Most people think that they know the full Titanic story but the don't. Not nine miles away, that night, a British tramp steamer watched the whole event but never came to the rescue. CLOSE PROXIMITY tells the story of the tramp steamer and her crew's subsequent descent into hell. A tragic journey of Shakespearean proportions.

SYNOPSIS:

On a cold April night in 1912, the British merchant ship, Californian, has shut down her engines. She’ll wait until daylight before navigating through a minefield of ice. On the horizon, two junior officers spot a very big, brightly lit ship that seems to have also stopped. They signal her but get no response. They watch distress rockets arc over the big ship. Instead of taking action, they discuss it, even joke about it, not understanding the rocket’s meaning. They reluctantly wake the ship’s captain, STANLEY LORD, who is angered by the disturbance. Finally the big ship slips from view. The officers reassure themselves that it has steamed away. In the morning, they discover that, while they'd watched, fifteen hundred people went to their deaths on the beautiful, unsinkable Titanic.

Californian quickly steams to Titanic’s last radioed position. The debris field is strewn with frozen, bobbing bodies. The trauma completely unnerves Captain Lord. Beneath his grief, panic runs wild. He moves to the worst of his nature. He confiscates the ship’s log in a desperate attempt to cover up his inaction. A split occurs with the crew about Lord’s decision. Before Californian reaches her Boston destination, three days later, a U.S. Senate Investigation into The Titanic Disaster has already as The Senate Committee unravels what happened and ultimately calls Californian’s Captain and crew in to testify. The eyes of the world are upon Lord and his men as they are held up to scorn and ridicule. Their careers are completely destroyed. We follow Lord and his officers on this journey as they each deal with the consequences of a single night’s indecision or failure of nerve. We relive that fateful night on both ships as well as through committee hearing testimony and cross-examination.

Captain Lord’s downward spiral is a tragedy of Shakespearian proportion.

He is a man of pride, honor and power, loved by a wife and son, respected by his community, who is undone by hidden weaknesses and his fear of facing them. He loses everything.