What ships came to Titanics rescue and what ships did not?
Titanic’s distress call was received by several ships the night of the disaster including the Carpathia, Mount Temple, Virginian, Baltic, Caronia, Prinz Fredrich Wilhelm, Frankfurt and the Titanic’s sister ship the Olympic. Initially, several of these ships altered course towards the collision site, but when it became apparent that Carpathia alone would make it to the scene of the accident in reasonable time, they resumed their previous courses. One ship, the Leyland Line’s Californian was only a few miles distant from Titanic. The Californian had stopped for the night in pack ice because her Captain felt it too dangerous to proceed through the ice field in the dark. Although fitted with wireless, the Californian’s operator had turned in for the night and missed the distress call. To this day, there is considerable controversy as to whether the Californian’s deck officers were negligent in not making a more aggressive investigation into rockets and lights seen in the distance.
