SS Californian
 SS Californian on the morning after Titanic sank.
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| History | |
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 UK
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| Name: | SS Californian |
| Namesake: | State of California |
| Owner: |
 Leyland Line
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| Route: | Atlantic Ocean crossings |
| Builder: | Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Dundee, Scotland |
| Cost: | £105,000 |
| Yard number: | 159 |
| Christened: | 26 November 1901 |
| Acquired: | 30 January 1902 |
| Decommissioned: | 9 November 1915 |
| Maiden voyage: | 31 January 1902 |
| Fate: | Sunk by German U-boat, 9 November 1915, 61 miles (98 km) southwest of Cape Matapan, Greece. |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Steamship |
| Tonnage: | 6,223 gross, 4,038 net |
| Length: | 447 ft (136 m) LOA |
| Beam: | 53 ft (16 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 12.0 knots (22.2 km/h; 13.8 mph) |
| Crew: | 55 Officers and crew |
The SS Californian was a British Leyland Line steamship that is best known for its inaction during the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, despite being the closest ship in the area. The United States Senate inquiry and British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry into the sinking both concluded that 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".
Californian was later sunk herself, on 9 November 1915, by the German submarine U-35, in the Eastern Mediterranean during World War I.
Californian was a British steamship owned by the Leyland Line, part of J.P. Morgan's International Mercantile Marine Co.. She was constructed by the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Dundee, Scotland, and was the largest ship built in Dundee up to that time.
She was designed primarily to transport cotton, but also had the capacity to carry 47 passengers and 55 crew members. She measured 6,223 tons, was 447 feet (136 m) long, 53 feet (16 m) at her beam, and had a triple expansion steam engine powered by two double-ended boilers. Her average full speed was 12 knots (22 km/h).
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