Hi to all of you on here. I wanted to get into a forum that discusses this amazing subject. I just read the book "Titanic Voices" published by the Southhampton City council and I was entralled and entranced by it. The book details the first hand accounts of the survivors of the tragedy of this disaster so long ago. Anyone else read this book? I have so many questions, I hope some of you will be able to answer them as I post them. Thanks for all your help to me in advance.

BY the way, are most of you on here only students of school age? I'm 42 years old, but I am a life -long student of oral history, but mostly of the second world war.

welcome to the forum Debbijmac,

i have "Titanic Voices" its a great book isn't it. i'll try my best to answer any questions you have, and i'm sure the other members will too. :D

[quote:69b8f55113="bess"]welcome to the forum Debbijmac,

i have "Titanic Voices" its a great book isn't it. i'll try my best to answer any questions you have, and i'm sure the other members will too. :D[/quote:69b8f55113]

Thanks so much, Bess, and thanks for the welcome. Some of the main questions that stuck in my mind, is was the Californian pennalized in any way for not coming to the aid of the Titanic, as it was closer, and obviously more people would have been saved if they just had their radios operational?

How could it be that they were allowed to sail as a passanger ship with their radios not working in the first place? Why didn't their captain and crew observe the Titanic's very obvious distress signals and make for the ship?

OH and why did it take until dawn for the Carpathia to reach the Titanic when it was only 36 nautical miles away at the time of the accident? Sorry if this is too many questions...thanks!!

Hi!

I've also read "Titanic Voices", but I'm afraid by now I've forgotten all of its contents. For me, too, it was high time I re-read my books . . . .

Concerning the Californian, as far as I know they were not penalized for their failure to come to Titanic's aid - I may be wrong - but Capt. Stanley Lord's reputation was nevertheless ruined afterwards.

Recent research, however, seem to have etablished that the Californian could still not have saved any more people from the Titanic even if they had come to Titanic's aid as the ship was apparently too far away after all. I'm still doubtful myself though as so many people on the Titanic saw the lights of another ship that night and I still cannot imagine it should not have been the Californian. Anyway, the Californian should still have turned on their radios on again to check after they noticed that "strange ship" in the distance. I also still wonder why they did not do that.

In 1912 it was still not obligatory for ships to have a 24 hrs. radio. This changed after the sinking of the Titanic.

I hope I could help you a bit. Others may add to this or correct me.

Regards,
Silja

Sorry about the spelling mistakes. Failed to correct them :(

debbijmac,
these two links should answer most if not all of your questions regarding the californian:

http://home.earthlink.net/~dnitzer/Titanic.html

and

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/articles/lord_californian.shtml

regarding the Carpathia, according to an article i read about her, she was over 60 miles away from Titanic when she recieved the first distress call. Carpathia had a speed of 14 knots, which is equivalent (sp?) to driving at about 25.2 KM per hour. :shock:

Thank you all so much for your replies and links. Obviously this is a subject I am learning so many new details about for the first time; really in depth.

I am dismayed to come to the conclusion that the captain of the Californian might have just been indifferent and lazy. He was asleep in bed, and even though he was told of the flares seen from the Titanic several times, his reaction was one of a man who couldn't be bothered to get out of bed.

I was astonished to learn that in those days, everyone in the crew would "stop sailing" at night, shut the ship down and let her "drift" until morning...only the lookouts were up! What if the ship drifted majorly off course? Also amazing to me was ships like the Carpathia and the Titanic,
while very large, only went the equivilent of 25 miles per hour. And people reported getting sea sick at that break neck speed!!

What a very different time it was.

Thank you for your help. I still have questions...one of them --for any member of this cool forum is..are any members of this forum a (however distant) a relative of any who were on board? I'd love to know this. :D

[quote:f7a6bed2a0="Debbijmac"] I still have questions...one of them --for any member of this cool forum is..are any members of this forum a (however distant) a relative of any who were on board? I'd love to know this. :D[/quote:f7a6bed2a0]

I dont know if you've already seen it in another thread but i am a distant relative of Bess Allison (nee Daniels)

wow Bess! Absolutely kewl! No wonder you are so interested....anyone else? I'll look up Bess Daniels on the passenger list. Thanks.

[quote:1a10328e4c]And people reported getting sea sick at that break neck speed!!

[/quote:1a10328e4c][color=blue:1a10328e4c][/color:1a10328e4c]


Well, when the first railways operated at about 30km/h in the 1830s experts warned travellers might get a thrill of speed

But also in 1912 there were faster ships than the Titanic.