As the Titanic sank,another ship,believed to have been the Californian,was seen motionless less than twenty miles away. The ship failed to respond to the Titanic's eight distress rockets. Although the officers of the Californian tried to signal the Titanic with their flashing Morse lamp,they did not wake up their radio operator to listen for a distress call. At this time,communication at sea through wireless was new and the benefits not well appreciated,so the wireless on ships was often not operated around the clock. In the case of the Californian,the wireless operator slept unaware while 1,500 Titanic passengers and crew drowned only a few miles away.