On April 29th Marconi produced copies of several messages which passed between the Marconi office and the Carpathia in an effort to get definite information of the wreck and the survivors.
Marconi and F. M. Sammis, chief engineer of the American Marconi Company, both acknowledged that a mistake had been made in sending messages to Bride and Cottam on board the Carpathia not to give out any news until they had seen Marconi and Sammis.
The senatorial committee investigating the Titanic disaster has served several good purposes. It has officially established the fact that all nations are censurable for insufficient, antiquated safety regulations on ocean vessels, and it has emphasized the imperative necessity for united action among all maritime countries to revise these laws and adapt them to changed conditions.
The committee reported its findings as follows:
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
No particular person is named as being responsible, though attention is called to the fact that on the day of the disaster three distinct warnings of ice were sent to Captain Smith. J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, is not held responsible for the ship's high speed. In fact, he is barely mentioned in the report.
Ice positions, so definitely reported to the Titanic just preceding the accident, located ice on both sides of the lane in which she was traveling. No discussion took place among the officers, no conference was called to consider these warnings, no heed was given to them. The speed was not relaxed, the lookout was not increased.
The supposedly water-tight compartments of the Titanic were not water-tight, because of the non-water-tight condition of the decks where the transverse bulkheads ended.
The steamship Californian, controlled by the same concern as the Titanic, was nearer the sinking steamship than the nineteen miles reported by her captain, and her officers and crew saw the distress signals of the Titanic and failed to respond to them in accordance with the dictates of humanity, international usage and the requirements of law. Had assistance been promptly proffered the Californian might have had the proud distinction of rescuing the lives of the passengers and crew of the Titanic.
The mysterious lights on an unknown ship, seen by the passengers on the Titanic, undoubtedly were on the Californian, less than nineteen miles away.