The Californian is the exact reason a law was passed that required ships to have a radio operator on at all times.

“Strange that she’d be firing rockets at night…she seems to be listing…well, I’m sure it’s nothing! Off to bed!”

Breaks my heart the James Cameron cut The Californian scene out of the film. 99 percent of people get all their knowledge from his film. So most people have never heard of The Californian

Boy, can you imagine being on that crew and finding out that you let a ship sink without any help?

I noticed over my years of being a fireman that, sometimes horrible things happen, not because of one problem, but numerous things happening. It’s like so many things just happened to occur at the same time. Going too fast. The missing binoculars. The dumb lifeboat standards. The dead calm sea. The moonless night. All the ingredients were just right for a terrible tragedy to happen and it did.

"her rockets were reported to her captain, Stanley Lord but he does nothing, goes back to sleep and will spend the rest of his life trying to explain"

I like how you included the 1956 Kraft Television Theatre version of A Night to Remember here, it's not so well-known as the film that came two years later. The whole thing was broadcasted live, essentially a televised play. That must have been quite an undertaking, especially back then!

Today is the 108th anniversary of the day the SS Californian sank in the Mediterranean Sea after she was torpedoed by a German U-Boat and she still hasn’t been found.

Californian: Titanic There Is Ice Near You Titanic: SHUT UP! WE DON’T CARE! Californian: Alright, I Will Shut Down. *Hours Later* Titanic: SOS! HELP US Californian: …………… Titanic: AHHHHHHHHHH- ploop

You have to wonder why they didn’t wake up the wireless operator and tell him to call up the ship they could see to make sure everything is alright

Makes you wonder if Titanic's wireless operator had been a bit nicer would Californian's operator stayed on longer to hear the distress calls?

In an interesting coincidence both Carpathia and the Califorian were sunk by German U-Boats in WW 1.

I have heard theory that it wasn't just the colour of the rockets, but also the timing that confused Californian. If I remember correctly I think you're supposed to fire a rocket every minute or something to signal distress. But whatever the proper timing was, supposedly Titanic wasn't firing off the rockets correctly.

The 1958 A Night to Remember film has one flaw - they had an agenda, to pour a huge bucket of cow shit over the Captain and crew of the Californian. Captain Lord felt he was vilified by the film and was very angry at how he was portrayed. When you watch the Californian scenes in this movie, I have to agree, it was slanted to put all the blame on them, and make Captain Smith out to be a hero along with his crew - which of course we know they have a lot of blame attached to them too.

The portrayal of Captain Lord in the 1950's movies is one of the worst I have ever seen. Captain Lord was not in bed, he was lying on the couch in the navigation room fully in uniform resting after spending 12 hours on the bridge and he was ready to be called if anything happened. In the end, his conversations with the officers revealed that he was not aware of the seriousness of the situation because he was half asleep.

Aside from the crew and engineers who kept the Titanic going and the lights on as long as they did not only they were the heroes of that night so was the crew of the Carpathia as they risked everything to get to the Titanic as fast as they could.

Why they never woke up the radio operator instead of calling the captain 3 times is a mystery to me.

A lot of what the _Californian's_ crew did has been scrutinized over the century by a public that wanted to believe and still wants to believe that the massive loss of life could have been prevented. They did not just sit around and watch the _Titanic_ sink like we do when we see the various films. She also attempted to establish contact with the _Titanic_ with her own Morse lamp, but the lamps were just out of range: They could be seen, but any messages were unintelligible and/or mistaken for other workings of the ship. Rockets were not always used to indicate distress. Besides, even if the _Californian's_ crew became aware of the situation by way of the _Titanic's_ crew telepathically communicating with them, it would not change the fact that her engines were stopped and would have taken quite some time to build up sufficient steam pressure to get underway. Lawrence Beesley put it best: If you put yourself there, you must rid yourself entirely of the knowledge that the _Titanic_ has sank. Incidentally, Robert Lieberman's _Titanic_ from 1996 is the only one to correctly show Captain Lord slumped over in his chair in the chart room rather than in his bed.

My favourite movie here is A night to Remember. However I've never seen the Kraft 1956 one, so that was great seeing that clip. May need to research and watch that one.

40 years before titanic, before electric light and before wireless telegram, when the villagers saw white rockets being fired off the cost of Nova Scotia, they immediately came to SS Atlantic’s rescue

Just imagine how much different the fate of Titanic might have been if they'd simply provided their lookouts with binoculars and been carrying red flares as well as white.

Imagine if the Californian would have saved all people aboard titanic, nobody would remember the ship today

Poor Captain of Californian, Only God knows what exactly had happened and had gone thorugh their brains at that moment.

That's messed up in that first movie. Of course, the rockets were white and not red. The movie was shot in black and white.

Meatheaded captain at the very least he got fired for shame

If I recall correctly, apart from any refraction theories, Robert Ballard concluded that, based on now-known locations, that a) there was no "ghost ship" between TITANIC and CALIFORNIAN, and b) the CALIFORNIAN was a lot closer than previously estimated--perhaps as little as *5* miles. If that were the case, Captain Smith might have done well to load one lifeboat with the strongest backs and have them row hell for leather towards the ship, firing rockets along the way.

Didn’t they have a deleted scene from James Cameron’s film?

If the Californian went they could have placed themselves under risk of icebergs

Note how much stock footage from the 1943 version was cannibalized by the 1956 Kraft Television ANTR.

The Californian was the Closest ship but they did nothing to assist the Titanic

What language are they speaking in the beginning and why isn’t it English?

Don't peddle 'presentism' and the 'they should have used their cellphones' approach to history. Maritime telegraphy was in its infancy and the Californian's radio operator shut down his set per his steamship line's policy. There was no other way to communicate as rockets - number fired and color - had a variety of meanings. I'm sure the Californian would have rushed to the scene if its captain knew what was going on.

I feel a case can be made for the Californian, yes there was plenty of avoidable misunderstandings and mistakes but there was stuff genuinely beyond their control. Firstly the ship had been stopped and the engines shut off, it would have taken some time to get them up and running again. Second for the Morse lamps, the crew of the Californian would have struggled to see Titanic’s Morse lamp thanks to titanic being lit up with all possible lights. And finally both ships were completely surrounded by ice that night, even if she had been able to get underway there was no guarantee she would have found a path that got her to the Titanic any faster then the Carpathia

The 1997 film removed both the scenes of the SS Californian and the extent RMS Carpathia. James Cameron is somehow still incompetent.

The thing is, even if the Californian would have recognised that the Titanic was in danger, they still wouldn't have arrived on time to save any more people.

Was the Titanic 1997 the only Titanic film to not show the Californian

Fire those men!

I’m going back to bed

Wow, not better than a good night's sleep. I would like to point out, the 1943 clip was created under the Ministry of Propaganda, headed by Josef Goebbels. It was to illustrate the English charging unreasonable fares to poor Germans, then allowing them to drown in the Atlantic because they were merely Germans. The use of the film clip is absolutely relevant to the topic and research, but I believe pointing out its origin is a salient point.

I have mixed feelings with the Californian. People need to sleep. The fireworks were not red. They tried to signal. Had they seen red fireworks for example, they'd of come. I feel its more of a hugely unfortunate fact that might than anyones fault.

I guess regardless of if the rockets were the wrong color or out of sequence to what was the norm. You must remember Titanic was sinking. I do not think protocol would have been the first thing on the minds of those firing those rockets. The sad fact is the SS Californian was there and was close. Could it have saved everyone? Who knows. I guess in that regards we will never know. Although unlikely it could have saved everyone even if did assist. Sure the crew of the Californian watched it and even queried it (2nd officer stated it was weird to be firing rockets at this time of night). Californian's biggest mistake was why did they not wake up the telegraphist and listen on the radio or send a message to that closest vessel (Titanic) asking if they are ok. The captain of the Californian spent the rest of his life trying to clear his name as did his son, to no avail. He was forever tainted by the actions that night. And the crew I would imagine forever had to live with the memories of they were there yet done nothing. Carpathia saved over 700 even if Californian had saved the same amount (even thought likely to have been more) that is another 700+ people that would have been alive. In all fairness though blame has to also go to Titanic owners, there was meant to be upto 64 lifeboats from memory on original plans they reduced that to the bare min for tonnage of ship( was based on tonnage not on passenger capacity) from 64 down to 12 or so. Some of those were not deployed correctly and some failed further reducing those who could be saved. The sad part is. If the officer of the watch on Titanic had not tried to avoid the iceburg but instead stayed on course and hit it dead on (naturally trying to slow down as fast as possible first). Yes the front of Titanic would have crumpled and people might have been injured or even killed. All evidence though since has said it would have stayed afloat

SS Californian was too small to carry 2200 people or even 1500 people

How could these old movies showcase the Califorian but in 1997, James Cameron couldn’t due to some lawsuit?

The Californian crew were ignorant of the titanic when she was sinking yet if the situation was reversed I’m sure the crew of titanic would have been straight to help the Californian

I guess the RMS Carpathia was the ship closest to the Titanic that had a captain and crew that were brave, caring, and generous enough to take action to save them.

Lazy