Rocket Colours

[Mark Chirnside]

For my latest mine clearing exercise, I thought I'd ask:

• Have any of the leading students of the Californian controversy ever sought to explain Captain Lord's preoccupation with the colour?

In particular I'm asking about the published people -- Padfield, Harrison, Reade, Malony, (op. cit.).

Best regards,

Mark.

 

[Erik Wood]

I have studied it for some time, and I think that I understand what he was getting at (just like most officers of the sea would if they studied the available material).

Color is important, but I think Mark is hinting at something, perhaps he can explain what???

 

[Tom Pappas]

Yeah, Lord was dissembling. Maybe he thought if he could raise enough controversy over the color of the signals, he could deflect attention from the fact that, according to the maritime regulations, signals at sea of any color were to be investigated, whether thrown by a liner or illegal sealer.

 

[Mark Chirnside]

Hi!

Thanks Erik and Tom for responding. My main point focuses on Captain Lord’s apparent obsession with the colours — as per the regulations of the time, distress signals could be any colour. There had been myths springing up stemming from the 1996 CBS mini-series on Titanic, where one of those aboard is quoted as saying that distress rockets should be red — a false statement which has become commonplace unfortunately.

Anyway, having established that Lord was asking about the colours and that distress rockets could be any colour, why was he asking? You might conclude that he was giving himself some kind of ‘alibi’ but considering the testimony of various people to the British Investigation that seems unlikely in my opinion.

Any thoughts would be appreciated as to Lord’s preoccupation with the colour.

Best regards.

Mark.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

Honest confusion at the time perhaps? His own experience working against him? He would have been familier with the laws regarding the use of rockets at sea, but unfortunately, what the law allows for on paper doesn't always speak to actual practice. (Read that to mean misuses such as ships firing off rockets to salute each other, or a flotilla of fishing vessels letting each know where the others are.) Lord would have been familier with that as well.

Or as Tom said, he could have been dissembling and dodging. I don't know, but all this speaks to why this whole mess leaves me with a really sour aftertaste. The Californian has the following to offer anyone brave enough to tackle it;

•Unreliable navigation data,
•Witnesses that are dodgy, evasive and/or confused,
•Inquisitors with agendas who at the end of the day may not have even cared whether Lord was guilty of anything, and...
•Commentators with opinions which may or may not be justified but who weren't there at the time. (That includes yours truly)

Time to wash my hands....

 

[Mark Baber]

It's been a while since I pulled Diana Bristow's "Sinking the Myths" off my bookshelf, but I seem to recall that she tries to argue that since white is not a "color", Titanic's rockets didn't meet the "any color or description" criteria.

 

[Fiona Nitschke]

Not that I have the book to hand where I am right now, but this thread recalled a rather amusing snippet from Todd & Whall's Practical Seamanship, a standard merchant marine text of the time. The text actually warns against testing rockets of a night lest they be mistaken for distress signals by other vessels. This warning is inclusive of all rockets.

My memory of Bristow's take on rocket colours agrees with Mark B's. This is something I'll definitely be looking up in the library tonight.

 

[George Behe]

Hi, all!

It has long been a widely-held assumption that pyrotechnics were routinely used as company signals in 1912. If such signals truly *were* commonplace in 1912, though, can any of our fellow ET members point us toward a few passenger or crew descriptions of 1912-era vessels that displayed Roman candles, flares or other pyrotechnic signals of recognition to each other as they passed in the night?

Thanks very much.

All my best,

George

 

[Tom Pappas]

If Ms. Bristow is going to suspend her apologia on so slender a thread as the physical properties of color, she would do well to establish that white light is composed of all colors, thus qualifying it eminently to be included under the rubric of "any color."

 

[John M. Feeney]

"( ... misuses such as ships firing off rockets to salute each other, or a flotilla of fishing vessels letting each know where the others are.) Lord would have been familier with that as well."

One small problem with proposing these as possible explanations, Mike. Even if such *were* occasionally the case -- and that hasn't yet been demonstrated, as George points out -- are you suggesting that these "misuses" would normally mimic true distress signals by featuring rockets "fired at short intervals"??

One rocket doth not a distress signal make! And Captain Lord was, at one juncture, advised of *5* rockets fired from a single ship at short intervals. That hardly seems necessary or even desirable for a mere friendly "salute" or just to let someone else in the "fishing fleet" know where you are.

Plus, if Lord was indeed familiar with such supposedly mundane violations, why didn't he just say so in his own defense? There's not a hint of this throughout his testimony, just the vague suggestion -- fairly backwards, actually -- of "company signals".

Cheers,
John

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>Plus, if Lord was indeed familiar with such supposedly mundane violations, why didn't he just say so in his own defense? <<

a)It may not have occurred to him that such trivia would be worth mentioning or
b)It may have been that he was simply dissembling and tapdancing as Tom said with vague references to company signals.

Unfortunately, Captain Lord is no longer available to cross examine so I can only guess. Somebody got a Oujii Board?

 

[Ryan Patrick Thiessen]

With regard to CPT Lord and the rockets his ship observed that night, has anyone taken into account the fact that "distress" rockets color varied from Company to Company. This very well could have accounted for any lack of action on Lord's part. He saw white rockets. MAYBE, he was farmiliar with Red for distress. Or Green. Or Blue. Of course the flip side of this coin is that, as the Commander of a Sailing Vessel, he should have known that the number and frequency of the rockets he did see COULD HAVE meant something was amiss. Personally, I think Lord screwed up that night, but taking company signals into play, I can't entirely blame him. Cheers! Ryan

 

[George Behe]

Hi, Ryan!

Distress rockets could be *any* color, though, so IMO Lord would have had no reason to be expecting to see one specific color instead of another.

All my best,

George

 

[Tom Pappas]

The variation in color of company signals is mooted by the text of the regulation:

Distress at sea is to be signaled by "...rockets or shells, throwing stars of any colour or description, fired one at a time at short intervals..."

The wise folks who formulated the regulations went out of their way to ensure that if there was any question about the intent of signals, that said signals were to be investigated.

 

[Erik Wood]

Tom said: "The wise folks who formulated the regulations"

I will go on the record as saying that regulations are rarely written by "wise folks", especially those governing the sea.