SS Californian
Californian on the morning after Titanic sank. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | Californian |
| Namesake | State of California |
| Owner | Leyland Line |
| Port of registry | Liverpool |
| Route | North Atlantic crossing |
| Builder | Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering, Dundee |
| Cost | £105,000 (equivalent to about £10,700,000 in 2023) |
| Yard number | 159 |
| Launched | 26 November 1901 |
| Completed | 30 January 1902 |
| Maiden voyage | 31 January 1902 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Scuttled after damage by U-boat torpedoing, 9 November 1915 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Cargo liner |
| Tonnage | 6,223 GRT, 4,038 NRT |
| Length | 447.6 ft (136.4 m) registered |
| Beam | 53.8 ft (16.4 m) |
| Depth | 30.5 ft (9.3 m) |
| Decks | 3 |
| Installed power | 1 × triple-expansion engine; 518 NHP |
| Propulsion | 1 × screw propeller |
| Speed |
|
| Boats & landing craft carried | 6 (4 lifeboats, 1 gig and 1 pinnace) with total capacity for 218 people. |
| Capacity | 35 1st class passengers |
| Crew | 55 officers and crew |
SS Californian was a British Leyland Line steamship. She is thought to have been the only ship within sight of RMS Titanic, or at least her rockets, during that ship's sinking. The crew took no action to assist.
The United States Senate inquiry and British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry into the sinking both concluded that many or all of the lives lost could have been saved, had Californian responded promptly to Titanic's distress rockets. The U.S. Senate inquiry was particularly critical of the vessel's captain, Stanley Lord, calling his inaction during the disaster "reprehensible".
Despite this criticism, no formal charges were ever brought against Lord or his crew. Lord disputed the findings and spent the rest of his life trying to clear his name. In 1992, the UK Government's Marine Accident Investigation Branch re-examined the case and while condemning Lord's inaction, held that due to the limited time available, "the effect of Californian taking proper action would have been no more than to place on her the task actually carried out by RMS Carpathia, that is the rescue of those who escaped ... [no] reasonably probable action by Captain Lord could have led to a different outcome of the tragedy".
Californian was scuttled in the Eastern Mediterranean during World War I on 9 November 1915 after being critically damaged by the German submarines SM U-34 and U-35, while serving as a transport ship.