Astounding Sea Stories by Tom McCarthy

Author:Tom McCarthy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Seahorse
Published: 2017-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

This message clearly indicated the presence of ice in the immediate vicinity of the Titanic, and if it had reached the bridge would perhaps have affected the navigation of the vessel. Unfortunately, it does not appear to have been delivered to the master or to any of the officers. The Marconi operator was very busy from 8 o’clock onward transmitting messages via Cape Race for passengers on board the Titanic, and the probability is that he failed to grasp the significance and importance of the message, and put it aside until he should be less busy. It was never acknowledged by Capt. Smith, and I am satisfied that it was not received by him. But, assuming Sir Robert Finlay’s contentions to be well founded that the Titanic had been navigated so as to avoid the Baltic and the Californian ice, and that the Caronia ice had drifted to the eastward and to the southward, still there can be no doubt, if the evidence of Mr. Lightoller, the second officer, is to be believed, that both he and the master knew that the danger of meeting ice still existed. Mr. Lightoller says that the master showed him the Caronia message about 12.45 P.M. on April 14, when he was on the bridge. He was about to go off watch, and he says he made a rough calculation in his head which satisfied him that the Titanic would not reach the position mentioned in the message until he came on watch again at 6 P.M. At 6 P.M. Mr. Lightoller came on the bridge again to take over the ship from Mr. Wilde, the chief officer (dead).

He does not remember being told anything about the Baltic message, which had been received at 1.42 P.M. Mr. Lightoller then requested Mr. Moody, the sixth officer (dead), to let him know “at what time we should reach the vicinity of ice,” and says that he thinks Mr. Moody reported “about 11 o’clock.” Mr. Lightoller says that 11 o’clock did not agree with a mental calculation he himself had made and which showed 9.30 as the time. This mental calculation he at first said he had made before Mr. Moody gave him 11 o’clock as the time, but later on he corrected this, and said his mental calculation was made between 7 and 8 o’clock, and after Mr. Moody had mentioned 11. He did not point out the difference to him, and thought that perhaps Mr. Moody had made his calculations on the basis of some “other” message.

Mr. Lightoller excuses himself for not pointing out the difference by saying that Mr. Moody was busy at the time, probably with stellar observations. It is, however, an odd circumstance that Mr. Lightoller, who believed that the vicinity of ice would be reached before his watch ended at 10 P.M., should not have mentioned the fact to Mr. Moody, and it is also odd that if he thought that Mr. Moody was working on the basis of some “other” message, he did not ask what the other message was or where it came from.

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