'Fresh and valuable... Mr Padfield knows what he is writing about...with a knowledge and devotion displayed by no previous writer.'
Times Literary Supplement

'This is not just another book on the Titanic but a fascinating revelation.'
Birmingham Post

'The fascination of a closely reasoned detective story, and every landlubber should be able to follow it.'
Daily Telegraph

'The story compels.'
The Times

'An angry, exciting, vivid book. It may shake or shock, but never bore... decidedly one to remember.'
Lloyds' List

'Admirable piece of detective work and reasonable speculation.'
Books and Bookmen

'A dramatic and excellently told story.'
The Book Society

'Mr. Padfield is justified in questioning the findings of the Mersey Inquiry.'
Capt. Stephen Roskill, The Sunday Telegraph

'Mr. Padfield's book succeeds in clearing Lord's name of culpability.'
Capt. S.W.C. Palk, The Navy

'It is a pity that Captain Lord did not live to read this splendid vindication... Padfield's magnificent analysis.'
New Zealand Herald

'The night was clear and the sea was smooth. When she first saw the rockets the Californian could have pushed through the ice to the open water... and so have come to the assistance of the Titanic. Had she done so she might have saved many if not all of the [more than 1,500] lives lost.'

This damning censure was handed down to Captain Lord of the Californian by the British Court of Inquiry into the loss of the Titanic. Lord was refused an appeal and was never charged under the Merchant Shipping Act for such a clear dereliction of duty, so never had an opportunity to defend himself.

This book, first published in 1965, two years after Lord's death, was the first to question his censure. The evidence given in Court had convinced the author, Peter Padfield, that the Californian was never close enough to the Titanic to recognise her distress signals or attempt rescue. Twenty years later he was vindicated by the discovery of the wreck of the Titanic some 20 miles from the Californian's logged position that night.

He remains convinced that the Inquiry was 'rigged' and Lord scapegoated to preserve the reputation of British liner companies and the responsible government department, the Board of Trade.
About the Author: Peter Padfield is a leading naval historian and biographer. He trained for the sea as a cadet in H.M.S.Worcester, subsequently serving in the P & O Line. In 1957 he sailed under Cdr. Alan Villiers in the replica pilgrim bark, Mayflower II, from Plymouth, England to Plymouth, Massachusetts, where Mayflower is now preserved. Working his passage to the south Pacific he sailed among the Solomon Islands before leaving the sea and settling with his wife in Suffolk, England. His first major book, The Titanic and the Californian defended the captain of the Californian from the charge of not going to Titanic's rescue. He subsequently turned to naval subjects, particularly great gunnery, strategy and tactics. His biography of the U-boat admiral, Karl Donitz, led him to a portrayal of submarine warfare in War Beneath the Sea, and to biographies of other leading Nazis, Heinrich Himmler and Rudolf Hess, subsequently translated into many European languages. Latterly he has returned to naval history, attempting to bring it out of the specialist closet and present it as a major determinant of the modern world in a trilogy whose second volume, Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom, won the Mountbatten Maritime Prize, 2003."