Titanic: A Very Deceiving Night

by Tim Maltin

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

  Similarly to all those other sailors quoted above, Titanic’s lookouts also described a slight haze around the horizon, despite the remarkable clarity of the night, and they testified that the fatal iceberg appeared to come out of this haze at the last moment:

  Reginald Lee, Titanic Lookout:

  2401. What sort of a night was it?

  - A clear, starry night overhead, but at the time of the accident there was a haze right ahead.

  2402. At the time of the accident a haze right ahead?

  - A haze right ahead - in fact it was extending more or less round the horizon. There was no moon.

  2403. And no wind?

  - And no wind whatever, barring what the ship made herself.

  2404. Quite a calm sea?

  - Quite a calm sea.

  2405. Was it cold?

  - Very, freezing.

  2408. Did you notice this haze which you said extended on the horizon when you first came on the look-out, or did it come later?

  - It was not so distinct then - not to be noticed. You did not really notice it then - not on going on watch, but we had all our work cut out to pierce through it just after we started. My mate happened to pass the remark to me. He said, "Well; if we can see through that we will be lucky." That was when we began to notice there was a haze on the water. There was nothing in sight.

  2409. You had been told, of course, to keep a careful look-out for ice, and you were trying to pierce the haze as much as you could?

  - Yes, to see as much as we could.

  2441. (The Attorney-General.) I said 60 ft.; I am told it is about 55 feet. (To the Witness.) Can you give us any idea of the breadth [of the iceberg]? What did it look like? It was something which was above the forecastle?

  - It was a dark mass that came through that haze and there was no white appearing until it was just close alongside the ship, and that was just a fringe at the top.

  2442. It was a dark mass that appeared, you say?

  - Through this haze, and as she moved away from it, there was just a white fringe along the top.

  2447. Quite right; that is where she hit, but can you tell us how far the iceberg was from you, this mass that you saw?

  - It might have been half a mile or more; it might have been less; I could not give you the distance in that peculiar light.

  Frederick Fleet, Titanic Lookout:

  Titanic Lookout Frederick Fleet © Science Photo Library

  17245. Now at the time you went into the crow's-nest, which would be at 10 o'clock on that night, was the sky clear?

  - Yes.

  17246. The sea we know was very calm?

  - The sea calm.

  17247. The stars shining?

  - Yes.

  17248. Could you clearly see the horizon?

  - The first part of the watch we could.

  17249. The first part of the watch you could?

  - Yes.

  17250. After the first part of the watch what was the change if any?

  - A sort of slight haze.

  17251. A slight haze?

  - Yes.

  17252. Was the haze on the waterline?

  - Yes.

  17253. It prevented you from seeing the horizon clearly?

  - It was nothing to talk about.

  17254. It was nothing much, apparently?

  - No.

  17255. Was this haze ahead of you?

  - Yes.

  17256. Was it only ahead, did you notice?

  - Well, it was only about 2 points on each side.

  17257. When you saw this haze did it continue right up to the time of your striking the berg?

  - Yes.

  17263. Did you say anything to your mate about it?

  - Well, I told him there was a slight haze coming.

  17264. Is that Lee?

  - Lee.

  17265. At the time that you noticed the haze was there anything in sight?

  - No.

  17266. Did it interfere with your sight ahead of you?

  - No.

  17267. Could you see as well ahead and as far ahead after you noticed the haze as you could before?

  - It did not affect us, the haze.

  17268. It did not affect you?

  - No, we could see just as well.

  George Symons, on Titanic’s Lookout before Fleet and Lee, also testified to seeing the same ‘haze’, despite the clear night:

  11983. While you were on the look-out, up to 10 o'clock, what sort of a night was it?

  - Pretty clear, Sir, a fine night, rather hazy; if anything a little hazy on the horizon, but nothing to speak of.

  11984. Would you describe it as a very clear night?

  - Yes.

  Lord Mersey, British Wreck Commissioner

  The Commissioner:

  I mean the evidence before and after the accident is that the sky was perfectly clear, and therefore if the evidence of the haze is to be accepted, it must have been some extraordinary natural phenomenon…

  In the past this important evidence has been disregarded as false and inconsistent with the clear night. But it is for that reason an unlikely story to make up and Symons, who also testified to the haze, was not even on watch at the time of the collision. Furthermore, their descriptions of a slight haze on a clear night, which did not seem to reduce visibility, is consistent with the apparent haze seen when a superior mirage is in fact present and scattering light on the horizon.

  Crash Site Investigation

  In order to establish if the haze the lookouts were describing on that crystal-clear night was indeed a superior mirage, we need to build a 3D model of the thermal geography of Titanic’s crash site, to see if the temperature and therefore density profile of the air at Titanic’s crash site was sufficiently abnormal to cause superior miraging on the horizon.

  On 1st September 1985 Dr Robert Ballard from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution near Boston, USA found Titanic’s wreck two miles beneath the surface of the ocean, and we now know that this located Titanic at 41.43N 49.56W, about 6 miles south of her track to New York:

  April 1912 Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic, showing steamer tracks and Titanic’s wreck site.

  Inset: Bob Ballard during the 1985 expedition when he found the Titanic

  © Topfoto Picture Library

  Even today, this is an area where the freezing waters of the Labrador Current meet the warm waters of the Gulf Stream:

  Thermal satellite image of the North Atlantic from US Naval Research Laboratory, April 2003

  Analysis of air and water temperature readings for Titanic’s wreck site in April 1912, from the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS), reveal that the same was the case in April 1912, and that Titanic sank in an area where the freezing waters of the Labrador Current ran into the warm waters of the Gulf Stream:

  “A pretty sharp drop”

  The sudden temperature change as the Titanic crossed from the warm waters of the Gulf Stream into the much colder waters of the Labrador Current was noticed by Titanic’s Second Officer, Charles Lightoller, in the following testimony he gave to the British Inquiry into the Titanic disaster in 1912, which reveals a sudden, sharp, four degree drop in temperature in the half hour between 7pm and 7.30pm and a 10 degree drop in temperature in the two hours between 7pm and 9pm, when the air approached freezing point:

  13589. (The Commissioner.) And from 7 to half-past seven there was a fall of four degrees in the temperature?

  - Yes, My Lord.

  13590. (The Solicitor-General.) Did you observe that at the time as something pretty sharp?

  - Yes, a pretty sharp drop. It had been going down previously to that before I left the deck.

  13591. When did you notice the fall in the temperature beginning seriously?

  - Probably about half-past six.

  13592. Very well; the fall in the temperature began at half-past six and a drop of four degrees between
seven and half-past?

  - Yes.

  13593. Did you notice what the actual temperature was a little later by the thermometer?

  - Yes, later on in the watch I think the Quartermaster two or three times told me what the temperature was in order that I might know when it got near to freezing point to send word to the engine room and the carpenter with regard to fresh water.

  13594. Can you tell me what was the temperature which you were given and at what time?

  - When Mr. Murdoch mentioned it to me as far as I recollect it had fallen from 43 degrees to 39.

  13595. This is Fahrenheit I suppose, is it not?

  - Yes; and then I sent word down to the carpenter about nine o'clock; it was then 33 degrees, and I sent word to the carpenter and to the engine room - for the carpenter to look after his fresh water; that is to say, he has to drain it off to prevent the pipes freezing - and to the engine room for them to take the necessary precautions for the winches.

  13596. It is 33 degrees at nine o'clock. That is only one degree above freezing?

  - One degree, exactly.

  The sharpness of the boundary between the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the cold water of the Labrador Current and its proximity to Titanic’s wreck site was recorded after the disaster by the SS Minia who, whilst drifting and collecting bodies near Titanic’s wreck site, noted in her log: “Northern edge of Gulf Stream well defined. Water changed from 36 to 56 [degrees Fahrenheit] in half mile”:

  Log extract from the SS Minia

  The rescue ship Mackay Bennett, also recovering bodies in 1912, drew the following map of water temperatures at Titanic’s wreck site, which records this sharp boundary between the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the cold waters of the Labrador current, and its proximity to Titanic’s wreck site:

  Map showing location of Titanic bodies and sharp boundary of Gulf Stream and Labrador Current, drawn by the crew of the cable ship Mackay Bennett, whilst recovering bodies in 1912

  © Nova Scotia Archives Museum

  On May 4th 1912 RMS Royal George recorded the sharp boundary between the Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream. Note the nine degrees Celsius “Temperature wall” where the sea temperature rises as the ship moves from the cold “Arctic Current”, into the much warmer waters of the Gulf Stream:

  Contemporary plot of the temperature wall between the Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream, drawn from the records of RMS Royal George, May 4th 1912

  From all of this it is clear that Titanic sank near the boundary between the freezing waters of the Labrador Current and the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, and that this boundary was relatively sharp, as warm and cold water do not mix very well.

  Thermal inversion

  Further analysis of previously unseen log books and Greenwich Mean Noon Observations from more than 75 ships which passed through the area where the Titanic sank, between the 5th and the 25th of April 1912 revealed a more detailed picture.

  Example Greenwich Mean Noon Observations form from the Almerian, showing her 15th April 1912 8.38am reading of 31 degrees Fahrenheit water temperature at 41.48N, 50.24W, when she was “In among pack-ice”:

  Plotting all of the air and sea temperatures and positional data and times from these records revealed that, two days before the accident, Titanic’s freezing wreck site had been much warmer.

  At 6pm on 12th April 1912, the log of the eastbound German steamer, Alster, shows she was only 3 miles southwest of Titanic’s eventual wreck site when she recorded a sea temperature of 5°C; and an hour later, at 7pm, when she was only about 8 miles east of Titanic’s wreck site, she recorded a sea temperature of 12.6°C.

  Combining all the data from all these ships, reveals that the freezing Labrador Current had only recently flowed through the area like a river:

  Thermal map of Titanic’s wreck site compiled using the log book and Greenwich Mean Noon Observations forms data from more than 75 ships which passed through the area, 5th - 25th April 1912

  The warm waters of the Gulf Stream had previously warmed the air column above Titanic’s eventual wreck site to about 12 degrees Celsius, but now the freezing Labrador Current had flowed into this normally warm area of the sea, under-running the warm air and causing the air column at Titanic’s wreck site to cool rapidly, from the bottom up, as the air near the surface of the sea dissipated its heat into the freezing water flowing south in the Labrador Current. This created a steep thermal inversion at Titanic’s wreck site, with stratified layers of cold air lying below layers of much warmer air, higher up. As Lightoller noticed, Titanic had begun to head into this thermal inversion at about 7pm on the evening of her fatal collision:

  In the above diagram, we can see how Titanic was leaving the warmer air, higher and higher up, as she headed deeper into the thermal inversion. The Paula and the Trautenfels are the last two vessels we have found complete log books for who went through the area of Titanic’s wreck site, in daylight, before Titanic’s collision. Here we can see the Trautenfels passing through the thermal inversion over the Labrador Current at Titanic’s eventual wreck site, on the morning of 14th April 1912:

  Graph showing Trautenfels water and air temperature readings at Titanic’s eventual wreck site, early in the morning on 14th April 1912. Temperature is on the Y-axis; time, date and distance east and west from Titanic’s wreck site is on the X-axis:

  In the inversion the air temperature at deck height is about two degrees warmer than the sea, less than 40 feet below. This indicates a strong thermal inversion, sufficient to cause miraging. But if Trautenfels had been to read the air above deck height it would have been even warmer, and high above the ship the air would still have been at 13 degrees Celsius, which is the temperature it had previously been heated to by the warm waters of Gulf Stream on either side, before the freezing Labrador Current arrived on the scene and began cooling the air, from the bottom up.

  14 hours later, when the Californian arrived on the scene the freezing water of the Labrador current would have had the effect of cooling the air at deck height to the same temperature as the sea, so no inversion could be measured from the deck, but there would still be a 13 degree inversion higher up. This explains why the temperature readings of the Californian, who remained near Titanic’s wreck site all that night, recorded similar air and sea temperatures. The failure to understand that there could still be a strong thermal inversion present, higher up, in this situation is one of the main reasons why the strong thermal inversion at Titanic’s wreck site has not been discovered until now:

  Thermal inversions cause abnormal refraction or miraging, where light bends abnormally, and are common in the Grand Banks area of the North Atlantic where Titanic sank. Many were recorded by British scientist G. I. Taylor, in his 1913 expedition to the area on board the research vessel Scotia.

  British scientist G.I. Taylor

  Taylor is sometimes known as “The father of meteorology” and he was sent to Titanic’s wreck site after the disaster, together with a group of other scientists, to research the causes of fog on the Grand Banks. Here G. I. Taylor flew kites into the air column, fitted with altimeters and thermometers. The graph below shows the results of a typical ascent, the air immediately above the cold sea being only 4.5 degrees Celsius, but rising to 9 degrees Celsius by 100 metres and more than 12 degrees Celsius by 300 metres:

  G. I. Taylor 1913 Temperature-height diagram from his Grand Banks kite ascents

  In these conditions, G. I. Taylor noticed that the smoke from the funnel of the Scotia hung in stratified layers, because it could rise through the colder air near the sea, but could not rise up higher, into the much warmer and therefore less dense air higher up. He photographed this phenomenon and published it in his 1917 essay “The Formation of Fog and Mist”:

  1913 photograph by G. I. Taylor of flat-topped smoke from the steamship Scotia, on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland

  Taylor said: “When I first noticed these streaks [of smoke], I used to think that they were for
med on days when there was no wind at all, and that they marked the position in the stationary atmosphere through which the steamer’s funnel had passed. Later, however, in 1913 I had an opportunity of studying these streaks under exceptionally favourable conditions and came to a different conclusion. At that time I was cruising on the whaling ship Scotia over the Banks of Newfoundland and off the coast of Labrador. In these regions the sea consists of water which has come down out of Baffin Bay with the Arctic current. It is therefore exceptionally cold. The air, on the other hand, is frequently from the West and blows off the mainland of Canada which is very warm during the later months of summer [or from the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream nearby]. Under these conditions an inversion of temperature close to the surface of the sea is of very frequent occurrence.”

  In his Report, Taylor stated:

  “The ideal conditions for the formation of a large temperature gradient are –

  1. A rapid change in the sea temperature along the air’s path.

  2. A large range in temperature.

  3. A small wind velocity, because the eddy motion seems to increase rapidly with wind velocity.”

  And this is exactly the conditions we find at Titanic’s wreck site; a sharp boundary between warm and cold water, and very still air at the wreck site:

  S.S. Paula, April 14th 1912, 41.56N 50.03W: "After 2pm no wind, calm sea, fine weather."

  Seeing the inversion

  Important confirmation that there was indeed a strong thermal inversion at Titanic’s wreck site comes from First Class passenger Philipp Edmund Mock who observed the same thing happening to the smoke from the sinking liner, which he observed from Lifeboat Number 11:

  “We were probably a mile away when the Titanic’s lights went out. I last saw the ship with her stern high in the air going down. After the noise I saw a huge column of black smoke slightly lighter than the sky rising high into the sky and then flattening out at the top like a mushroom.”