Editing Stanley Lord (section)

==''Titanic''{{'s}} sinking ==
=== Before the sinking ===
On the night of 14 April 1912, as the ''Californian'' approached a large ice field, Captain Lord decided to stop around 10:21&nbsp;p.m. (ship's time) and wait out the night. Before turning in for the night, he ordered his sole wireless operator, [[Cyril Furmstone Evans|Cyril Evans]], to warn other ships in the area about the ice. When reaching the ''Titanic'', Evans tapped out "I say old man, we are stopped and surrounded by [[iceberg|ice]]." The ''Californian'' was so close to the ''Titanic'' that the message was very loud in the ears of ''Titanic'' First Wireless Operator [[Jack Phillips (wireless operator)|Jack Phillips]], who promptly responded "Keep out! Shut up! I am working [''i.e.'', communicating with] [[Cape Race]]."

Earlier in the day the wireless equipment aboard the ''Titanic'' had broken down and Phillips, along with Second Wireless Operator [[Harold Bride]], had spent the better part of the day trying to repair it. Now they were swamped with outgoing messages that had piled up during the day and Phillips was exhausted after such a long day. Additionally, they had already received several ice warnings and passed them onto the bridge, including an earlier one from ''Californian''. Hence, this message was not news to him. Evans listened in for a while longer as Phillips sent routine traffic reports through the Cape Race relaying station before finally turning in for bed at around 11:30&nbsp;p.m.

=== Night of ''Titanic''{{'s}} sinking ===
Over the course of the night, officers and seamen on the deck of ''Californian'' witnessed eight white rockets fired into the air over a strange ship off in the distance.

Fatigued after 17 hours on duty, Captain Stanley Lord was awakened twice during the night and told about the rockets, to which he replied that they may be "company rockets", to help ships identify themselves to liners of the same company.

Meanwhile, on the ''Titanic'', for an hour after the collision, no other ships were noticed until the lights of a ship were seen in the distance. [[Joseph Boxhall|Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall]] and [[Quartermaster]] Rowe tried in vain to contact the strange ship by [[Morse lamp]]. Nobody on the deck of the ''Californian'' saw these signals; however, they had also tried to signal the mystery ship, but were unable to get a response.

Authors Tim Maltin<!--Q119846417--> and Eloise Aston attribute Captain Lord's belief that the nearby ship was not the ''Titanic'' to visual distortions caused by cold-water mirages.<ref>Maltin, Tim and Aston, Eloise ''101 Things You Thought You Knew About the Titanic...But Didn't'' Beautiful Books (2 April 2010)</ref> Not able to understand any messages coming from the strange ship, ''Californian''<nowiki/>'s officers eventually concluded that signals were merely the masthead flickering and not signals at all.

Throughout the night, no one on board the ''Californian'' attempted to wake their wireless operator, and ask him to contact the ship to ask why they were firing rockets and trying to signal them, until 5:30&nbsp;a.m. By then, however, it was too late&nbsp;— the ''Titanic'' had gone down at 2:20&nbsp;a.m. When it had slipped below the water, the sudden disappearance of lights was interpreted by the ''Californian'' crew to mean that it had simply steamed away.

=== Search and recovery ===
On the morning of 15 April 1912, Captain Lord was notified by the ''Frankfurt'' that the ''Titanic'' had gone down early that morning. At 8:45 a.m, the ''Californian'' pulled up alongside the ''[[RMS Carpathia|Carpathia]]'' and stayed behind to search for additional bodies after the ''Carpathia'' steamed towards [[New York City|New York]].

=== Lord's testimony ===
The following is from Captain Lord's testimony in the US Inquiry on 26 April:<ref>[https://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/AmInq08Lord03.php United States Senate Inquiry | Day 8 - Testimony of Captain Stanley Lord (SS Californian)][https://www.titanicinquiry.org/ titanicinquiry.org]</ref>

{{cquote|When I came off the bridge, at half past 10, I pointed out to the officer that I thought I saw a light coming along, and it was a most peculiar light, and we had been making mistakes all along with the stars, thinking they were signals. We could not distinguish where the sky ended and where the water commenced. You understand, it was a flat calm. He said he thought it was a star, and I did not say anything more. I went down below. I was talking with the engineer about keeping the steam ready, and we saw these signals coming along, and I said "There is a steamer passing. Let us go to the wireless and see what the news is." But on our way down I met the operator coming, and I said, "Do you know anything?" He said, "The ''Titanic''."

So, then, I gave him instructions to let the ''Titanic'' know. I said, "This is not the ''Titanic''; there is no doubt about it." She came and lay at half past 11, alongside of us until, I suppose, a quarter past, within 4 miles of us. We could see everything on her quite distinctly, see her lights. We signaled her, at half past 11, with the Morse lamp. She did not take the slightest notice of it. That was between half past 11 and 20 minutes to 12. We signaled her again at 10 minutes past 12, half past 12, a quarter to 1 o'clock. We have a very powerful Morse lamp. I suppose you can see that about 10 miles, and she was about 4 miles off, and she did not take the slightest notice of it. When the second officer came on the bridge, at 12 o'clock, or 10 minutes past 12, I told him to watch that steamer, which was stopped, and I pointed out the ice to him; told him we were surrounded by ice; to watch the steamer that she did not get any closer to her. At 20 minutes to 1 I whistled up the speaking tube and asked him if she was getting any nearer. He said, "No; she is not taking any notice of us." So, I said "I will go and lie down a bit." At a quarter past he said, "I think she has fired a rocket." He said, "She did not answer the Morse lamp and she has commenced to go away from us." I said, "Call her up and let me know at once what her name is. So, he put the whistle back, and, apparently, he was calling. I could hear him ticking over my head. Then l went to sleep.}}

Lord made no effort to awaken the wireless operator and send a message that way, which might have been far more effective in obtaining information from the Titanic.