In other words you are alleging that for the first one and a half hours the Californian heading did not change expect a brief swing to port, but in the next 4 hours she somehow swung 225 degree in the same direction? Where such big change could have came from? The weather had not changed till around 4 a.m.By the way, a heading of NE true was about ENE by compass. If, when Californian came to a stop around 10:30, she was facing ENE by compass as Lord implied, and if around 11:30 she was heading NE by compass, and then at 12:10 ENE by compass as Groves observed, then those observations also support a brief swing to port early on.
Such change is easily explained by the currents present in eddies. Airs and calms cannot explain it.