"In reality, if Californian had raced to the site of the disaster, it would only have rescued Captain Lord's reputation and robbed Arthur Henry Rostron of his moment in fame. At top speed, Californian would have arrived just at the time of Titanic's stern pointed into the sky like a black finger of death. A few nearly frozen survivors might have been plucked from the water-but only a few. Survivors bobbing in the lifeboats might have still been waiting in the first light of dawn for rescue, because retrieving lifeboats in the darkness would have been dangerous."

"The Last Log of the Titanic" written by David Brown.

Mac. let me think for a minute. T itanic was more than 3 quarters into the trip, it took about... 4 days right? thats about 3,000 miles i would think. if the titanic was at full speed on the second day and on the third day it must have been atleast half way there and by the next day evening it was a quarter left to go.so if the Californian could go the same speed as titanic or just about or more... it cold have gotten there in less than an hour. besides, its only 5 miles...it was close to the ports of boston and NY and Etc. couldnt other ships help. tug boats or what not. there should be the U.S. coast guard which was established in the begining of the 1800's or late 1700's. So it should have been possible to save more lives. but when iceberg hit i guess alot of sterage were already dead from being on the same floor or bellow the floor the iceberg cut.

wow... did i just say all that and get that smart or was God controling and writing for me?

"so if the Californian could go the same speed as titanic or just about or more... it cold have gotten there in less than an hour. besides, its only 5 miles.."

--The Californian could go 13 knots at full speed if they were giving her everything they got. She usually ran 11 or 12 knots. Also, she was much further than 5 miles away. Most likely 12 miles away. Also, there was much ice in between the two. In the dark this would be a difficult task to go full. Remember it took them 3 hours in the daylight. Although they went the long way, so we'll say it would have taken 2 if they didn't cross the ice field first. Still wouldn't have made a difference.

I'm not sure I understand what your trying to say?? Are you saying they could have gotten there in an hour?

Plus I think they were about 1,700 miles out there. They were still two days away in travel when she struck.

Also keep in mind the size difference of Titanic to the Californian. The Titanic was 882.5 feet long, while the Californian was 447 ft. That's almost double the size of the Californian. It also couldn't hold not nearly as many passengers as the Titanic. It's gross tonnage was 6,200 tons. While Titanic's was if I'm not mistaken 53,000 tons.

hmm... What other boats were near titanic when it began sinking?

Californian, then the Carpathia and probably the next was the Mount Temple or the Rappahannock. La Provence, Virginian, Parisian, Ypiranga, Asian, Olympic and Baltic were all much further away.

What about Stone and Gibson? Did anyone think they knew the mystery ship was in distress? It seems, and Walter Lord states that both of them may have been waiting for the other to suggest she was in distress, but didn't want to bother the captain. I do recall reading that Stone confessed to his wife that what he saw that night in 1912 were indeed distress signals. If he did believe this, why was he not more forceful? Perhaps if he told Lord that he believed she was in danger, more of an attempt sooner would have been done.

why couldn't mount temple help?

I believe the Mount Temple was trapped in the ice at the time. Considering it is a smaller vessel there was no 24 hour operated radio, therefore the operator had probably turned in for the night. I do not remember hearing of the Titanic being in touch with Mount Temple that night.