I tend to believe the same thing. Evans testified in London that he could hear Titanic transmitting to Cape Race, but he could not hear the transmissions from Cape Race to Titanic. My understanding is that during the evening of April 14 Jack Phillips had a large number of passenger messages to send to Cape Race and Evans was aware of that activity. But by 11:00 Phillips had completed those transmissions. Now Cape Race was busy with transmissions to Titanic. These included items that would be of interest to the passengers, particularly first class passengers, in the morning. Such things as the latest newspaper headlines and the most recent stock market prices. So Phillips was occupied with listening and copying down this information.
But Evans could only hear "dead air" and he assumed that Phillips was finished talking with Cape Race. Evans testified in America that in transmitting to Titanic that they were stopped and surrounded by ice he did not give their position as he was just telling this as a matter of courtesy. So I assume if Evans had known that Phillips was busy listening to Cape Race he would have regarded that as more important than his courtesy message and would not have interrupted.
According to Harold Bride his mate Phillips had finished working Cape Race 10 minutes before the collision. I have often wondered if Phillips had jotted down the message from the Californian and had taken it to the bridge during that interval.
Harold Bride was asked:
Q - Would Mr. Phillips have made a memorandum of such a message if he had received it?
A - He would have if the Californian had persisted in sending it.
Q - Did you ever see any record of that kind?
A - No, sir.
Q - The records of the Titanic are all lost?
A - I had a glance at the log for that evening as I was writing it up at the time of the disaster.
Q - At the time of the disaster?
A - But I can not recollect any communication with the Californian having been noted down.
Q - The Californian's log shows that they sent that message to the Titanic at 11.15pm ship's time, or 10 o'clock New York time.
(was that 11.32pm Titanic's time?)
A -
I may have overlooked it.
Q - If you had heard such a message as that you would have regarded it as important, would you not?
A - I should have taken it myself; yes, sir.
(could Phillips have taken it straight to the bridge without Bride knowing?)
Q - Were you working with Cape Race, or was Phillips, to your knowledge, just before the collision with the iceberg?
A - As far as I recollect Phillips had finished working with Cape Race about 10 minutes before the collision with the iceberg. He made no mention of the fact when I turned out.
Is it possible that Phillips wrote down the message and during the 10 minutes prior to the collision he went to the bridge and notified the captain, and asked him "Shall I get her position, sir? She must be close, sir, because her signal came in good and strong." The captain may have looked at the chart and estimated her position from her previous report without the need to require her position again. Perhaps the captain approached Murdoch and told him the Californian was surrounded by ice and asked him to keep a lookout for her. Perhaps Murdoch spied the lights of the Californian which distracted his attention away from the iceberg? After all, the Californian had observed the ship they saw that night from around 11pm onwards, so Murdoch on the Titanic (higher up) may have observed the Californian for quite some time before the collision.
.