To use an expression well-known to Edwardians, Senan’s article on Titanic’s rockets is something of a curate’s egg. (Those who are not Edwardians can look it up!) Rather as literary critics can comb a Shakespearian text and find meanings never dreamed of by the Bard, Senan has taken the text of the US and British enquiries and analysed it in a degree of detail which it will not bear. By giving strict meanings to imprecise words like “you” he has constructed interpretations which cannot be justified. By trying to reconcile the accounts of numerous witnesses of varying credibility, he has produced a scenario that is seriously flawed.
He is on sound ground concerning the number of rockets fired. Lord Mersey appears to have followed
Lightoller when he states that “about eight” were fired. This is typical of the tendency of both Senator Smith and Mersey to favour the evidence of the senior surviving officer. One example of this is the conclusion that the ship sank intact, as Lightoller thought, though others did not. It would be more accurate to say that “about a dozen” were fired, following the evidence of Boxhall and Pitman.
If about a dozen were fired at intervals of about five minutes, we can account for the rockets seen by Stone and Gibson on Californian being spread over about one hour. The fact that they only saw eight of the dozen need not indicate that Californian was a great distance off. For much of the time, Stone was alone on the bridge and if he was keeping a proper watch it was his duty to scan the whole horizon, rather than staring at the ship and its rockets. He could easily have failed to see some of the rockets. He would have been in for a rocket himself if say, Mauretania, had come charging over the horizon, unseen by him. Gibson is an unconvincing observer. He says that after the first eight rockets he saw three more rockets, but one was on a quite different bearing from the others. That does not give a good impression of his observational skill. Stone’s own description of the last three rockets is very vague. Though Gibson was sure that they were rockets, to Stone they were unidentified lights. Altogether, I am quite prepared to accept that these two hapless mariners were capable of failing to see all the rockets fired.
So far, I largely agree with Senan, but when he brings in “Californian’s own nearby ship”, I must bluntly disagree. This remarkable ship, whose identity has never been discovered, must meet several curious criteria.
It must have been manned by officers and crew who were either blind to Titanic’s signals or culpably ignoring them. If the latter, the matter was covered up totally, a feat quite beyond
Captain Lord.
The ship, as seen from Titanic, must have mimicked Californian’s motion, showing Titanic her lights in the same sequence as Californian would have, as she slowly turned around. From Californian, she managed to look rather like the distant Titanic and vanish at about the time Titanic sank.
The ship somehow happened to stay exactly on a line between the rockets and Californian. This is a truly amazing coincidence. Even Stone realised that.
The ship somehow managed to sail away through the icefield without coming to harm.
In spite of efforts beginning in 1912, the mystery ship remains unidentified.
Senan develops a theory of two firing positions but he bases it on very flimsy evidence. He makes much of Symons’ remark that “rockets were going up simultaneously, every minute, minute intervals.” Firstly, Symons is the only one to place the rockets so close together. Secondly, nothing in the evidence is so shaky as estimations of time. A classic example comes from Frederick Scott, who had the engines running for about half an hour after the collision. Symons’ timing is a very frail support for a two firing point theory. We must also consider Symons’ use of the word, “simultaneously”. Symons was shown at Mersey’s enquiry to have a limited command of English. His repeated use of expressions like “master of the situation” and “using my own discretion” contrasted so sharply with his poor grammar that Lord Mersey strongly and probably correctly suspected that he had been coached by a solicitor. Symons’ evidence is confused and unsatisfactory in other ways. At one point the distant ship is a steamer. Soon after, it is a fishing vessel, five to ten miles off, regardless of the fact that the oil lights of a fishing boat would be invisible at such a distance. A single word from such a man must count for little.
As to the supposed two firing positions Senan is finding implications where none exist. Why shouldn’t
Captain Smith give orders to a quartermaster, whether Boxhall was present or not? He was the captain! Actually, Hardy did not even say he gave orders. “He was superintending the rockets, calling out to the quartermaster about the rockets.”
Rowe says he used the port Morse light, which he would naturally do, as it was the one on the side where the distant ship lay. It doesn’t prove he also fired signals on the port side. The Morse key was probably in the wheelhouse anyway. On the starboard side, naturally Boxhall ordered people to stand clear. He was the officer and would have given orders whether the quartermasters were there or not. Also, it may not take three men to fire distress signals but extra hands would be useful. The signals consisted of several parts that had to be carefully assembled and somebody would have to check the socket for burning debris before reloading. To imply that Bright’s statement that “Rowe and I, and Mr Boxhall” fired rockets indicates two parties is stretching the language too far.
The starting time for the rockets is contentious if we accept Boxhall’s evidence about putting the lanyard away as the phone rang. However, Boxhall’s evidence is so conflicting with other witnesses that I think he must be mistaken. Four observers were sure that the rockets began after boat 7 was lowered. They were Hendrickson, Pitman, Lowe and Duff-Gordon.
Hendrickson.
4992. Then after the boats were lowered that you had been assisting in, where did you go
?–To the starboard side of the deck.
4993. Did you see any people there ?–Yes, there were not so many there as there were on
the other side in the first place. There were a good many there.
4994. Did you do anything on the starboard side ?–The boatswain called me and asked me to
1end him a hand with the boat on the after side of the bridge.
4995. That is this little bridge which is there. No. 1 boat, was it not? –Yes.
4996, Did you assist to lower that ?–To clear it– to clear the rope away and everything.
4997. Who were there at that boat ?–I could not say ; I knew the boatswain was there and an
officer, and at the time the officer started firing rockets.
Pitman.
Senator SMITH. You saw those signals of distress, did you, from the Titanic?
Mr. PITMAN. Yes.
Senator SMITH. And you saw about a dozen or so of them?
Mr. PITMAN. It may have been a dozen or it may have been more, sir.
Senator SMITH. When was this? When did you first see them; before you left the Titanic?
Mr. PITMAN. No; shortly after.
Senator SMITH. Did you see any while you were aboard the Titanic, any of that character?
Mr. PITMAN. None were fired.
Senator SMITH. None were fired?
Lowe.
Senator SMITH. Did Mr. Ismay assist in filling that boat?
Mr. LOWE. Yes; he assisted there, too.
Senator SMITH. You found him there when you turned from No. 5 to No. 3?
Mr. LOWE. He was there, and I distinctly remember seeing him alongside of me - that is, by
my side - when the first detonator went off. I will tell you how I happen to remember it so
distinctly. It was because the flash of the detonator lit up the whole deck, I did not know who
Mr. Ismay was then, but I learned afterwards who he was, and he was standing alongside of
me.
Duff-Gordon.
12496. Were they firing rockets at that time?–Yes, they had just begun while they were
lowering No. 3 life-boat.
All these witnesses place the first signals after boat 7 was launched, indicating that Boxhall was not firing them as early as Senan suggests.
It is not clear that Boxhall could have fired signals earlier. It is not clear exactly what Rowe and Bright brought to the bridge. It would make sense if the dangerous detonators were stored well away from the explosive charges and the pyrotechnics. Boxhall may well have had the main parts of the signals on hand in the wheelhouse and been unable to fire them until the detonators were brought forward.
To cut a long story short, I suggest that the conventional account is not far wide of the mark, except for the number of signals fired. Firing began at some time between 12-45 and 1-00 and continued for about one hour at intervals of 3 to 5 minutes. About 12 were fired but Stone and Gibson did not see all of them, as they did not watch them continuously. Lord Mersey put excessive faith in Lightoller’s evidence. I might add that, like Senator Smith, he also hopelessly over-estimated Californian’s ability to assist. All the same, at the end we are left with a basic fact. Stone, Gibson and Lord share responsibility for one of the more shameful episodes in the Titanic story.
In passing, I am not aware that Mersey was given to using Jewish passwords, which is what a shibboleth is.
Judges|12:6 Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he
said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce (it) right. Then
they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan.
