<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Distress signal Simulated RMS Titanic distress signal, in Morse code </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Problems playing this file? See media help . </Td> </Tr> <P> By 01: 20, the seriousness of the situation was now apparent to the passengers above decks, who began saying their goodbyes, with husbands escorting their wives and children to the lifeboats . Distress flares were fired every few minutes to attract the attention of any ships nearby and the radio operators repeatedly sent the distress signal CQD . Radio operator Harold Bride suggested to his colleague Jack Phillips that he should use the new SOS signal, as it "may be your last chance to send it". The two radio operators contacted other ships to ask for assistance . Several responded, of which RMS Carpathia was the closest, at 58 miles (93 km) away . She was a much slower vessel than Titanic and, even driven at her maximum speed of 17 kn (20 mph; 31 km / h), would have taken four hours to reach the sinking ship . Another to respond was SS Mount Temple, which set a course and headed for Titanic's position but was stopped en - route by pack ice . </P> <P> Much nearer was SS Californian, which had warned Titanic of ice a few hours earlier . Apprehensive at his ship being caught in a large field of drift ice, Californian's captain, Stanley Lord, had decided at about 22: 00 to halt for the night and wait for daylight to find a way through the ice field . At 23: 30, 10 minutes before Titanic hit the iceberg, Californian's sole radio operator, Cyril Evans, shut his set down for the night and went to bed . On the bridge her Third Officer, Charles Groves, saw a large vessel to starboard around 10 to 12 mi (16 to 19 km) away . It made a sudden turn to port and stopped . If the radio operator of Californian had stayed at his post fifteen minutes longer, hundreds of lives might have been saved . A little over an hour later, Second Officer Herbert Stone saw five white rockets exploding above the stopped ship . Unsure what the rockets meant, he called Captain Lord, who was resting in the chartroom, and reported the sighting . Lord did not act on the report, but Stone was perturbed: "A ship is not going to fire rockets at sea for nothing," he told a colleague . </P>

What happened when the titanic hit the iceberg