Role of the SS Californian

One of the most controversial issues examined by the inquiries was the role played by the SS Californian, which had been only a few miles from Titanic but had not picked up her distress calls or responded to her signal rockets. Californian had warned the Titanic by radio of the pack ice that was the reason Californian had stopped for the night, but was rebuked by Titanic's senior wireless operator, Jack Phillips.[159]
Testimony before the British inquiry revealed that at 10:10 pm, Californian observed the lights of a ship to the south; it was later agreed between Captain Stanley Lord and Third Officer C.V. Groves (who had relieved Lord of duty at 11:10 pm) that this was a passenger liner.[159] At 11:50 pm, the officer had watched that ship's lights flash out, as if it had shut down or turned sharply, and that the port light was now visible.[159] Morse light signals to the ship, upon Lord's order, were made between 11:30 pm and 1:00 am, but were not acknowledged.[160]
Captain Lord had gone to the chartroom at 11:00 pm to spend the night;[161] however, Second Officer Herbert Stone, now on duty, notified Lord at 1:10 am that the ship had fired 5 rockets. Lord wanted to know if they were company signals, that is, coloured flares used for identification. Stone said that he did not know and that the rockets were all white. Captain Lord instructed the crew to continue to signal the other vessel with the morse lamp, and went back to sleep. Three more rockets were observed at 1:50 am and Stone noted that the ship looked strange in the water, as if she were listing. At 2:15 am, Lord was notified that the ship could no longer be seen. Lord asked again if the lights had had any colours in them, and he was informed that they were all white.[162]
Californian eventually responded. At around 5:30 am, Chief Officer George Stewart awakened wireless operator Cyril Furmstone Evans, informed him that rockets had been seen during the night, and asked that he try to communicate with any ship. He got news of the Titanic's loss, Captain Lord was notified, and the ship set out to render assistance. She arrived well after Carpathia had already picked up all the survivors.[163]
The inquiries found that the ship seen by the Californian was in fact the Titanic and that it would have been possible for the Californian to come to her rescue; therefore, Captain Lord had acted improperly in failing to do so.[164] However, Lord protested his innocence to the end of his life, and many researchers have asserted that the known positions of the Titanic and Californian make it impossible that the former was the infamous "mystery ship," a topic which has "generated . . . millions of words and . . . hours of heated debates" and continues to do so.[165]