Titanic Fact 24

 

 

On the night of the sinking, The RMS Carpathia is the one who came to Titanic's aid. At the time, she was 58 miles away. Two hours after the sinking, the Carpathia reached the survivors. However, there was another ship that was much closer, the SS Californian. The Californian was only 11 miles away. Its wireless operator had tried to warn Titanic of the icebergs. But due to the close proximity, the message came though very loud and the Titanic operator couldn't make it out. The Californian stopped for the night. The Californian's wireless operator went on to bed and turned off the wireless. The Captain, Lord Stanley was later informed that they had seen 5 rockets coming from a nearby ship. Supposedly, Captain Lord didn't realize what the white rockets were a distress call and went on to bed. The following morning, they learned that the Titanic sank and the Californian joined the Carpathia in looking for bodies. After the Titanic's sinking, Captain Lord faced scrutiny for the rest of his life. People questioned why he didn't have the wireless turned back on. If he had done that, they could have contacted the ship to find out what was wrong. And in 1912, it was also commonly known that rockets fired repeatedly was a SOS signal. Lord Stanly proclaimed his innocence for the rest of his life.

“The crime of Stanley Lord was not that he may have ignored the Titanic’s rockets, but that he unquestionably ignored someone’s cry for help.” - Daniel Allen Butler

The Carpathia, the ship that helped Titanic, and the the Californian, the one that didn't help, both suffered a similar fate as Titanic. Both the Carpathia and the Californian ending up sinking. The Carpathia was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1918. The Californian was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. The remains of the Californian have never been found.

The Carpathia

The Californian