Jim, Scott last visited us last June.
That's a pity, Brad, However, if I may, I will continue this analysis by sharing an extract from my notes for my book.
Having established a likely scenario for the final hours of the
Mount Temple's rescue dash before the pack ice barrier intervened, we can now look at another bit of controversial
Mount Temple evidence.
It concerns a sworn affidavit from one of her passengers, a Dr. F. C. Quitzrau. which was submitted in Washington on Day 10 of the US Inquiry. In it he claimed:
1. "about midnight Sunday, April 14, New York time, he was awakened by the sudden stopping of the engines;"
2. "stewards and passengers, who informed him that word had been received by wireless from the
Titanic that the
Titanic had struck an iceberg and was calling for help."
3. ""Orders were immediately given and the
Mount Temple course changed, heading straight for the
Titanic"
4. "About 3 o'clock New York time, 2 o'clock ship's time, the T
itanic was sighted by some of the officers and crew"
5. "that as soon as the
Titanic was seen all lights on the
Mount Temple were put out and the engines stopped and the boat lay dead for about two hours"
6. " that as soon as day broke the engines were started and the
Mount Temple circled the
Titanic's position."
Setting aside the obvious time difference errors; if we believe Captain Moore turned his ship at 12-30 pm and we believe the first part of Dr. Quitzrau's sworn affidavit that the ship stopped "about midnight", then this suggests that Captain Moore stopped his ship when he first received the unofficial distress position and that she was stopped for about 30 minutes to assess the situation. Not only that, but that the first distress call was received just around midnight. However, in his evidence, Captain Moore stated that he did not receive the amended distress position until after he had turned and was on his way to the first distress position and that was after 12-30 am. This suggests a minimum 30 minute gap between receipt of distress calls which we know is fantasy.
To help unravel this mystery, we must try and determine the New York -Eastern Standard Times - of these two signals. Fortunately, we have two witnesses to help us do this. These were
Titanic's 4th Officer
Boxhall, who delivered the amended distress signal to the wireless room and her surviving wireless operator, Bride who was present when the first one was sent out.
Bride should have relieved his boss, Philips at 2 am on the morning of April 15. If he had done so, Phillips would have had to serve part of the planned 47 minute clock change. Since it is inconceivable that Bride would have relieved Phillips at unaltered midnight,- 9-58 EST - thus not only giving-up 2 hours, but 2 hours and 47 minutes, of sleep time rest- It is therefore highly likely that he served the first half of the planned clock change (23 minutes) in bed and agreed to relieve Phillips no later than 10-21 pm EST.
From his evidence, we know that Bride was in the middle of change over when
Captain Smith arrived in the wireless room with the first distress position for transmission. It follows that since that distress call was transmitted immediately, it was done so at or before 10-21 EST.
Fourth Officer Boxhall calculated the amended distress position shortly after he had called the
Titanic's officers and at the beginning of the process to make-ready her lifeboats. That was just before 10-25 pm EST.
From the foregoing we have timings as follows:
First (
Captain Smith's) distress signal transmitted at or before 10-21 pm EST.
Second Officer Boxhall's distress signal transmitted at or before 10-25 pm EST.
The difference between EST and ship time on an unaltered clock on the
Mount Temple was 1 hour 46 minutes, Therefore, the unaltered ship time of receipt of the first distress message on
Mount Temple would have been about 12-07am. Her wireless log recorded the second signal as being received at 10-25 pm EST which was 12-11 am. - 5 minutes later, so everything seems to dove-tale, with Dr. Qhitzrau's "about midnight" timing of the first event. However, Captain Moore swore that it was after 12-30 am when he received the first distress position and after that when he received the second, amended distress position. So what of the Captain's missing 23 minutes?
Now consider this:
If
Mount Temple's voyage had not been interrupted, she would have been close to 50-15'W at Noon on April 15 and her clocks would have been retarded 23 minutes at midnight on April 14th so as to be correct at Noon the following day. However, if Captain Moore had forgotten to set his clock back before going to bed and it showed 12-30 am, then the correct ship time would have been 12-07 am. But as we have seen, the unaltered time would also have been 12-07 am. The plot thickens?
There has been a great deal of criticism of the good doctor's affidavit, and rightly so. However, setting aside for a moment, reference to other incidents described in his affidavit, we should ask why it was that such a learned man should make such specific time observations i.e. "about midnight" concerning something which was no longer part of his life?
His evidence is a mish-mash of snippets from other stories, but item No.4 in the list above creates a real problem. In it he states that the ship time was an hour behind New York time which we all know is completely wrong. I suspect that he got his times mixed up and that this part of his story relates to to 3 am that morning when Moore stopped his ship with an astern movement after sighting what he described as a "sailing ship".
