Stanley Lord
Encyclopedia
Stanley Lord was captain
of the SS Californian
, a ship that was in the vicinity of the RMS Titanic the night it sank on 15 April 1912.
, Lancashire
, England. He began his training at sea when he was thirteen, aboard the barque
Naiad, in March 1891. He later obtained his Second Mate’s Certificate of competency and served as Second Officer in the barque Lurlei.
In February 1901, at the age of 23, Lord obtained his Master's Certificate, and three months later, obtained his Extra Master’s Certificate. He entered the service of the West India and Pacific Steam Navigation Company in 1897. The company was taken over by the Leyland Line in 1900, but Lord continued service with the new company, and was awarded his first command in 1906.
Lord was given full command of the SS Californian in 1911.
, 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 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, who angrily replied "Shut up! Shut up! I am busy. I am working 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. Phillips was exhausted after such a long day. Evans listened in for a while longer as Phillips sent routine traffic through the Cape Race relaying station before finally turning in for bed after a very long day at around 11:30 PM.
Meanwhile on the Titanic, after the collision, they had also spotted the lights of a ship in the distance and Fourth Officer Boxhall
and Quartermaster
Rowe tried in vain to contact the strange ship by Morse lamp. Observers on the deck of the Californian saw these signals and tried to signal back. However, the only person aboard the Californian with a good understanding of Morse was asleep. Not able to understand the garbled messages coming from the strange ship, Captain Edward John Smith 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 AM. By then however it was too late - the Titanic had gone down at 2:20. When she had slipped below the water, the sudden disappearance of lights was interpreted by the Californian crew that she had simply steamed on her way.
and stayed behind to search for additional bodies after the Carpathia steamed towards New York
.
on that fateful night would haunt him for the rest of his life and he would spend his remaining days attempting to fight for his exoneration.
In February 1913, Captain Lord was hired by the Nitrate Producers Steamship Co. where he remained until March 1927, resigning for health reasons. In 1955, following the release of Walter Lord
's (no relation) book A Night to Remember and the subsequent film of the same name, Stanley Lord was embarrassed at his portrayal in the movie and attempted to promote his own version of events. In 1958 he contacted the Mercantile Marine Service Association in Liverpool
and said "I am Lord of the Californian and I have come to clear my name." The association's general secretary, Mr. Leslie Harrison took up the case for him and petitioned the Board of Trade
on his behalf. However, as Lord had no new evidence, his petition was rejected in 1965 and followed by a second petition in 1968 which was also rejected.
The discovery of the remains of the Titanic on the sea bed, in 1985, did not confirm or deny Captain Lord's culpability. While some claim that the position of the wreck makes it appear that the S.O.S position given after the iceberg collision by the Titanics fourth officer, Joseph Boxhall, was off by 13 miles, strong undersea currents as well as the Titanic's hydrodynamics underwater could account for the Titanic resting far from the actual position where it slipped beneath the water.
At both of the Titanic enquiries, in 1912, there had been some conflict about the true position of the ship when it sank. The conclusions of the 1912 enquiries discounted the evidence of uncertainty about the position of the Titanic. At the time, some assumed that the position which Captain Lord had given, for his ship, was incorrect and that he was actually much closer to the Titanic than he claimed to be. However, the entries in the Californians scrap log logbook
referring to the night in question had been removed, seen as overwhelming proof that Lord deliberately destroyed evidence in order to cover his crime of ignoring a distress call. While modifying a ship's log or removing pages is a serious violation of maritime law, no charges were ever brought for that breach.
A re-appraisal by the UK Government, instigated informally in 1988 and published in 1992 by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) further implicated the consequences of Lord's inaction. Among its conclusions were that the Titanics international distress signal of three white rockets fired in sequence had indeed been sighted by the Californian's crew, and by maritime law should have been investigated. Another conclusion stated that had Lord rushed towards the distress signals that fateful night, the ship would have arrived in time to perhaps save another 200 passengers . What has never been satisfactorily resolved was why Captain Lord did not simply wake his radio operator and listen for any distress signals.
Maritime Historian, Daniel Allen Butler
, in his 2009 book The Other Side of Night: The Carpathia, the Californian, and the night Titanic was Lost alleges that Captain Lord's personality and temperament - his behavior at both inquiries, his threatening of his crew, his frequent changing of his story, lying under oath at both inquiries, the absence of the scrap log book, and an odd remark made by Lord in Boston in a newspaper interview: "It is all foolishness for anybody to say that I, at the point of a revolver, took any man into this room and made him swear to tell any kind of story." - point to Lord's having some sort of mental illness. His lack of compassion - never once expressing grief at the loss of Titanic or sorrow for those who had lost family when she sank, is, claims Butler, a diagnosis of Sociopathy
.
Captain Lord died on 24 January 1962, aged 84, almost half a century after the sinking of the Titanic. He is buried in Wallasey
cemetery, Merseyside
.
Captain (nautical)
A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...
of the SS Californian
SS Californian
SS Californian was a Leyland Line steamship that is best known for the controversy surrounding her location during the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. The Californian was later sunk herself, in 1915, by U-34.-History:...
, a ship that was in the vicinity of the RMS Titanic the night it sank on 15 April 1912.
Early life
Lord was born on 13 September 1877 in BoltonBolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England. He began his training at sea when he was thirteen, aboard the barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
Naiad, in March 1891. He later obtained his Second Mate’s Certificate of competency and served as Second Officer in the barque Lurlei.
In February 1901, at the age of 23, Lord obtained his Master's Certificate, and three months later, obtained his Extra Master’s Certificate. He entered the service of the West India and Pacific Steam Navigation Company in 1897. The company was taken over by the Leyland Line in 1900, but Lord continued service with the new company, and was awarded his first command in 1906.
Lord was given full command of the SS Californian in 1911.
Before the disaster
On the night of 14 April 1912, as the Californian approached a large ice field, Captain Lord decided to stop around 10:21 PM and wait out the night. Before turning in for the night, he ordered his sole wireless operator, Cyril EvansCyril Furmstone Evans
Cyril Furmstone Evans was a 20th century wireless telegraphist notable for his involvement in the Titanic tragedy. Cyril Evans was 20 years old in April, 1912 when Titanic embarked on her doomed maiden voyage and was the sole Wireless Operator on the SS Californian which was also crossing the...
, 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 ice
Iceberg
An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack 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, who angrily replied "Shut up! Shut up! I am busy. I am working Cape Race
Cape Race
Cape Race is a point of land located at the southeastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland, Canada. Its name is thought to come from the original Portuguese name for this cape, "Raso", or "bare"...
." 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. Phillips was exhausted after such a long day. Evans listened in for a while longer as Phillips sent routine traffic through the Cape Race relaying station before finally turning in for bed after a very long day at around 11:30 PM.
During the night
Over the course of the night, various officers and seamen on the deck of Californian witnessed white rockets being fired into the air over a strange ship off in the distance, totaling eight in all. Captain Lord was awakened several times and asked about the rockets to which he replied that they may be "company rockets", to help ships identify themselves to liners of the same company. What is unclear is why Lord simply assumed this as there were no other ships in sight that night.Meanwhile on the Titanic, after the collision, they had also spotted the lights of a ship in the distance and Fourth Officer Boxhall
Joseph Boxhall
Commander Joseph Groves Boxhall RD RNR was the Fourth Officer on the , and later served as a naval officer in World War I.-Early life:...
and Quartermaster
Quartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...
Rowe tried in vain to contact the strange ship by Morse lamp. Observers on the deck of the Californian saw these signals and tried to signal back. However, the only person aboard the Californian with a good understanding of Morse was asleep. Not able to understand the garbled messages coming from the strange ship, Captain Edward John Smith 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 AM. By then however it was too late - the Titanic had gone down at 2:20. When she had slipped below the water, the sudden disappearance of lights was interpreted by the Californian crew that she had simply steamed on her way.
Search and recovery
On Monday morning, Captain Lord was notified by the Frankfurt that the Titanic had gone down early that morning. At 8:30 that morning, the Californian pulled up alongside the CarpathiaRMS Carpathia
RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson. Carpathia made her maiden voyage in 1903 and became famous for rescuing the survivors of after the latter ship hit an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912...
and stayed behind to search for additional bodies after the Carpathia steamed towards New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Lord's testimony
The following is from Captain Lord's testimony in the US Inquiry on 26 April:Reputation
Lord resigned from the Leyland Line in August of the same year. Some reports say he was dismissed. So far as any negligence of the S.S. Californians officers and crew was concerned, the conclusions of both the United States Inquiry and the British Inquiry seemed to disapprove of the actions of Captain Lord but stopped short of recommending charges. While both Inquiries censured the S.S. Californian, they did not directly censure the individuals who were on the ship. Neither did they make any recommendations for an official investigation to ascertain if Captain Lord was guilty of offences under the Merchant Shipping Acts. While Lord was never tried or convicted of any offence, he was still viewed, publicly, as a pariah. The result of his inactionon that fateful night would haunt him for the rest of his life and he would spend his remaining days attempting to fight for his exoneration.
In February 1913, Captain Lord was hired by the Nitrate Producers Steamship Co. where he remained until March 1927, resigning for health reasons. In 1955, following the release of Walter Lord
Walter Lord
John Walter Lord, Jr. , was an American author, best known for his documentary-style non-fiction account A Night to Remember, about the sinking of the RMS Titanic.-Early life:...
's (no relation) book A Night to Remember and the subsequent film of the same name, Stanley Lord was embarrassed at his portrayal in the movie and attempted to promote his own version of events. In 1958 he contacted the Mercantile Marine Service Association in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and said "I am Lord of the Californian and I have come to clear my name." The association's general secretary, Mr. Leslie Harrison took up the case for him and petitioned the Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
on his behalf. However, as Lord had no new evidence, his petition was rejected in 1965 and followed by a second petition in 1968 which was also rejected.
The discovery of the remains of the Titanic on the sea bed, in 1985, did not confirm or deny Captain Lord's culpability. While some claim that the position of the wreck makes it appear that the S.O.S position given after the iceberg collision by the Titanics fourth officer, Joseph Boxhall, was off by 13 miles, strong undersea currents as well as the Titanic's hydrodynamics underwater could account for the Titanic resting far from the actual position where it slipped beneath the water.
At both of the Titanic enquiries, in 1912, there had been some conflict about the true position of the ship when it sank. The conclusions of the 1912 enquiries discounted the evidence of uncertainty about the position of the Titanic. At the time, some assumed that the position which Captain Lord had given, for his ship, was incorrect and that he was actually much closer to the Titanic than he claimed to be. However, the entries in the Californians scrap log logbook
Logbook
A logbook was originally a book for recording readings from the chip log, and is used to determine the distance a ship traveled within a certain amount of time...
referring to the night in question had been removed, seen as overwhelming proof that Lord deliberately destroyed evidence in order to cover his crime of ignoring a distress call. While modifying a ship's log or removing pages is a serious violation of maritime law, no charges were ever brought for that breach.
A re-appraisal by the UK Government, instigated informally in 1988 and published in 1992 by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) further implicated the consequences of Lord's inaction. Among its conclusions were that the Titanics international distress signal of three white rockets fired in sequence had indeed been sighted by the Californian's crew, and by maritime law should have been investigated. Another conclusion stated that had Lord rushed towards the distress signals that fateful night, the ship would have arrived in time to perhaps save another 200 passengers . What has never been satisfactorily resolved was why Captain Lord did not simply wake his radio operator and listen for any distress signals.
Maritime Historian, Daniel Allen Butler
Daniel Allen Butler
Daniel Allen Butler is an American author and playwright on historical topics, particularly maritime history. He is best known for his writings about the sinking of the Titanic...
, in his 2009 book The Other Side of Night: The Carpathia, the Californian, and the night Titanic was Lost alleges that Captain Lord's personality and temperament - his behavior at both inquiries, his threatening of his crew, his frequent changing of his story, lying under oath at both inquiries, the absence of the scrap log book, and an odd remark made by Lord in Boston in a newspaper interview: "It is all foolishness for anybody to say that I, at the point of a revolver, took any man into this room and made him swear to tell any kind of story." - point to Lord's having some sort of mental illness. His lack of compassion - never once expressing grief at the loss of Titanic or sorrow for those who had lost family when she sank, is, claims Butler, a diagnosis of Sociopathy
Sociopathy
Sociopathy is a loosely-defined term that may be used to refer to:*Antisocial Personality Disorder*Dissocial Personality Disorder*Psychopathy...
.
Captain Lord died on 24 January 1962, aged 84, almost half a century after the sinking of the Titanic. He is buried in Wallasey
Wallasey
Wallasey is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England, on the mouth of the River Mersey, at the northeastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula...
cemetery, Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
.
Further reading
- Biography of Captain Stanley Lord - from Encyclopedia TitanicaEncyclopedia TitanicaEncyclopedia Titanica is an online reference work containing extensive and constantly-updated information on the . The website, a nonprofit endeavor, is a database of passenger and crew biographies, deck plans, and articles submitted by historians or Titanic enthusiasts...