It was therefore safe enough, in practice, to proceed at eleven knots, in an ice region, even in darkness, when night-visibility was good; but it was not safe for a vessel of the bulk of the Titanic to proceed at 22½ knots among bergs, when the sea was smooth and there was no surf breaking around the base of the bergs to assist the lookout man to sight them. The surviving passengers of the Titanic began going ashore immediately, many of them wearing clothes given to them by the Carpathia's passengers and crew. Hundreds of flashlight photographs were being taken. Customs formalities were waived, and soon the survivors were being welcomed with tears of joy by relatives and friends, or taken care of by kindly persons and charitable organizations. Many of them were interviewed by reporters at the exit from the customs shed. Factually, I thought I knew the story but I learned many new things. Emotionally, I thought I was ready for the outcome but I found myself swept up in horror when the Carpathian arrived to find no sign of the mighty ship they had come to rescue. It's a super book that I recommend without hesitation. Rescuing Titanic by Flora Delargy is one of the six books on the shortlist for the 2022 Klaus Flugge Prize.

But it would be grossly unfair to place the sole responsibility for this colossal tragedy on the lookout man, the Officer of the Watch, the helmsman, or even on the Captain—even though, in fact and in law, the Captain must bear the burden of blame when any mishap occurs in his ship which could have been avoided by timely precautions… Resolutions of sorrow were passed by innumerable organizations. Newspapers opened subscription funds for the relief of distressed survivors. The generous, emotional heart of America was touched, as seldom before or since. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle aptly summed up: "The heart of the nation throbs with grief for the bereft."Who knows what's ahead?" he said, quietly, then added, "I'm sorry for Smith of the Titanic. After all the newspaper boasting, she's proved a slowcoach on her maiden voyage, and now this ice­ field will make him lose more time if he steers to the southward around it, as I suppose he will! She must be a wonderful ship, but all their newspaper bragging seems a kind of blasphemy, claiming that she's 'unsinkable' and all that kind of thing."

First Officer Dean was relieved on the bridge by Chief Officer Hankinson. At that moment, in the dim grey light of dawn, we sighted a lifeboat a quarter of a mile away. She was rising and falling in the ocean swell, and now, as so often happens at dawn, a breeze sprang up and whipped the surface of the water to choppy seas.Section omitted in which Bisset discusses voyages in the Phrygia and his training to become a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve aboard H.M.S. Hogue] But wealth was not the only mark of the world fame in the Titanic's dazzling first-voyage passenger list, which included the names of William Thomas Stead, the greatest of living journalists, who was loved and hated by millions of people for his opposition to the Boer War, and for his views on "spiritualism"; Henry Harper of the leading American publishing firm; Henry Burkhardt Harris, theatrical magnate and entrepreneur, one of the most prominent and admired men in New York's theatrical world; Major Archibald Butt, a personal assistant of President Taft of the U.S.A.; Frank D. Millet, one of the foremost American painters; Clarence Moore, one of the leading social lights of Washington, D.C., who was a famous horseman and sportsman ... Captain Smith was at the disadvantage of having on board as a passenger the Managing Director of the White Star Line, Bruce Ismay. There is testimony that Ismay urged the Captain to maintain maximum speed, and dictated to him the expected time of arrival at New York.

This was the first exact information received by the Californian of the disaster that had occurred on her horizon, within an hour's steaming range if she had gone to the rescue.

Rescuing Titanic

I took over the watch on the bridge from Chief Officer Hankinson. It was of no importance that I had gone without sleep all night, and that I had already been on duty for twelve hours; for, like all the other officers and members of the crew, I was keyed up to the tenseness of action in which fatigue is unnoticed. Capt. A.H. Rostron while master of Carpathia in April 1912, at the time of rescuing Titanic survivors. Mat: From your initial ideas to the completed book, I can only imagine that a lot of planning and editing must have taken place. Can you talk us through your relationship with Lucy Brownridge and Karissa Santos and how they worked alongside you to help reach the incredible final draft? The Captain of the Californian, sighting the Carpathia stopped ten miles to his southward, had got under way at 6 A.M., headed toward us, and, in two hours of cautious navigation among the icefloes and bergs, came near enough to us for handflag signalling at 8 A.M. Mat: Can you share a little with us about what you’re currently working on and what we can look forward to reading from you in the future?

Rostron joined the Cunard Line in January 1895 and earned a position as fourth officer on the ocean liner RMS Umbria. In the years afterward he would serve on other Cunard ships including the Aurania, Etruria, Servia, Cherbourg, Ultonia and Saxonia. As a member of the RNR, Rostron regularly attended training at HMS Excellent (including in September 1902 [7]). He temporarily left the Cunard Line to serve with the Royal Navy during a period of international tension occasioned by the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. [3] On the Captain's drowsily murmured instructions, the Second Officer had tried to signal to the liner with a morse lamp, but had failed to get a response. This was not surprising, as the officers of the Titanic were at that time occupied in lowering the lifeboats. When the Titanic sank at 2.20 A.M., the Second Officer of the Californian thought that she had finally dipped below the horizon, going away to the southwestwards. If she had not veered to port after striking the berg, he would not have made this tragic error of observation. His view of the sinking ship had been stern on, at nighttime, in the "graveyard watch," from ten miles away-and in those circumstances there was some excuse for his wrong thinking. In taking this calculated risk, he relied on seamanship and sharp lookout, which had apparently been neglected in the Titanic. He knew—as every shipmaster of experience gained in the North Atlantic, and to the south of Cape Horn, knew—that icebergs are visible by starlight half-a-mile ahead in clear weather. That allows sufficient sea room in which to avoid them. Wisdom after the event is sad wisdom. The directors of the White Star Line had become bemused by their own propaganda. They believed that this ship was "unsinkable." A publicity catch­word had warped their judgment of reality. This happens often in politics, with dire results, especially in international relations; but words are no substitute for facts.

Genre

An hour later, we received a wireless signal from the Master of the Californian: "I have not found any bodies, and I am resuming my voyage." The Cunarder Mauretania was famous for her manoeuvrability at full speed. She answered her helm instantly in all conditions; but this quality was not built into the Olympic and the Titanic. They were clumsy ships. There was too much brag and not enough seaworthy performance in their construction. But in seafaring, as in every other human activity, men may learn from experiences that are sometimes dire.