This does not support a conspiracy to sink the Titanic. The Californian had stopped for the night. The foolish captain did not wish to be bothered when his sleep was disturbed by the news of rockets. He knew the only ship nearby was the Titanic and he believed her to be unsinkable.
Sadly, the telegraph operator on the Californian shut off his machine and went to bed around the time the Titanic struck the iceberg. He had contacted the telegraph operator on the Titanic shortly before, to let them know his ship was stopping for the night due to ice. The harried telegraph operator on the Titanic told him to shut up and not interrupt him. By the time the Titanic was sending out distress calls, the only man on the Californian who could have received them was asleep.
The sinking of the Titanic was the result of a string of mishaps. Eva Hart was right when she said it was man's arrogance that doomed the ship.
I read a retrospective analysis of the collision that speculated the ship might have survived if the Captain had directed the helm to steer directly into the berg. The bow would have been crushed, but the watertight compartments would have been secure and the ship would have been afloat. As it was, the glancing blow opened a gash that went the length of the ship, above the line of the reinforced hull, defeating all the compartmentalization. The ship was settling bow first and when the waterline met the gash, the ship's fate was sealed. In so many ways, our "common sense" reflexes can be absolutely the wrong thing to do.
This does not support a conspiracy to sink the Titanic. The Californian had stopped for the night. The foolish captain did not wish to be bothered when his sleep was disturbed by the news of rockets. He knew the only ship nearby was the Titanic and he believed her to be unsinkable.
Sadly, the telegraph operator on the Californian shut off his machine and went to bed around the time the Titanic struck the iceberg. He had contacted the telegraph operator on the Titanic shortly before, to let them know his ship was stopping for the night due to ice. The harried telegraph operator on the Titanic told him to shut up and not interrupt him. By the time the Titanic was sending out distress calls, the only man on the Californian who could have received them was asleep.
The sinking of the Titanic was the result of a string of mishaps. Eva Hart was right when she said it was man's arrogance that doomed the ship.
I read a retrospective analysis of the collision that speculated the ship might have survived if the Captain had directed the helm to steer directly into the berg. The bow would have been crushed, but the watertight compartments would have been secure and the ship would have been afloat. As it was, the glancing blow opened a gash that went the length of the ship, above the line of the reinforced hull, defeating all the compartmentalization. The ship was settling bow first and when the waterline met the gash, the ship's fate was sealed. In so many ways, our "common sense" reflexes can be absolutely the wrong thing to do.