The SS Californian is a Leyland Line steamship that was in the vicinity of the RMS Titanic when it sank on April 15, 1912.

History

The Californian is a British steamship owned by the Leyland Line, which was part of J.P. Morgan’s International Mercantile Marine Co . The ship was constructed by the Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Ltd. in Dundee, Scotland and was launched on November 26, 1901. Californian was 6,223 tons, 447 feet (136 m) long, 53 feet (16 m) at its beam, and had an average full speed of 12 knots (22km/h). The ship had a triple expansion steam engine which was powered by two doubled-ended boilers, and was primarily designed to transport cotton, but could also carry passengers.

The Californian had a capacity of 47 passengers and 55 crew members. After completing its sea trials on January 23, 1902, the Californian began its maiden voyage from Dundee on January 31 and arrived at New Orleans, USA on March 3.

Sinking of Titanic

Stanley Lord, who had commanded the Californian since 1911, was the master of the ship when it left London, England on April 5, 1912 on its way to Boston, USA. It was not carrying any passengers on the voyage.

On Sunday April 14, while traveling south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the Californian encountered a large ice field. At 10:21 p.m. Captain Lord decided to stop the ship and wait there for the night. 10:21 p.m. is the time according to Californian’s clock, which was twelve minutes behind Titanic’s clock. (All times mentioned are in Californian time.)

Earlier that day at 7:30 p.m., Californian’s only wireless operator Cyril Evans reported three large icebergs in the area the White Star Line passenger ship Titanic was heading. Titanic’s wireless operator Harold Bride intercepted the warning and delivered it to Titanic’s bridge.

Slightly before 11:00 p.m., after the Californian had stopped, lights of another ship came into view on the horizon off Californian’s starboard side. To Lord, the ship looked like a tramp steamer, similar in size to the Californian. Third Officer Groves, who on deck with Lord, thought the lights made the ship look like a passenger liner. Captain Lord went to Cyril Evans and asked him what other ships were nearby. Evans said Titanic was the only one. Lord commented that the ship he saw was too small to be Titanic, but to tell Titanic anyway that they were stopped by ice. Titanic’s other wireless operator, Jack Phillips was busy sending out passenger’s personal messages to the wireless station at Cape Race, Newfoundland at the time, and when Evans sent the message that they were stopped and surrounded by ice, the close proximity made Californian’s signal loud in Phillip’s headphones. Phillips couldn’t hear a message he was getting from Cape Race and sent back to Evans, “Shut up, Shut up, I’m working Cape Race.” Evans listened for a little bit longer, and at 11:25 p.m. he turned off the wireless and went to bed. Five minutes later Titanic hit an iceberg and the first CQD was sent out a half an hour later.

At 11:30 Lord asked Third Officer Groves to try to signal the ship on the horizon, which he estimated to be 5 miles (8 km) away and stopped, with a Morse lamp. The vessel never appeared to respond. Slightly after midnight Second Officer Herbert Stone took watch from Groves, while Lord went to rest in the chartroom. Stone also tried signaling the ship with the Morse lamp, but was without success. Around 12:45 a.m., April 15, Stone saw a white rocket appear over the ship in the horizon. First he thought it was a shooting star, until he saw another one. He saw five rockets by the time he told Captain Lord at 1:15 a.m. what he had seen. Lord asked if they were company signals, Stone said he didn’t know. Lord told Stone to tell him if anything about the ship changes and to keep signaling the ship with the Morse lamp. By 2:00 a.m. the ship appeared to be leaving the area. A few minutes later Crewman James Gibson informed Captain Lord that the ship had left and that eight white rockets were seen. Lord, who was partially asleep, asked whether they were sure of the color, Gibson said yes and left.

Lord woke up later that morning at 4:30 a.m. and went out on deck to decide how to proceed past the ice. At 5:15 a.m. Chief Officer George F. Stewart told Lord that he saw a ship, which would later be identified as the RMS Carpathia, firing rockets. Lord woke Cyril Evans and asked him to inquire about the rockets. Evans turned on the wireless and found out that the Titanic had sank over night. Evans took the news to Captain Lord who immediately calculated the distance between the two ships, estimated it was 19 1/2 miles (31 km) away and began steaming towards Titanic’s last reported position. Californian arrived next to the Cunard Line steamship, RMS Carpathia around 8:30 a.m. The Carpathia was just finishing picking up the last of Titanic’s survivors. After communication between the two ships, the Carpathia left the area leaving the Californian to search for any other survivors, but only finding scattered wreckage and empty lifeboats.

Aftermath

The British and American inquiries into the Titanic disaster both concluded that the ship seen by the Californian that night had been the Titanic and severely condemned Captain Lord for failing to interpret the rockets as signals of distress and respond accordingly. Lord, however, contended that his ship had been too far away from the Titanic's location for it to have been visible. Others argue that maritime regulations state that any unidentified signals should be treated as signals of distress and that regardless of the identity of the ship sighted, it was Lord's obligation to respond accordingly, which he failed to do.

Californian was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in 9 November 1915, 61 miles southwest of Cape Matapan , Greece with the loss of one life.

References

• Eaton, John P. and Haas, Charles A. Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy (2nd ed.). W.W. Norton & Company, 1995
• Lynch, Donald and Marschall, Ken. Titanic: An Illustrated History. Hyperion, 1995