Titanic.

[123everton]

What ship do you think was seen by the passengers of the Titanic as she sank?
Was there any ship at all?
The inquiry decided that it was the Leyland Line ship Californian captained by Stanley Lord, I don't think so.
On his death bed the captain of another ship (Samson) said it was him that abandoned them, maybe, I tend to think it was the Mount Temple that was spotted trying to find away through the ice.
Any ideas?

[Octavius]

It was written in Henrik Naess� memoirs, but not corroborated by any of his surviving crew. Whether it was the Titanic they saw or not, will probably never be known, but why he would seem to want to tarnish his career is a mystery, unless he was leaving a potential legacy for his family to publish. To say that he thought the Titanic was the coast guard trying to catch him for illegal fishing seems lame, unless of course the coast guard often pootled around the oggin in a 270m 46� tonne tub.

There are some records though that say Samson paid her port fees on April 6 and again on April 20. the entries are signed by her Captain. This renders impossible the idea of the Samson, a six knot ship, completing a 3,000 mile journey to and from the site of the Titanic disaster in 14 days.

I don�t know much about the Mount Temple.

[123everton]

Struck me as odd too, what about the rest of the crew?
Would'nt they have said something by now?
The point is, is that Lord Mersey's inquiry concluded that Californian abandoned the Titanic to her fate when only one person (a stoker taking his break on deck) said so.
The mystery ship steamed away whereas Californian was stopped, when she heard of the disaster she made full speed to the scene (I think it took a little over 3 hours) where she met Carpathia (who wished to communicate by flag) Carpathia reported that all boats had been accounted for and there was nothing more to be done, Californian circled the scen for a few hours (thought they'd found survivors on an iceberg which turned out to be seals) and then continued to her destination.
I'm doubtful there was ever a ship that steamed away, even though there was scores of vessels in the area, none of them were visible to or from Titanic.

[123everton]

Stanley Lord lived on the Wirral.
Have you read Leslie Harrison's book "A Titanic Myth"?
Harrison was a union rep for the merchant marine who was contacted by Lord after the release of the film "A Night To Remember", Harrison uses simple mathematics and seamanship to dismiss the accusations against him.
It's a long time since I've read it, or Titanic for that matter (I'm reading Henry Morgenthau at the mo), but I think the question of Lord's involvement was changed after he'd given evidence to the enquiry and he was'nt granted a right of reply.
At the enquiry (if memory serves) Lord also disagreed with Titanic's position at the time of the sinking (he was bang on the button) and if Cameron had used Lord's coordinates he'd have found it much quicker.
He also criticises Cameron for statements he made about Lord that he says are inaccurate and Cameron later retracted.