Nomadic, Titanic & other historic vessels

[Mike Bull]

Ha, there's been many an argument about this one...for me, it's pretty clear cut; they were near enough that both ships could see each other; the Californian crew repeatedly noted a large ship that had stopped, watched and remarked how it took on an increasingly strange angle to the water, counted the rockets it repeatedly fired, and noted it's eventual disappearance. Some of the Californian crew thought something was amiss, but nobody quite acted enough- Captain Lord in particular.

[Richie]

i watched the recent titanic documentary, along with the aftermath documentary.... both were good...the aftermath one was a bit annoying as it kept repeating stuff over and over again.... interesting to note that when they ran short of coffins it was the third class bodies that were being tossed back into the sea.. I love the titanic documentaries, weird how tragedy always seems to interest folk....

[Renegadenemo]

Some of the Californian crew thought something was amiss, but nobody quite acted enough- Captain Lord in particular.

Yeah but they didn't know they were watching something that we're still gossiping about a hundred years later. It was likely just a strange night at sea and no one gave it a lot of thought until the radio operator got out of bed next morning.

[Richie]

surely you see flares going off and you would act ? at very least wake up the radio op and see if there had been any distress calls etc etc

[Dangermouse]

Interestingly the flat calm should apparently have been a hint that there was a lot of ice about. The sea was famously pond-like on that night (which didn't help as there were no waves breaking against the iceberg, which would have made it more visible). Ice acts much like oil in preventing waves from growing.

Carpathia in her dash north apparently stationed a lookout right down at the bow, as well as the usual crow's nest and bridge positions. They reckoned that a man there would stand a better chance of seeing an iceberg as a shadow against the stars. Had Titanic done this they might well have gained the extra few seconds of warning needed.

[bluebirdsback]

Have heard this a few times now, the theory is that if Titanic headed straight on into the iceberg it would have caused less damage and might have saved her, another mistake made was to give full rudder then banging her into reverse canceling out the effect of the rudder, I am no expert but would like to know from you lot out there that are, if there is any truth in these statements. Hind sight is a wonderful thing and if i had been captain that night i dont think i would have gone nose first into the iceberg. My second thought would be stop this bloody ship.

[Dangermouse]

I don't see the full reverse/crash stop as likely - Murdoch wasn't that daft, he would have known that not only would it disable the steering but it would also have taken a while for the engines to stop and reverse. A witness reported seeing the telegraphs set to "all stop" on the bridge shortly after, so I'd say it's more likely that he called for "all stop" instead. The rudder would still have responded but Titanic would have begun to slow down. Add misinterpretations by investigators who don't realise that all stop merely means "stop the engines" and you have a tale of a frantic attempt to avoid collision by reversing engines.

There is also the fact that the first most passengers knew was the infamous "like a giant finger drawn along the ship's side" moment of impact. A crash stop would have been a very noisy event with a lot of vibration at such a speed (if it didn't snap the propshafts and wreck the engines), I've experienced similar at harbour speeds on a large ferry before now and you definitely know about it when they reverse engines!

Crashing head-on would probably have left Titanic able to reach New York at the expense of anyone unfortunate enough to be in the stokers quarters in the bow. However, it's so ingrained to avoid obstacles that people will always try to steer around them. The reckoning is that Murdoch came incredibly close to avoiding the collision but mistimed the second turn (to push the stern around and away from the iceberg) by a few seconds.

[Renegadenemo]

surely you see flares going off and you would act ? at very least wake up the radio op and see if there had been any distress calls etc etc

Rockets were used for all sorts of signalling purposes back then and therefore didn't automatically denote distress.

[sheppane]

The restored 'Cutty Sark' was unveiled by HM the Queen today at Greenwich.

What a missed opportunity. Hoisting this fine ship up on beams, which run through her hull, just so access could be improved.
Whoever thought that was the best solution should hang their head in shame. For £50m they could have resotored her to full seaworthy order.

Another HLF poloitically correct solution, all in the name of access. It also goes to show they don't mind destruction of fabric when it suits them.

I'm glad they are not in the picture re the resoration of K7

[Jordangbr]

They would have put it on the roof of the Ruskin for 'access'.....