The Midnight Watch

The Midnight Watch by David Dyer
An OK read. A fictional work that tells the story of the California, the ship that stood by and watched as the Titanic sank, ignoring eight distress flares. The story is told through the eyes of a fictional American journalist who searches for the ‘truth’. That the California stood by and did not go to the aid of the Titanic and its 1,500 people killed is well known and caused two public enquiries – one in US and one in England. The question explored by the enquiries and now this novel is why did the California not respond?

I think Dyer does quite a good job at a re-look at this well raked over bit of tragic history. That his novel is inconclusive should not be a surprise – the enquiries at the time could not decide either.

Except for the lacklustre first 50 pages, the pace of the book is good and it hangs together well. The American journalist is very well portrayed. The picture Dyer draws is of an overbearing Captain (Lord) who chooses to not come onto the bridge to see the distress flares and to go back to sleep when they are reported to him by the Second Officer (Stone). Captain Lord thinks Stone (and almost everyone else) is a weakling who needs to get a grip on himself. Second Officer Stone is terrified of the bully Captain and dithers rather than insisting on action. As Dyer says – responsibility fell on the California and neither Captain Lord or Second Officer Stone chose to pick it up.

Secondary themes explored are the different approaches by US and England to enquiries about an incident in which so many of their (leading) citizen were killed. And the huge, almost singular, emphasis on the prominent, wealthy people who died, with little interest on the deaths of the third class passengers (for whom there were insufficient life-boats).