Did you know someone was watching Titanic sink from another ship and yet didn‘t do anything? SS Californian was a British Leyland Line steamship that is best known for its inaction during the sinking of the RMS Titanic despite being the closest ship in the area. Judging by available evidence, the Californian was likely the only ship to see the Titanic, or at least its rockets, during the sinking. The Californian could have saved many or all of the lives that were lost, had a prompt response been mounted to the Titanic's distress rockets. The U.S. Senate inquiry was particularly critical of the vessel's Captain, Stanley Lord, calling his inaction during the disaster "reprehensible". On the evening of April 14th, 1912, The Californian encountered a large ice field at 22:20 ship's time and Captain Lord decided to stop the ship and wait until morning before proceeding further. Lord asked radio operator Cyril Evans if he knew of any ships in the area, and Evans responded: "only the Titanic." Lord asked Evans to inform her that Californian was stopped and surrounded by ice. Lord ordered Evans to warn all other ships in the area, which he did. Titanic's on-duty wireless operator, Jack Phillips, was busy transmitting passengers' messages with the wireless station at Cape Race, Newfoundland, 800 miles (1,300 km) away, at the time. Evans's message that SS Californian was stopped and surrounded by ice, due to the relative proximity of the two ships, drowned out a separate message Phillips had been in the process of receiving from Cape Race, and he rebuked Evans: "Shut up, shut up! I am busy; I am working Cape Race!" Evans, feeling that he had done what was asked of him despite Philips's rude apparent rejection of the message, then switched off his wireless equipment and went to bed. One hour and 10 minutes later, Titanic hit an iceberg. One hour and twenty-five minutes after that, she transmitted her first distress call.... There is much, much more to this story!