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Titanic History Thursday, April 17, 2025 |
| 1891 - 2nd class survivor Miss Maude Sincock was born to Francis "Frank" Sincock (plumber) and Melinda Sincock in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
1917 - Lookout and survivor Mr Archie Jewell died in a shipwreck in the SS Donegal at the age of 28. The SS Donegal was torpedoed by a German submarine without warning 19 miles south of the Dean Light Vessel in the English Channel and sank. |
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Columns: Mark's Article
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[ A SIMPLE EXPLANATION ] It was a simple conclusion for the U.S. and British Board Of Trade Inquiries. Stanley Lord, Captain of the Cunard Line's Californian was clearly verging on the accusation of criminal negligence. It was he, after all, who ignored his officer's observations of a nearby ship which seemed to be in some sort of distress. White rockets were clearly seen by the ship's Second Officer, Herbert Stone, apparently coming from a position near that of a ship's lights that had appeared to be steaming up from the east only minutes earlier. Rather than wakening his Wireless Operator, Stanley Lord simply chose to attempt to signal the nearby ship by morse lamp, a technique which recieved no response. Eight white rockets were counted in total, the equivalent of those fired by the White Star Line's Titanic - at that time in a state of peril. At approximately the same time on the Titanic, Fourth Officer Boxhall fixed his eyes on the lights of another ship, about a third of the size of the Titanic. Why weren't they responding to the distress rockets? Surely they could see a liner the size of the Titanic? At both of the Board Of Trade hearings, Captain Lord maintained his theory that the Californian was approximately nineteen miles north-west of the Titanic's last reported position. This, he claimed, placed both the ship out of sight of each other, due to the curvature of the Earth. He introduced the idea of a possible third ship that may have been in the area that night. This theory was disregarded, and Stanley Lord was accused of attempting to cover up his "slackness" by shifting the blame to someone else. [ NEW EVIDENCE UNCOVERED ] Robert Ballard's discovery of the Titanic wreck in 1985 shed some new light on the mystery surrounding the Californian's inaction in the early morning of April 15, 1912. The discovery made it possible to state the Titanic's final position with reasonable certainty - assuming the wreck fell relatively straight down after the sinking. The wreck was found lying approximately 13.5 miles east-southeast of her reported CQD position. This is only just south of her reported course, but well to the east, placing the Californian approximately 21 miles north-west - a position fairly close to Captain Lord's estimation. The wreck is also five and a half miles north-east of where the first lifeboat was picked up, which gives the idea that there was a reasonably strong current that night, one which caused the lifeboats to drift to the south-west. With this in consideration, one must assume that the Californian would have also drifted - in a direction which would have brought it closer to the position of the Titanic. But even so, when the Carpathia came to the site in the morning, Californian was still nowhere in sight, even after a night of drifting. Over the distance, Captain Lord's ship could have certainly still seen the rockets put out by the Titanic, but the actual ship would not have been in sight. If there was a third ship in the area, then the rockets may well have seemed to be coming from above that ship, rather than behind it. This puts Captain Lord's theory in a new light. Was there really a third ship in the area? [ THE THIRD SHIP ] Certainly there was some sort of ship between the Titanic and the Californian that night. The Norwegian sealing ship Samson has for many years been the supposed 'mystery ship'. A journal kept by a member of her crew describes how the ship lay near the Titanic, saw the rockets, but rather than sticking around, decided to leave the area in view of the fact that they were engaged in illegal hunting. This same journal also places the Samson south of Cape Hatteras on Saturday afternoon. This distance is so great, that not even the Mauretania (at the time the fastest liner) could have made it to the waters off Newfoundland in time. A scholar has also revealed information from official sources in Iceland, which places the Samson in the fishing port of Isafjordhur on April 6 and once again on April 20. This testimony gives the small vessel 14 days to have made the 3000 mile journey to the Titanic and back. That would have made the world record twice over for a six-knot ship. Even still the question remains - if it wasn't the Californian, nor the Samson, who was it? More than likely, it will always remain a mystery, as have many circumstances surrounding the Titanic's fateful voyage. |
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