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".

[6][7] Californian was sunk in the Eastern Mediterranean during World War I on 9 November 1915 by the German submarines SM U-34 and U-35, while serving as a transport ship.

There were also some problems – when both of the ship's boilers were being transported through the streets from a foundry to the shipyard the weight of them (carried on a wheeled bogie) caused considerable damage to the city's roads, as well as breaking a number of underground water pipes.

The passengers of the Californian also had at their disposal a smoking room on the upper starboard deck, decorated with oak panels and linoleum, a novelty at the turn of the century.

On March 30, 1912, the Californian made a stopover in London on a trip to New Orleans during which she had to face a storm which damaged part of her cotton cargo.

Stanley Lord, who had commanded Californian since 27 March 1911, was her captain when she left the Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool, England on 5 April 1912 on her way to Boston, Massachusetts.

[22] On Sunday 14 April at 18:30 ship's time, Californian's only wireless operator, Cyril Furmstone Evans (born 1892 in Croydon, Surrey, United Kingdom), signalled to the Antillian that three large icebergs were five miles to the south.

Evans's message that SS Californian was stopped and surrounded by ice was heard very strongly on Titanic due to the relative proximity of the two ships and drowned out a separate message Phillips had been in the process of receiving from Cape Race, bringing Phillips told Evans to stop transmitting in the straight diction of wireless operators: "Keep out.

[36] Apprentice officer James Gibson, who had been doing the Morse signalling, testified that at 00:55, Stone told him he had observed five rockets in the sky above the nearby ship.

[40] Stone, however, under increasingly incredulous questioning by the British inquiry, testified repeatedly that he did not think at the time that the rockets could have been distress signals,[41] and that the possibility did not occur to him until he learned the Titanic had sunk.

[42] At 04:16, Chief Officer George F. Stewart relieved Stone, and almost immediately noticed, coming into view from the south, a brilliantly-lit, four-masted steamship with one funnel;[43] Carpathia arrived on the scene shortly after 04:00.

Upon arrival, several key crew members, including Lord and Evans, were summoned to give evidence at the American inquiry.

[49] A United States Senate inquiry into the sinking of the RMS Titanic started on 19 April 1912, the day Californian arrived unnoticed in Boston.

[50] The next day, a small newspaper in New England, The Clinton Daily Item, printed a story claiming that Californian had refused aid to Titanic.

On the same day, the Boston American printed a story sourced by Californian's assistant engineer, Ernest Gill, with essentially the same account.

[54] When reporters asked Lord about his exact position the night of the disaster, he refused to respond, calling such information "state secrets".

[55] After the newspaper revelations on 23 April, the U.S. Senate inquiry issued subpoenas for multiple members of the crew, including Gill and Lord.

At the British inquiry, Stone was not asked to recall the notations he had actually written in the scrap log, during his bridge-watch between midnight and 4:00 on 15 April.

[65][page needed] Both the American and British inquires found that Californian must have been closer than the 19.5 miles (31.4 km) claimed by Captain Lord, and that each ship was visible from the other.

The first International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea formed a treaty that also required 24-hour radio monitoring and standardized the use of distress rockets.

Petitions presented to the UK Government in 1965 and 1968 by the Mercantile Marine Service Association (MMSA), a union to which Captain Lord belonged, failed to get the matter re-examined.

[68] However, when the wreck of the Titanic was discovered by Ballard's expedition in 1985, it was found to be 13 miles from its reported position (the location accepted by both inquiries), so the Board of Trade ordered a re-examination.

The 1992 MAIB report concluded that Captain Lord and his crew's actions "fell far short of what was needed,"[71] but conceded that absent this, Californian could not have arrived on the scene until "well after the sinking".

[72] Captain Lord's chief defender, union attorney Leslie Harrison, who had led the fight to have the Californian incident re-examined by the British government, called the dual conclusions of the report "an admission of failure to achieve the purpose of the reappraisal".

[4] The U.S Senate inquiry was also critical of Lord's inaction, the final report stating that "such conduct, whether arising from indifference or gross carelessness, is most reprehensible, and places upon the commander the Californian a grave responsibility".

Lord to arouse the wireless operator on his ship, who could have easily ascertained the name of the vessel in distress and reached her in time to avert loss of life, places a tremendous responsibility upon this officer from which it will be very difficult for him to escape".

Allegations have been made that trade unions defending Captain Lord succeeded in influencing the reports from the official investigations before they were available to the public.

The crew evacuated onto the patrol boat, and finally Californian[85] sank in 10–13,000 feet of water, approximately 60 miles (50 nmi; 100 km) south-southwest of Cape Matapan, Greece.

[87] Californian sunk less than 200 miles (170 nmi; 320 km) from where HMHS Britannic, a sister ship to Titanic, would sink only a little over a year later by striking a mine laid by German SM U-73.

The drama tells the story of the original British Inquiry into the sinking of Titanic, which decided, using the facts that were available at the time, whether the Californian was in near enough proximity to the vessel to rescue some, if not all, of the 1,500 lives lost.