Survivor's Account of Maritime Disaster

There are still threats of legal things even these days

about whether the ship that was so close to us was the Californian or not.

I mean, I saw that ship. It's terribly close.

And the other thing I'm saying is that I didn't see a ship 19 miles away.

I saw a ship that was so close.

And they said at the time it was less than 9 miles away.

Now they're trying to say it was 19.

I saw it.

You know, it wasn't just lights on the horizon.

You could see it was a ship.

And I saw our rockets being fired, which that ship must have seen.

Well, this inquiry says that they did see it, but they didn't think it was a portent of danger.

But I would have thought in the middle of the Atlantic, in the middle of the night,

that rockets must have been trouble.

I entirely agree with my dear Dr.

Bellard's words. He said the whole thing was a tribute to man's arrogance.

And I agree with that.

That man can be so arrogant as to build something and claim that it is undestroyable, if you like.

It's the most arrogant thing to say.

And as I say, all these years later, this interest is profound.

And it's because there was no need for anyone to die.

No one should have died.

Had she had enough lifeboats with two and a half hours and a very smooth sea,

nobody would have died. And one life is worth more than the whole ship, surely.

That is what I saw. That is what I remember.

And there are hardly any of us now to share this memory, of course.

I'm the only living survivor now that can remember it and get about, so to speak.

But I don't think there's anyone that can really tell the whole story of it, except myself.

Thank you for watching!