Personally, I think that the Californian was simply the victim of the need to blame which people feel after a tragedy. Any time there is a great loss of life, human nature is such that we always feel that there was something that could have been done by someone to prevent or lessen the tragedy.

It's an arrogance, a societal self deception to convince ourselves that we really do have the ability to keep such tragedies from happening.

Of course we can't. And tragedies happen again. With the wonderful gift of hindsight which we receive only in the aftermath, we can always seem to find a guilty party. Even if they aren't really guilty.

Daniel

Well said, I do believe they were made a scapegoat. Lord Mersey and Sen. Smith had wrong conclusions except that the ice flow held two ships: The Titanic and the Californian.

You know, I always wondered why both inquiries did not condem the British board of Trade more. Possibly too big a political target? I guess Stanley Lord would be the weaker target.

But, as Walter Lord always used to say "the Lordites just can't get away from those rockets".

Yes, Lordite methods are dumb. If you also look at the inquiry results. Stone and Boxhall were exactly describing what the opposite was doing. No doubt in my mind that The Californian was looking at the Titanic. Of course, at that point in time there was no 24-hour law that required wireless radio. They kept getting no response from the Morse lamp. And thought the ship was moving away, due to the current. Also, at that time white rockets didn't just mean distress. But they "could have" if throwing white stars. Notice, Stone never suggests or mentions anything of throwing stars until the inquiry. That's why Lord kept asking "Are they company signals?" I do think the crew(Stone and Lord mainly) didn't do enough investigating on the matter. But no doubt in my mind if they actually knew what was happening 12 miles, they wouldn't have just stayed put. I do think that's how people tried to label these men. Notice, once they found out, they were underway and assisted the Carpathia however they could. It's not like they found out and just left. But certainly not having distinctive meanings for things such as distress creates a problem. That's why rules and regulations were changed drastically afterwards. Which was a good thing. Also, at this point, the people in charge were just a bunch of dull big headed figures who didn't understand what makes what. For ex. as ship sizes get larger. Add more lifeboats. According to law, Titanic had enough boats. Just things of that nature.

Plus, they made Lord resign in August of that year. I guess you just have to feel bad for him. I give Leslie Reade credit for trying to clear his name. But mixing up information isn't going to help him. Honesty will. MGY--Check out this page if you are interested in the "Mystery Ship" of Titanic - http://home.earthlink.net/~dnitzer/Frameset.html

The man who runs it does an excellent job and is very knowledgeable .

I believe that the Californian saw Titanic that night but you must also take into account that the Californian only had a passenger capacity of 46, if they had come to Titanics rescue, Her top speed was 13 1/2 knots and manouvoring through the ice, she may have got there just as the Titanic went down. At that point all they could really do would be to pick up people out of the water, and unfortunatly that still probably would not have saved many more lives. Stanley Lord was used as a scapegoat.
Like the lusitania's captain who was labelled a scoundrel after her sinking, the Germans who had torpedoed her were made less of a factor for her loss of lives.

Lord Mersey is dumb as far as I'm concerned. I think they really need to clear his name. Notice how Sen. Smith says "I am not pleased to mention the shortcoming of others." And Lord Mersey with his "The Californian could have pushed through the ice without any risk and saved most, if not all lives."

What both fail to mention. Is that if the Titanic had enough lifeboats, ALL could have been saved. It was mainly the fault of the Board of Trade regulations. That and the White Star Line. And that was the main problem with Titanic, if you have enough boats. The problem is solved. Regardless of who gets there in whatever time. The crew on the Californian weren't Gods. They did the best they could have given the situation.

I notice no one in the Board of Trade or White Star Line, other than Ismay were forced to resign.

Hey thanks. BTW I think Jack Phillips was a hero. He is my hero. Andrews is also my hero. I love hearing things from the Wireless room. Any one have any info on Jack's postcards.

A hero is determined by their behaviour in a crisis. Jack Phillips did his job as he was supposed to up until the collision, just like everyone else did.

It was his actions in the events after the collision which he is lauded for, and it is those actions by which he should be judged.

Daniel

Keep going...I'd like to hear why you consider him a hero? What did he do out of the ordinary?