Best book on the Californian?

That’s great Julian, that was a lovely birthday treat! I will look out for these. I have ordered a couple of secondhand books from Amazon but they were sadly not in the condition that they said they were. Which sites would you recommend for second hand books?
 
Hi Smiley,
I have read the follow books on the Californian ship:
Titanic The ship That Never Sank? By Robin Gardiner
Titanic and the Californian by Rob Kamps
The Ship That Stood Still by Leslie Reade
Titanic and the Mystery Ship by Senan Molony
The Titanic and the Californian by Peter Padfield
Defending Captain Lord Part Two by Leslie Harrison
A Titanic Myth by Leslie Harrison
Report into The Loss of the SS Titanic by Samuel Halpern
The Titanic and the Indifferent Stranger by Paul Lee.
All books will offer some thing different and one can see authors are reading the other books and adding a bit more information to their own book!
Most controversial has to be Robin Gardiner who starts off OK but then gets involved with the switch of Titanic to Olympic which never happen!
Leslie Harrison will clash with Leslie Reade and turns quite nasty to the point of suing the publisher. Harrison belives he reseach is more reliable and Reade is cutting corners and making incorrect statements!
Pick of the bunch? Not easy as each book does offer something different probably go for Paul Lee as it is the newest and has looked into the other books to! Sam Halpern book does cover more issues and certainly an active member for ET.
I still think thier is more to come out of the mystery of Califorinian cargo and why London to Boston?

Mike.
 
Thanks so much Mike. It certainly looks like the ones by Paul Lee and Sam Halpern are the best ones to go for so I will look at these. I won’t buy anything by Robin Gardiner!

Why is it strange Californian was going from London to Boston?
 
The Californian's normally travelled between London / Liverpool and New Orleans but for whatever reason (the coal strike, rearrangement of ships, new / different cargo or another) she went to Boston.

This was the first time both the Californian and Captain Lord ever went to Boston and also the first time Lord would encounter ice.

Also to briefly explain the cargo question, everyone's curious as to what it was she was carrying (,Ernest Gill claims he could't smoke near it implying it was flammable or something).

Back to topic!
 
Last edited:
I see thanks Harland. Oh yes, I remember in the past reading that he couldn’t smoke near the cargo. So we don’t know what the cargo was? It was kept secret?
 
There are several possibilities / theories suggested:
  • She was carrying nothing (which is unlikely as analysis of her from a photo taken April 15 does appear to show her loaded down in the water).
  • She was simply carrying a "general cargo" of ordinary things that wasn't important or necessary to mention later. (on her previous Eastbound voyage from New Orleans to Le Havre, she is reported to carry Hay or Cotton which could have also been similarly taken to Boston and Gill^ didn't want to start a fire).
  • She was carrying something suspicious or controversial* like ammunition or explosives (which there is no evidence for at all).
^It's also possible Gill's account is not even true as Paul Lee suggests smoking on deck could have been just as dangerous as embers could have blown into a ventilator and promptly set the cargo alight and Gill's clothes would't have kept him warm. (Gill's validity is a subject for another thread).

*Robin Gardiner and others have also claimed with the "Titanic / Olympic swap theory" that the Californian was carrying blankets and rescue supplies as part of their act as rescue ship. However there is no evidence for this (and if they did have rescue supplies, they would have surely used or mentioned it in the inquiries!)

Back to Topic!
 
Robin Gardiner theory is an interesting one. After the Olympic was badly damaged from the HMS Hawke accident 20 September 1911.
They could not get an insurance claim and the kneel was bent!
The plan was the switch the two ships as the Titanic, and sink her to claim the insurance money! The Californian was part of the plan were she rescue the passengers and crew members. But the time factor made it impossible to do the change over! O though the two ships were sisters, but they were many changes made between two of them and well documentary in books.
Titanic is to fire distress rockets hay presto Californian would be there for the rescue. We all know what happen to that theory?
I believe Gardiner stuck to his story until his death.
 
"This is the first time the steamship Californian has been in this port. Capt. Lord said it was his first trip here. The steamer was loaded with a miscellaneous cargo and berthed at the B & A docks in East Boston."
Boston Traveller, April 19, 1912, p.7. [also quoted by Leslie Reade in TSTSS]

This was what Paul Slish posted on 8th December 2006 on the following thread:-

Californian's cargo

Then further from Paul on the same thread:-

Boston Globe, April 27, 1912, p.4

"The Leyland Line steamship Californian is scheduled to leave here at 5 p m today for Liverpool, but unless Capt Stanley Lord, her commander, who was summoned to Washington to give testimony before the Senate Investigation Committee regarding the position of his vessel at the time the Titanic went down, returns the steamer's departure will have to be delayed."

"Her principal shipments will be 80,000 bushels of wheat, 25,000 bushels of corn, 1550 tons of Santo Domingo sugar, 1000 bales of cotton, 200 tons of hay, 300 tons of flour, 200 tons of lumber and a lot of general freight."

Cheers,

Julian
 
The Californian's next voyage was under the command of Captain Masters (Captain Lord having been suspended at the time before his forced resignation) and was also to Boston but from Liverpool this time as that was where she steamed to after the USA Inquiry:-

Paul Slish posts on the above thread:-

The Californian returned to Boston from Liverpool and arrived on June 1, 1912 under the command of William Masters.

"The Californian brought 26 cabin passengers, among whom were a bevy of pretty girl students from the Missouri State University, who have been studying music in Munich during the past Winter."

"The Californian brought 2000 tons of general cargo, including 750 tons of Egyptian cotton, 250 tons of wool, 175 tons of dry hides and skins, 100 tons of bulk salt and 100 tons of dry goods."

Boston Globe, June 1, 1912, p. 3

The Leyland Line ran a regular weekly service from London to Boston, but had not previously used The Californian for this 'run' till April 1912. The Devonian and a few other Leyland Line ships regularly appear on Leyland Line publicity for the London to Boston 'run'.

You can perhaps glean from the above cargo of The Californian's next voyage what she might have had as a cargo on the previous voyage involving Titanic, except note this time she steamed from Liverpool, not London.

Cheers,

Julian
 
Harland Duzen said:
I would recommend "Titanic and the Indifferent Stranger: The Complete Story of the Titanic and the Californian" by Paul Lee.

Very informative, gives info on not just Lord, the Officers and the Californian, but also how subsequent authors (both Lordites / Anti-Lordites) have been selective with info and the various theories put forward to explain what happened.

Hope the above makes sense.
Click to expand...
I also agree that this is the most balanced book on the subject but there are still a lot of loose ends which can never be proven one way or another.

The Ship That Stood Still is not a good book in my opinion. It sets out with one purpose only - to make Capt Stanley Lord somewhere a cross between Attila the Hun and Ivan the Terrible. Ridiculously one-sided.

Likewise, Leslie Harrison's A Titanic Myth, goes completely the other way, aiming to clear him completely of all blame. It is better written but nevertheless, also too one-sided.

Thomas Williams' Titanic and the Californian comes somewhere in between.

My personal take on this is that the lights seen by the Titanic were those of the Californian and vice versa and there was no 'mystery ship' between them. But the two ships were further apart than apparent and partly below the horizon to each other. But the lights from the superstructure and the masts were at a higher level and so visible across the calm sea.

Capt Lord in all likelihood did not get enough feedback from the officers on watch in time to make a decision to investigate. But even if Cyril Evans had remained on duty and the Californian had received the very first CQD-MGY call sent out by the Titanic, I don't think that the Californian would have been able to reach the other ship in time to recue anyone else. At best, they might have picked-up a few half-dead people from the sea but I doubt even that possibility.
 
Mike Spooner said:
Robin Gardiner theory is an interesting one. After the Olympic was badly damaged from the HMS Hawke accident 20 September 1911.
They could not get an insurance claim and the kneel was bent!
The plan was the switch the two ships as the Titanic, and sink her to claim the insurance money! The Californian was part of the plan were she rescue the passengers and crew members. But the time factor made it impossible to do the change over! O though the two ships were sisters, but they were many changes made between two of them and well documentary in books.
Titanic is to fire distress rockets hay presto Californian would be there for the rescue. We all know what happen to that theory?
I believe Gardiner stuck to his story until his death.
Click to expand...

Who started the silly switch theory, was it Gardiner?
 

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