How Would the Night Have been Different had the Californian Arrived

[Steve Arnold]

I don't know whether this discussion has ever occurred here before; if it has I've missed it.

Speculate on how things would have been different had the Californian responded to Titanic. Hindsight from this end of time of course would say that hundreds more would have been saved, and hopefully would have been had the rescue been carefully planned and coordinated between Carpathia and Californian, but would that really have been the case? After all, Californian was a small ship. Could it really have held all Titanic's passengers and crew until Carpathia arrived? Would the two rescue ships have been in regular contact during the time that Carpathia was steaming toward the site, and have planned a strategy for saving the most possible people, and if so what stratgies might they have been able to put together?

Scenario #1: Titanic makes contact with Californian, the ship arrives, picks up the lifeboats, how many more could have been held on board the Californian? Would another ship such as Carpathia have even been contacted, had the Californian said they were on the way? And had Carpathia's arrival occurred four hours later, would it have made that much difference?

Scenario #2: Unable to contact the Californian, Carpathia is contacted and comes. In the meantime, Californina sees the rockets and arrives, picks up the lifeboats, pulls a few more people from the water before Carpathia arrives.

To me, the best move would have been to leave the lifeboats where they were and for Californian to pick up those in the water, but would it likely have occurred this way? Wouldn't sending life boats back and forth to pick up those in the water have been a slow and tedious process with the necessary time for unloading? So that with precious little time available for the rescue of those stranded in the water with life jackets, how many more people could have been realistically saved?

How much difference would the Californian really have made? Is it possible that the best case scenario is the one that ultimately occurred?

 

[Michael H. Standart]

This is a matter of some considerable and often extremely heated debate. Erik Wood, Tracy Smith and myself have an article up exploring exactly that question. Dave Gittins has also addressed that issue. His website is at Titanic Navigation and South Australian Cruising
Whatever "side" you take on this issue, the thing's you're running against are a clock which stops for nothing, the question of distance, and a sinking ship which dumps the trapped passengers and crew into 28 degree water.

Time; The Titanic hits the iceberg at 11:40 and sinks at 2:20. (Give or take a few minutes)

Distance: This is one of the most hotly debated questions on this issue. Captain Lord's supporters hold that the Californian was between 19 to 21 miles away. If this is true, then there is no way that this 11 knot capable ship arrives in time. Period.

If the Californian is between 8 to 12 miles away as Lords critics state, then there is a decent chance she arrives on scene around the two a.m. time frame. (Assuming she doesn't have a damageing or fatal run in with ice herself. Literally pulling alongside the sinking ship is out of the question. For one thing, this is a manuever that is rarely if ever practiced in the merchent marine, for another, this would be a time consuming exercise and an exceedingly dangerous one as the Californian would have risked serious if not fatal damage herself in the sinking, even if the Titanic hadn't broken up. This means that the Californian has to rely on her boats and the people on the Titanic swimming for it.

IMO, had the Californian arrived befor or just as the Titanic was going down, the priority would have been in plucking as many people out of the water befor they froze to death. The ones already in the ships lifeboats are in no immidiate danger so they can wait a spell. While the Californian's boats are picking people out of the water, some effort would have been made to clear the Titanic's boats (While leaving the crews aboard) and have join the search effort. I doubt that more then two or three could have been cleared in any meaningful time frame. The bottleneck would have been in removing passengers who varied in age from the young and able bodied to the elderly who are well past their prime.

How many additional lives could have been saved? it's hard to say. a couple of hundred perhaps...maybe a few more.

Cordially,
Michael H. Standart

 

[Maureen Zottoli]

Wow, gosh whiz Batman, there is a thread here on this here board that actually seems to deal with concerns being posted under the distance question thread. Amazing how one can find information that they are looking for when it is posted to the proper thread. Someone should copyright this concept and maybe bottle it.