Titanic Fun Facts

When the Titanic began sending distress signals, The Californian, rather than The Carpathia, was the closest ship. However The Californian did not respond until it was much too late to help. At 12:45 A.M on April 15,1912 crew members on the Californian saw mysterious lights in the sky. These were the distress signals sent up from the Titanic, The Californian crew immediately woke their captain. Unfortunately, the captain issued no orders for he thought they were just celebrating.

It's unclear which songs were played as the ship went down, but one can only imagine how somber the atmosphere must have been. In the movie "Titanic" one of the songs played was "Nearer, My God, to Thee" which was thought to be the last song played as the Titanic went down.

Evidently, the most critical iceberg warning never made it to Captain Edward Smith because of the lack of the prefix MSG, meaning Master's Service Gram. This acronym would have required the captain to personally acknowledge receipt of the message. Because it did not have MSG prefix, the senior operator did not think the message was important