title: The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and the Californian
author: David Dyer
description: Debut author Dyer elucidates formerly restricted evidence in his recreation of the confounding evening that the SS Californian watched on while the nearby Titanic sent up eight distress rockets before slowly sinking into the sea. The story itself is bizarre, rife with miscommunications. When Capt. Stanley Lord brings the Californian to a halt, his radio operator warns nearby ships that "We are stopped and surrounded by ice," but the steaming Titanic's operator responds, "shut up shut up shut up keep out" only moments before that passenger vessel's lights go out all at once. Meek second officer Herbert Stone sees the rockets go up, bursting "silently into a delicate shower of stars" one after another, during his graveyard watch, but is fatefully told only to monitor. When Captain Lord and Officer Stone later offer their official accounts, Boston reporter Steadman senses an incomplete truth, and through his pleasantly filigreed voice, their failure to act is exposed during the second half of the novel. Dyer's elegant, imaginative renderings captivate, and his expansive researchincluding exclusive access to legal documentsmakes this colossal disaster newly enthralling. (Apr.)\n
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Light In The Darkness
  
  
  
  
  
  A Titanic Novel
  
  
  
  
  
  Book Two
  
  
  Part IV & V
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  Other Novels By Carla Robinson
  
  
  
  
  
  You Know You Want It
  
  
  The Light In The Darkness: A Titanic Novel (Book One)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  Dedication
  
  
  
  
  
  for the victims and their families
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  PART IV
  
  
  
  
  
  “The sounds of people drowning are something that I can not describe to you,
  and neither can anyone else. It’s the most dreadful sound and there is a
  terrible silence that follows it.”
  
  
  - Eva Hart
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  Chapter One
  
  
  
  
  
  LIVERPOOL, April 15th, 1912
  
  
  
  
  
  Sir Walter J. Howell, K.C.B
  
  
  Marine Department, Board of Trade,
  
  
  7, Whitehall Gardens,
  
  
  London. S.W.
  
  
  
  
  
  Dear Sir,
  
  
  Further to our communication of yesterday we were extremely sorry to have to
  send you the following wire this morning:-
  
  
  “Referring telegram yesterday ‘Titanic’ deeply grieved say that during night
  we received word