Did Titanic Ignore the Ice Warnings? What Two 1912 Inquiries Found

Five ice messages reached the Titanic by wireless, by our count of the British report. We count four in the American one. Two inquiries looked at overlapping radio traffic and did not agree on which messages mattered, or on blame. We read both official reports and the sworn testimony side by side: the messages, the times, who saw them, and where the two inquiries differ. Only what the sources support; theories stay out. CHAPTERS 0:00 Ice, by wireless 0:26 The wireless room 1:08 Five messages, according to Lord Mersey 3:51 What the officers knew 5:02 One sentence, two versions 6:27 Two inquiries, two readings 8:41 What the documents do not say SOURCES British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry (Lord Mersey), Report, 30 July 1912: "Messages Received", "Findings of the Court", "Circumstances in Connection with the S.S. Californian". https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq... US Senate, Committee on Commerce, Report No. 806 ("Titanic" Disaster), sections "Ice Warnings", "The Collision" and "Recommendations". https://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/... Testimony of Cyril F. Evans, US Senate inquiry, Day 8, 26 April 1912. https://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/... Testimony of Cyril F. Evans, British inquiry, Day 8, 15 May 1912, Q8988-9022. https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq... Testimony of George E. Turnbull (Marconi Company), British inquiry, Day 14, 23 May 1912: the Marconi records. https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq... British Wreck Commissioner's Report, "Action That Should Have Been Taken" and "Recommendations". https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq... Testimony of Harold Bride, British inquiry, Day 14, 23 May 1912. https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq... Texts: transcriptions of the 1912 official documents, Titanic Inquiry Project. WHAT THE SOURCES DISAGREE ON (and what we did) Number of warnings: by our count the US Senate report lists four messages (Baltic, Californian, Amerika, and the Californian's "stopped and surrounded by ice"). The British report describes five (Caronia, Baltic, Amerika, Californian, Mesaba) and treats the Californian's last call in a separate chapter. Three are in both. Counted our way, neither report goes past five. The counts are ours. The reply to "We are stopped and surrounded by ice": before the Senate, Evans said the Titanic's operator answered "Shut up, shut up, I am busy; I am working Cape Race." Before the British inquiry he said "Keep out." The Senate report words it a third way. The video reads all three. Weight of the warnings: the Senate says "no heed was given to them." The British report says the officers knew they were entering an ice region, calls the speed excessive and the lookout not sufficient, and says the Mesaba message does not appear to have reached the bridge. But it does not blame Captain Smith: it calls his course "a very grievous mistake" that followed the practice of the time, with no negligence. We attribute each judgment to the report that made it. Why the ship kept its speed: the British report answers (the practice of liners for a quarter of a century, of which it says "the event has proved the practice to be bad"). The Senate report section we read does not discuss it. Times: the ship's clock and New York time differed by about an hour and a half, and the sources use both; the British report often names no clock. The Senate puts the collision at 11:46 p.m. ship's time, the British report at 11:40. The Mesaba message was sent at 7:50 p.m. New York time (Marconi records) and received at 9:40 p.m. in the British report; the documents do not explain the gap. Evans's times (11:25, 11:35) are on the Californian's clock. The video names the clock each time. Not shown by any document we read: what Captain Smith thought about the warnings. IMAGES AND MUSIC Images: public-domain works from Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress, Royal Museums Greenwich and The National Archives UK; each is credited on screen. Titanic photo: F. G. O. Stuart, 10 April 1912. Californian: Louis Ogden. Mesaba: Lionel Thomas Hills (RMG). Senate drawing: The Graphic, 1912. The map is drawn from Natural Earth data; positions are those printed in the British report and the map is schematic. Music: "EBB" by Density & Time, YouTube Audio Library (YouTube license). AI DISCLOSURE The narration is a synthetic voice (Kokoro TTS, run locally). The documents and pictures are real historical works; nothing is AI-generated imagery. The map is drawn from Natural Earth data. Found a mistake? Tell us in the comments; corrections will be added to this description. Which archive should we open next? Tell us in the comments.