the one that saw the

rockets; when he told Lord about them, Lord asked if they
were distress rockets; Stone said no. They then saw more
rockets; they were white. Another crewman though said
Stone told him he was worried it was a distress call but he
told Lord it wasnt. Also there is no volume on the
messages; because it was the first voyage, passengers were
obsessed to send out messages to people to say they were
doing it on the first voyage. Titanic's radio man was
listening to messages and sending them out as fast as he
could so he told Californians operator to shut up. He
waited for any response after telling them about the ice
and heard nothing. He went to sleep and 5 minutes later
Titanic hit the iceberg. Lord got all of the blame when he
should have got some; but Herbert Stone is the guy that
got a pass and he seems to be more of a villin in this

barry kenyon on April 08, 2014:

Is it really as simple as that? As always with this

controversy, the answer is "Perhaps"! Several witnesses
from Titanic claimed there was colour in the rockets (the
Californian saw only white ones). And several others
stated that the ship seen from the Titanic was moving (the
Californian was stopped all night). The finding of the
Titanic wreck does not support the view the two ships
were five miles apart. Incidentally Lord's career was not
ruined as claimed above. He was dismissed from the
Leyland Line following Lord Mersey's 1912 official
inquiry, but was appointed as captain with another
company until he retired in the late 1920s because of ill-
health.