Mrs Spedden's diary

[Paul Lee]

This is on Dave Bilnitzer's website, and was in the THS Commutator c.1992. In it, Mrs.Spedden wrote her diary, allegedly, while at sea, in a lifeboat. How could she do that, in the dark?

Something else makes me feel that it wasn't written contemporaneously: her mention of the "other ship" being the Californian. She couldn't possibly have known at the time!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Tracy Smith]

Good point, Paul.

BTW, I've been enjoying reading your thought processes on this subject. Keep it coming!

 

[Michael H. Standart]

In fairness to Daisy Spedden, what she wrote and what was posted on Dave's website was "Mrs. Spedden kept a diary, portions of which were published by the Titanic Historical Society in 1992-1993. She described the events of April 14-15, 1912, and the Carpathia's return trip to New York with the Titanic's survivors. In her entry for April 15, she wrote about the ship seen during the night, and described how "our men rowed on after a light on the horizon which afterwards proved to be the Californian... ""

In sum, she wasn't claiming any special knowladge while in the boat. Still, it's a rather odd entry to have written while still there, but then the diary entry itself dsoesn't make that claim.

 

[Dave Gittins]

Another worthless observation that's used against Captain Lord. Spedden could not possibly say that the light seen from the boat was on Californian unless she kept her eyes on it continuously until Californian was clearly identifiable. The light might have been a star or even Mount Temple, which was around by 4-30 a.m.

This is another example of the low standard of the Californian debate. Lord's supporters are just as bad.

 

[Paul Lee]

Having looked at the full version of the diary in the commutator, I have a couple of thoughts: the diary, obviously intended for the use of Mrs.Spedden, seems to claim that it is written in a lifeboat (it starts: "April 15 - 12.30AM (underlined twice) At Sea in one of the Titanic's lifeboats!!".

There is so much detail that it must have been written very close to the event, but if it was written in the lifeboat, which I doubt, then I would like to see the original manuscript. I suspect that the addendum "which afterwards proved to be the Californian" was added to the previous line about the light on the horizon, possibly inserted above it. This would make the pedigree of the assertion somewhat doubtful anyway.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Paul Lee]

Hi Tracy,
I'm glad someone out there is enjoying these ramblings!

Cheers

Paul