SS Californian 1915
Marker: recorded wreck position (First World War).
Key facts
| Name | SS Californian | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1915 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | First World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | steamship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Scuttled | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | Leyland Line | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Sea / ocean | Mediterranean Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Greece | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 103 km from land |
| Position | 35.5417, 22.1017 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
SS Californian was a British passenger-cargo steamship of the Leyland Line. She is thought to have been the only ship within sight of RMS Titanic, or at least her rockets, during that ship's sinking on 15 April 1912. 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. Towards the end of his life, Lord sought to clear his name with the help of Leslie Harrison, a union attorney, and his son Stanley Tutton Lord.
Location
- Recorded position: 35.5417, 22.1017 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Mediterranean Sea
- Nearest coast: Greece
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article SS Californian (revision 1380131776), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- HMS Gloucester 1941 · 87 km
- U-557 1941 · 102 km
- Pola 1941 · 104 km
- Fiume 1941 · 106 km
- Zara 1941 · 107 km
- HMS Greyhound 1941 · 109 km
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Greece · Mediterranean Sea · First World War