Titanic: A Very Deceiving Night Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Preface

  Acknowledgements

  Introduction

  The Californian Incident

  Part One

  Mirage

  The Flying Dutchman

  Sea hedges

  “It was a dark mass that came through that haze”

  Crash Site Investigation

  “A pretty sharp drop”

  Thermal inversion

  Seeing the inversion

  High pressure

  “Much refraction on horizon”

  Seeing stars

  Soft horizon

  “I should keep my course and maintain my speed”

  Miraging ice barrier

  Camouflaged iceberg

  Part Two

  “Her head was facing north”

  Light on the port bow

  When she stopped her lights seemed to go out

  We were swinging, but very, very slowly

  Where was the Californian?

  Looming Californian

  Imaginary light

  Looming Titanic

  Too near for Wireless

  Scintillating Morse

  Stooping rockets

  The graveyard watch

  N52W

  A very deceiving night

  Bibliography

  Reviews:

  © Tim Maltin 2012

  Published By:

  Malt House Books

  The Malt House

  Wilsford

  Pewsey

  Wilstshire

  SN9 6HB

  ISBN 978-0-9571390-1-5

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to Lawrence Beesley and to Charlotte, Anna and Aubrey

  Preface

  ‘A Very Deceiving Night’ began long before I started work on my previous book ‘101 Things You Thought You Knew About The Titanic…But Didn’t’, but it required such an immense amount of original historical and scientific research that the latter quickly overtook it in getting into print.

  What began as a full investigation into why a nearby ship did not come to Titanic’s rescue, ended up revealing why the Titanic hit an iceberg in the first place.

  I’m delighted that, after 100 years, the further evidence that Titanic survivor Lawrence Beesley was waiting for so patiently is finally here, but I regret that there are no survivors now living who could have benefitted from the closure that this book provides. Perhaps the descendents of those who died on, or survived, the Titanic will now find the peace of mind which comes from a better understanding of the fate of their forebears.

  This journey is an amazing one and I hope you enjoy following it as much as I did: The truth is always stranger than any fiction could ever make it, and our universe is truly wondrous.

  Tim Maltin, 14th March 2012

  Acknowledgements

  I am indebted to a huge number of people who have helped me with this book. In particular, they include atmospheric refraction expert, Dr. Andrew T. Young, from San Diego State University, who patiently taught me about the various phenomena and helped me with the final text; Eric Freeman, Scott Stephens and Scott Woodruff from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Centre; Boundary Layer Meteorologist Edgar Andreas from Northwest Research Associates; Wolfgang Gloeden from Deutscher Wetterdienst Climate Data Centre, Germany; Glyn Hughes and Kate Strachan from the National Meteorological Archive, Exeter and Graham Bartlett from the National Meteorological Library; The Nova Scotia Archives Museum, Malcolm Walker, Resident Meteorologist at The Royal Meteorological Society, Reading; Glenn Morris, Winnipeg Public Library; Dr Phil Anderson from the British Antarctic Survey; Don Murphy, Chief Oceanographer of the International Ice Patrol; Stuart Burrage from Airborne TV, without whom this project would never have come to light; Bedlam Productions, Nigel Levy and Karen Kirk for making it into a great documentary; National Geographic Channels International and Smithsonian Channel; fellow kayaker Nelson Pilgrim and fellow adventurer Paul Alcock, whose first-hand experiences of mirages in the Labrador Current were very helpful in illuminating survivor testimony; fellow Titanic experts Sam Halpern and George Behe, who both helped a great deal in bringing this book to completion: all Titanic experts are indebted to Sam Halpern for his pioneering work on the navigational aspects of the Titanic disaster and important discoveries leading from that; and George Behe’s book, On Board RMS Titanic, is the best I’ve read on the subject; mirage photographers Ed Darack, Mila Zinkova and Pekka Parviainen – and all the others who’ve allowed me to reproduce their wonderful photographs in this book and who are credited below; Simon Petherick, Nick Staunton, Lauren Alexander, Colette Smith, Sara Girolamo, John and Ellen Nielsen, Michael Maltin, and James Maltin have all contributed to this book and, last but not least, my patient and beautiful wife, Charlotte, who many times – I know – has felt like another, later victim of the Titanic. My apologies to those who have helped but who I have not mentioned here. My debt to you all is great. Thank you.

  Introduction

  100 years after the Titanic sank on 15th April 1912, the world is still fascinated by the story of how 1,500 people froze to death in the calm waters of the North Atlantic, on the maiden voyage of the largest and safest ship in the world. But the true cause of the Titanic disaster has never been revealed, until now. This book proves the presence of abnormal refraction – or mirage – at Titanic’s crash site and reveals its previously unseen but crucial role, shedding new light on the tragedy.

  The enduring nature of the story of the Titanic lies in its power as a metaphor for the human condition: she represented the best that the science of man could achieve and carried with her the confidence and hope of her age, but she was destroyed on her maiden voyage by the humbling power of nature, perfectly represented by an unseen mountain of ice lurking in the darkness. As 1,500 people who had just been enjoying the luxury, comfort and fun of the newest and largest liner in the world froze to death in the calm, ink black water of the North Atlantic that night, their surprise turned to anger and despair as they stared up into a perfect canopy of stars and demanded an answer.

  The sinking of the Titanic on the 15th April 1912 was as shocking to the world as the destruction of the Twin Towers on 11th September 2001. In the new age of wireless it caused the first global media storm, with the New York Times devoting its first 12 pages to the disaster. As soon as the news arrived, exhaustive public enquiries were ordered, on both sides of the Atlantic. At these, hundreds of eye witnesses were asked more than fifty thousand questions about the catastrophe, and their sworn testimonies faithfully recorded and preserved. As a result, Titanic is one of the best-documented disasters in history.

  The Titanic is seen here on the right, next to her twin sister, the Olympic, in Belfast

  © Ulster Folk and Transport Museum

  Titanic had a slightly older, almost identical twin sister called The Olympic, who had sucessfully completed her maiden voyage less than a year before the Titanic, on the same route, with the same captain and carrying many of the same people that would later die on Titanic’s maiden voyage.

  Olympic arriving into New York on her maiden voyage in 1911; her sister would never see the New World © Science Photo Library

  Captain Smith on board the unfinished Titanic © Mary Evans Picture Library

  To the delight of her passengers, on only her second crossing to New York, and without her owner Joseph Bruce Ismay being on board, Captain Smith cooly brought the Olympic in on Tuesday night, instead of on Wednesday morning, when she had been scheduled to arrive. Olympic went on to steam more than 600,000 miles, succesfully carrying 200,000 troops in
the First World War, when she also sucessfully used the strength and manoeverability she shared with her sister, the Titanic, to deliberately ram and sink an enemy submarine - the only merchant ship ever to do so. Eventually, she was scrapped in 1935, due to reduced transatlantic passenger numbers.

  RMS Olympic in dazzle paint during the First World War, where the strength and manoeverability she shared with her sister, Titanic, allowed her to ram and sink an enemy submarine

  The fates of the two sisters could not have been more different, but what really caused the Titanic disaster? Over the years people have come up with many theories: Captain Smith was drunk; her builders cut corners; her lookouts should have had binoculars; her rudder was too small. But none of these explanations bears any real scrutiny: Smith never drank at sea and was around Titanic’s bridge all that night; Titanic was built on a cost-plus contract, meaning the more her builders spent on her construction the more they got paid; the naked eye is the best way to spot icebergs at night, because binoculars reduce the field of vision and are therefore only for the inspection of objects, not their detection; and she had the same sized rudder as her sister, who her wartime captain regarded as the best-handling ship he had ever had the pleasure to command.

  No, the more one learns about the Titanic disaster, the more one realizes that the truth about what really happened the incredible night she sank is far stranger than any fiction could ever make it.

  The Californian Incident

  One of the most extraordinary elements of the Titanic story is that she sank within sight of a rescue ship, which ignored her distress signals.

  Second Class passenger Lawrence Beesley described the incident as follows, in his 1912 book “The Loss of the Titanic”:

  The…vessel was a small steamer some few miles ahead on the port side…Mr. Boxhall states that he and Captain Smith saw her quite plainly some five miles away, and could distinguish the masthead lights and a red port light. They at once hailed her with rockets and Morse electric signals, to which Boxhall saw no reply, but Captain Smith and stewards affirmed they did. The second and third officers saw the signals sent and her lights, the latter from the lifeboat of which he was in charge. Seaman Hopkin [sic Quartermaster Hitchens] testified that he was told by the captain to row for the light; and we in boat 13 certainly saw it in the same position and rowed towards it for some time. But notwithstanding all the efforts made to attract its attention, it drew slowly away and the lights sank below the horizon.

  The pity of it! So near, and so many people waiting for the shelter its decks could have given so easily. It seems impossible to think that this ship ever replied to the signals; those who said so must have been mistaken. The United States Senate Committee in its report does not hesitate to say that this unknown steamer and the Californian are identical, and that the failure on the part of the latter to come to the help of the Titanic is culpable negligence. There is undoubted evidence that some of the crew on the Californian saw our rockets; but it seems impossible to believe that the captain and officers knew of our distress and deliberately ignored it. Judgment on the matter had better be suspended until further information is forthcoming.

  This book provides that further information, and it also reveals - for the first time - the real reason why the Titanic hit an iceberg, 100 years after the catastrophe.

  Scores of observers on the Titanic, including several of her surviving Officers and Quartermasters, also testified that the ship within sight was only about five miles away:

  Lightoller (Titanic 2nd Officer): 14140. (The Commissioner.) Can you form any estimate of the distance of the light from the "Titanic"?

  - Yes, My Lord; certainly not over 5 miles away.

  Pitman (Titanic 3rd Officer): 15062. How far away did you judge it to be?

  - I thought it was about five miles.

  Boxhall (Titanic 4th Officer): JGB521. From what you saw of that vessel, how far would you think she was from the Titanic?

  - I should say approximately the ship would be about 5 miles.

  Hichens (Titanic Quartermaster): 1162. What light?

  - There was a light about two points on the port bow, about five miles away, I should judge.

  Rowe (Titanic Quartermaster): 17657. Before you left the ship did you see anything of the light of another vessel in the neighbourhood?

  - Yes.

  17658. What light was that?

  - A white light, bright.

  17659. What sort of distance did you think it was?

  - Four or five miles.

  Both enquiries concluded that this ship was the Californian, under the command of Captain Lord:

  Senator Smith, US Inquiry: “I am well aware from the testimony of the captain of the Californian that he deluded himself with the idea that there was a ship between the Titanic and the Californian, but there was no ship seen there at daybreak and no intervening rockets were seen by anyone on the Titanic, although they were looking longingly for such a sign and only saw the white light of the Californian… A ship would not have been held there if it had been eastbound, and she could not have gone west without passing the Californian on the north or the Titanic on the south. That ice floe held but two ships - the Titanic and the Californian.”

  Lord Mersey, British Inquiry: There are contradictions and inconsistencies in the story as told by the different witnesses. But the truth of the matter is plain. The "Titanic" collided with the berg 11.40. The vessel seen by the "Californian" stopped at this time. The rockets sent up from the "Titanic" were distress signals. The "Californian" saw distress signals. The number sent up by the "Titanic" was about eight. The "Californian" saw eight. The time over which the rockets from the "Titanic" were sent up was from about 12.45 to 1.45 o'clock. It was about this time that the "Californian" saw the rockets. At 2.40 [sic] Mr. Stone called to the Master that the ship from which he'd seen the rockets had disappeared.

  At 2.20 a.m. the "Titanic" had foundered. It was suggested that the rockets seen by the "Californian" were from some other ship, not the "Titanic." But no other ship to fit this theory has ever been heard of.

  These circumstances convince me that the ship seen by the "Californian" was the "Titanic," and if so, according to Captain Lord, the two vessels were about five miles apart at the time of the disaster. The evidence from the "Titanic" corroborates this estimate, but I am advised that the distance was probably greater, though not more than eight to ten miles. The ice by which the "Californian" was surrounded was loose ice extending for a distance of not more than two or three miles in the direction of the "Titanic." The night was clear and the sea was smooth. When she first saw the rockets the "Californian" could have pushed through the ice to the open water without any serious risk and so have come to the assistance of the "Titanic." Had she done so she might have saved many if not all of the lives that were lost.

  Captain Lord claimed that he was 19 miles away at the time and that the ship he saw appeared to be too near and too small to be the Titanic:

  6752. What size steamer did she appear to you - can you give us some idea?

  - She was something like ourselves.

  The SS Californian, 447 feet long, photographed from the rescue ship Carpathia, 15th April 1912

  © Science Photo Library

  And his second officer said that the rockets they saw did not appear to rise any higher than half the height of the steamer’s masthead light:

  7921. …these rockets did not appear to go very high; they were very low lying; they were only about half the height of the steamer's masthead light and I thought rockets would go higher than that.

  Captain Lord also insisted that he had signalled to the nearby ship throughout that night with his powerful Morse lamp and that she had not taken the slightest bit of notice of it:

  We signalled her, at half-past 11, with the Morse lamp. She did not take the slightest notice of it. That was between half-past 11 and 20 minutes to 12. We signalled her again at 10 minutes past 12, half-past 12, a quarter to 1 o
'clock. We have a very powerful Morse lamp. I suppose you can see that about 10 miles, and she was about 4 miles off, and she did not take the slightest notice of it.

  Captain Stanley Lord of the Californian © TopFoto

  Nevertheless, the ship which was seen from the Californian also seemed to be only about five miles away, just as the ship seen from the Titanic had appeared to be:

  Lord (Californian Captain): 6761. What distance do you think she was from you when you could see the lights?

  - About five miles.

  Groves (Californian 2nd Officer): 8385. When she came to a stop what was the distance?

  - Well, I should think about five to seven miles.

  Stone (Californian 3rd Officer): 7819. How far away did you judge they were?

  - Approximately about five miles. Affidavit: “I judged her to be a small tramp steamer and about five miles distant.”

  Gibson (Californian apprentice): 7440. Did you form any view as to how far away the ship was?

  - From four to seven miles.

  Those who believed Captain Lord suggested that he had been made the scapegoat for a whitewashed enquiry which must have overlooked a ‘mystery ship’ between the Californian and the Titanic, and those who accepted the findings of the courts judged Lord to be a lying, unfeeling coward, with blood on his hands.

  This quickly became known as ‘The Californian Incident’ and debate has now raged over it for 100 years. Indeed, so passionate were Lord’s supporters that the British Enquiry into the Loss of the Titanic was re-appraised in 1992 by the British Marine Accident Investigation Branch of the Department of Transport, specifically to reassess the 1912 evidence relating to the Californian, following Robert Ballard’s discovery in 1985 of Titanic’s wreck, 13 miles to the eastward of her final distress position.

  This new investigation failed to resolve The Californian Incident, and split the government inspectors assigned to the case. The Inspector concluded that the Californian was 5-7 miles away and the Deputy Chief Inspector concluded that she was 17-20 miles away, though he did accept that she could have seen the Titanic, even from this distance. As part of his explanation for this, the Deputy Chief Inspector sighted the possibility of abnormal refraction, which is common in cold water areas, such as the freezing Labrador Current in which the Titanic sank, and which has the effect of making distant objects appear much nearer than they really are: