The fact is that on the night Titanic struck an iceberg two other ships (Californian and Mount Temple) took precautions based on the same information that was available to Titanic. One anchored for the night and the other deviated to the south until clear of the icefield before resuming course to her destination (St. John); both ships had less experienced Masters than Titanic.
I think you should read the evidence again, Tony.
1. No one anchored that night...it is 12,500 feet deep in that area. (some chain locker!).
2.
Californian was sailing along the 42nd parallel and had a warning of ice right on her track. Despite that, her captain did not avoid it, but entered it at full speed. He did not slow down, despite ship to ship warnings of ice a head of him and actually sighting ice bergs.
3.
Mount Temple's captain had a similar warning of ice. but at 41-25'North, so he gave it a 5 mile margin and headed down for 41-20'North. This indicates that like everyone else, her captain obviously expected
that ice ( which was 35 miles south of
Californian's ice) to move eastward and northward from its last know position. He did not reduce speed and only did so at the very last moment when he sighted ice, and that was after 3 am that morning - around the time Rostron sighted ice. (The latter did not slow down).
4. Like the captain of the
Californian, Captain Smith received one message containing a 2 day-old, second hand reference to ice containing coordinates of latitude and longitude along the 42.nd parallel. It was 10 to 12 miles north of his intended track. The second (Baltic)message was not an ice warning, but a second hand reference to ice contained within a general message and containing the coordinates of the ship reporting it - not the actual ice. These ships had a visible horizon of 8 t0 10 miles. so bergs would have been clearly seen in daylight, at very great distances.
