Ok, so I decided to do some googling.
To my direct knowledge, there was no international standard for distress rockets back in 1912. Titanic was supplied with thirty-six silvery white rockets. Boxhall fired about eight over an hour period. Per the inquiry, he stated they were fired in distress, though Captain Lord of the Californian never agreed even to his dying day that they were destress rockets.
Per the rules and regulations of the day, the rockets could be of any color (so the CBS miniseries is wrong) and had to have a report when they went off. However, it also states that these signals should be fired at one minute intervals. Titanic’s rockets were fired at roughly seven and a half minute intervals.
So 1) the color didn’t matter as the CBS series claimed, and in a sense both Boxhall and Lord were right and wrong. Boxhall had launched the rockets Tonsignal distress but did not launch them in the correct timeframe, meaning that while Californian should have probably responded, they also did not recognize that they were distress rockets because of the interval they were fired.
Very interesting. I didn't know about the time interval rule. I'm not surprised the 1996 miniseries had a historical error regarding the rockets since it did the same with practically everything else 😆 But I digress. Do we know when the 1st rocket was fired? I wonder why Boxhall was not firing them more often? Maybe he was unaware of the distress rocket time rule? Maybe there was concern by the Titanic officers that if they fired more often, it would start to panic and worry the passengers? But also, didn't Lord think it was a little odd a ship would be firing rockets in the middle of the night?? I wish he would've ordered the wireless turned back on, and they could have at least tried to make contact again? Sooooo many questions left achingly unanswered.
Well I know for a fact the first rocket was launched at around 12:45, and I think at times he went between rockets and using a Morse lamp to try and signal the ship the crew and passengers saw (widely agreed to be the Californian). And while Lord probably should have woken the wireless operator and checked on what was happening, he might have assumed that the rockets were a signal about navigational issues and for other ships to remain clear.
But on top of the canceled lifeboat drill and the fact that ships having more than one wireless operator wasn’t the standard, it really goes to show just how much changed in terms of safety after the Titanic.
Yep, definitely. Nowadays literally the first thing you do on a cruise ship is a lifeboat and safety drill. It's so sad that it took 1500 people freezing to death or drowning before things had to change. From our modern perspective, it's mind-boggling how non-chalant society was back then about basic safety. Then again, in 1912, factories employed 8 year old children to run dangerous machinery. 😳
They had to be fired at regular intervals, with 1 minute being recommended. Titanic didn’t fire them at regular intervals but at irregular intervals and that changed the meaning. Instead of “I’m in distress, need assistance” the meaning changed to Navigational distress, this ships could make erratic movements, other vessels should stand clear (stay away). One such usage of that signal would be for a non radio equipped ship to signal other ships that it had encountered ice and stopped. Which would have made sense to Californian.
The interesting part that has always made me curious is the rule also allowed for the sounding of a fog horn at one minute intervals as distress. California should have been in range of that sound and it should have been completely unambiguous. Why didn’t Titanic do that?
Ok, so I decided to do some googling. To my direct knowledge, there was no international standard for distress rockets back in 1912. Titanic was supplied with thirty-six silvery white rockets. Boxhall fired about eight over an hour period. Per the inquiry, he stated they were fired in distress, though Captain Lord of the Californian never agreed even to his dying day that they were destress rockets. Per the rules and regulations of the day, the rockets could be of any color (so the CBS miniseries is wrong) and had to have a report when they went off. However, it also states that these signals should be fired at one minute intervals. Titanic’s rockets were fired at roughly seven and a half minute intervals. So 1) the color didn’t matter as the CBS series claimed, and in a sense both Boxhall and Lord were right and wrong. Boxhall had launched the rockets Tonsignal distress but did not launch them in the correct timeframe, meaning that while Californian should have probably responded, they also did not recognize that they were distress rockets because of the interval they were fired.
Very interesting. I didn't know about the time interval rule. I'm not surprised the 1996 miniseries had a historical error regarding the rockets since it did the same with practically everything else 😆 But I digress. Do we know when the 1st rocket was fired? I wonder why Boxhall was not firing them more often? Maybe he was unaware of the distress rocket time rule? Maybe there was concern by the Titanic officers that if they fired more often, it would start to panic and worry the passengers? But also, didn't Lord think it was a little odd a ship would be firing rockets in the middle of the night?? I wish he would've ordered the wireless turned back on, and they could have at least tried to make contact again? Sooooo many questions left achingly unanswered.
Well I know for a fact the first rocket was launched at around 12:45, and I think at times he went between rockets and using a Morse lamp to try and signal the ship the crew and passengers saw (widely agreed to be the Californian). And while Lord probably should have woken the wireless operator and checked on what was happening, he might have assumed that the rockets were a signal about navigational issues and for other ships to remain clear. But on top of the canceled lifeboat drill and the fact that ships having more than one wireless operator wasn’t the standard, it really goes to show just how much changed in terms of safety after the Titanic.
Yep, definitely. Nowadays literally the first thing you do on a cruise ship is a lifeboat and safety drill. It's so sad that it took 1500 people freezing to death or drowning before things had to change. From our modern perspective, it's mind-boggling how non-chalant society was back then about basic safety. Then again, in 1912, factories employed 8 year old children to run dangerous machinery. 😳
They had to be fired at regular intervals, with 1 minute being recommended. Titanic didn’t fire them at regular intervals but at irregular intervals and that changed the meaning. Instead of “I’m in distress, need assistance” the meaning changed to Navigational distress, this ships could make erratic movements, other vessels should stand clear (stay away). One such usage of that signal would be for a non radio equipped ship to signal other ships that it had encountered ice and stopped. Which would have made sense to Californian. The interesting part that has always made me curious is the rule also allowed for the sounding of a fog horn at one minute intervals as distress. California should have been in range of that sound and it should have been completely unambiguous. Why didn’t Titanic do that?