The captain of the Californian, the ship that was about 20 miles from the Titanic, and whose crewmen saw the distress flares.
I was watching a documentary on the Titanic a while back, and it made mention that Lord was incensed when the movie A Night to Remember came out because it portrayed him as a unconcerned, apathetic, negligent–and sleepy.
So much so that he asked for an investigation to show that he was truly the victim, that his creman (crewmen?) had made up a lot of the story because they were being paid for it (much more than their regular sailor salary) by major newspapers.
I’ve always been under the impression that Lord was at fault for not investigating the distress flares. However, someone (also interviewed on this program) has written a book showing that he did nothing improper (*A Titanic Myth[/], maybe?).
Anyone know how much is credible, and how much is revisionism?
Lord was made a scapegoat by the British Board of Inquiry, and was found negligent in is duties as a Captain for [allegedly] taking no action to the disstress flares sent up by the Titanic.
He got his case re-opened sometime later (I can’t quite remember when off the top of my head, and all my books are at home in Texas) and was partially exonerated, but the damage to his carreer and reputation was already done.
I also seem to remember that Captain Lord had ordered his watch officer to try to contact the strange ship (TITANIC) with the signal lamp; after repeated attemps, he got no reply. Also, I seem to remember that back then, there was no regulation requiring a 24-hour radio watch-so the CALIFORNIANs radio operator shut down and went to bed at midnight.The British Inquiry (into the TITANIC sinking) was notoriously political and was a whitewash for the White Star Line and the British Board of Trade.(The company was so cheap that its employee’s pay was stopped as of the time of the sinking).