New Query on Capt.’s Failure to Aid Titanic
An inquiry will be held into the conduct of a steamship captain who was censured for not helping the Titanic when it sank 78 years ago, the government said today.
More than 1,500 of the 2,200 people on board died when the ship struck an iceberg and sank in April, 1912.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch will examine testimony at the original inquiry to gain new insight into the role of the late Capt. Stanley Lord, said a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation.
The inquiry comes in response to a campaign by Lord’s relatives, who have been trying to clear his name, said the spokeswoman.
Lord was master of the Boston-bound Californian, which was believed to have been the ship nearest the Titanic when the British liner went down in the North Atlantic while steaming to New York on its maiden voyage.
Other ships that were farther away did reach the scene in answer to the stricken liner’s distress calls.
Lord’s ship was stopped by ice at the time.
Lord died in 1962, claiming to the end that the Titanic was in an ice field 20 miles or more from his ship and that he was unable to help.
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