Titanic and the Californian

by Thomas B. Williams

Captain Stanley Lord and his vessel, the Californian, were accused of ignoring the Titanic's distress calls. This book offers an evidence which prompted the British Government to re-open the case surrounding Captain Lord and the Californian and proved that the captain and his ship could not have been the ship seen from the decks of the Titanic.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

Reviews

[Brad Rousse · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book clearly written more in the interest of proving a claim than actually looking at the facts.

I'm lying a bit; I didn't read this book. I actually started it, then put it down in the same day. Williams makes pretty clear that his book has one responsibility only: exculpate Captain Lord. The only problem is his sense of scale... like saying that what happened to Lord's reputation (0 deaths) is as great a tragedy as the loss of the Titanic (1,517 deaths). Sure. That and what seemed to be an appeal to straw men and red herrings (the Titanic was unseaworthy?!) sealed the deal that this was a no read.

Lordites (the people who defend Lord) have one inescapable fact: the crew of the Californian saw the Titanic's distress rockets. Lord made no attempt to raise the ship in the distance by wireless or see what was the matter. I will not go any further against Lord as a person, as other authors have done, and modify my comments by observing he could have done nothing about the tragedy, but this fact alone shows that even if the ships couldn't see each other, the rockets were visible.

[Apriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could be a four star read but it is more than a little confusing at times and very tedious. My number one complaint though is that if you are not very familiar with the particulars of the sinking of the Titanic, as I was when trying to read this book the first time, then you might not know who Captain Lord and the California were and the book just starts with no explanation of the controversy. With that being said I think anyone interested in the Titanic should add this book to their reading list list as there was clearly a lot of research done and it brings brings up some valid questions, even if it is overly apparent that the author is biased in his beliefs and has perhaps skewed the narrative in his favor just a bit.