Titanic: A Very Deceiving Night

by Tim Maltin

  - No; I told him, "She looks rather to have a big side out of the water."

  7658. Had you noticed that she looked queer before he spoke to you about it?

  - No.

  7659. You had not. Then you looked through the glasses?

  - Yes.

  7660. And when you looked through the glasses what was it you saw? What was it that struck you?

  - That she seemed, to be heavily listed to starboard.

  7661. You were looking at her port light?

  - Yes.

  7662. What did you see about her port light?

  - It seemed to be higher out of the water than what it was before.

  7667. Did not you, say anything to him about what you noticed, about her red light?

  - I said she seemed to have a big side out of the water.

  7668. Did he agree with you or did he not?

  - Yes.

  7669. He did agree with you?

  - Yes.

  7670. When you looked at this ship's red light and thought that it seemed queer, did you also look at her lights in the afterpart of her?

  - Yes.

  7671. How did they stand in relation to the red light?

  - They did not seem to be the same as they were before.

  7675. Can you help us about it; tell us if you can. What was it about her after-lights, this glare of lights in the afterpart, which made you think they were not the same as before? What was the difference?

  - That I cannot say.

  7676. Were they in the same position as they were before?

  - They were in the same position, but they seemed to look different.

  7677. They merely seemed to look different?

  - Yes.

  7678. Did you think from looking at them that the ship was lying on an even keel?

  - Not by the white lights alone.

  7679. You mean the white lights would not have suggested to you that she was not lying on an even keel?

  - No.

  7680. (The Commissioner.) Am I to understand that, as far as you could tell, the position of the white lights had not changed?

  - They seemed to have changed, but I cannot say how.

  7688. Did you look to see whether these after-lights seemed higher up out of the water, or lower in the water?

  - I noticed them all at the same time.

  7689. What, the red light and the others too?

  - Yes.

  7690. And do you mean that the white light seemed higher out of the water as well as the red light?

  - Yes.

  7780. Was the glare of light which you saw on the afterpart of this vessel forward or aft of the masthead light?

  - Abaft the masthead light.

  7781. So that you would be seeing her starboard side?

  - No, her port side.

  7782. The glare of light which you say was aft, was aft of the masthead lights?

  - Yes.

  7783. Was that to your left or your right as you were looking at her?

  - To the right.

  7784. Do you mean the masthead light was to the right?

  - No, the masthead light was to the left.

  7785. Was that before you saw her apparently steaming to the south-west?

  - Yes.

  7786. Did you see her turn round?

  - No.

  7787. Had you a good opportunity of seeing whether she had two masthead lights or not - I understand you only saw one?

  - I only saw one.

  7788. How long had you the one masthead light under observation?

  - From the time I first saw her to the time she disappeared.

  7789. How long would that be?

  - A quarter-past twelve to five past two.

  7790. And during that time were you using glasses?

  - Yes.

  7791. Do you think you could have missed the second masthead light had it been there?

  - No.

  7792. Had you a discussion with the Second Officer as to whether this vessel was a tramp or not?

  - Yes.

  7793. And did he agree with you?

  - Yes.

  7794. (The Commissioner.) Did he give his reason?

  - That she was probably burning oil lights; that was the cause of the white head mast light flickering.

  The looming, sinking Titanic was certainly a confusing sight, at least until she disappeared at 2.05am Californian Time, which was 2.17am Titanic Time, when Titanic’s hull split apart and her lights went out, three minutes before her darkened hull, with 1,500 people still clinging to it, slipped beneath the waves:

  Gibson: Just after two o'clock she was then about two points on the Port bow, she disappeared from sight and nothing was seen of her again. The Second Officer then said, "Call the Captain and tell him that the ship has disappeared in the S.W., that we are heading W.S.W. and that altogether she has fired eight rockets." I then went down below to the chartroom and called the Captain and told him and he asked me if there were any colours in the rockets. I told him that they were all white. He then asked me what time it was…

  7565. What was the time?

  - Five minutes past two by the wheelhouse clock.

  N52W

  Just as the scintillation in the thermal inversion had scrambled Titanic’s Morse lamp signals, the abnormal refraction scrambled the message that the sinking Titanic’s lights would otherwise have conveyed to the Californian: That it was a sinking ship they were viewing, not one steaming away.

  The strange optical effects that night continued well beyond Titanic’s sinking.

  Carpathia picked up Titanic’s radio distress signal at 12.35am and headed straight for the doomed liner. But at 2.40am, when she was still 18 miles away from Titanic’s wreck site, Captain Rostron saw the first of a series of green flares, which were being burnt by Titanic’s Fourth Officer Boxhall, in his lifeboat No. 2. In the abnormally refracting conditions, the fact that Captain Rostron could see this low, green signal at such a distance caused him to conclude that it must have been the starboard light of the giant Titanic herself:

  “At 20 minutes to 3 I saw the green flare, which is the White Star Company’s night signal, and naturally, knowing I must be at least 20 miles away, I thought it was the ship herself still. It was showing just for a few seconds and I passed the remark that she must still be afloat.”…”At twenty minutes to three I saw a night signal, as I was saying, and it was just about a half a point on the port bow, practically right ahead.”

  Here Rostron testifies again to the apparent height of Boxhall’s looming, hand-held flare:

  “At 2:40, I saw a flare, about half a point on the port bow, and immediately took it for granted that it was the Titanic itself, and I remarked that she must be still afloat, as I knew we were a long way off, and it seemed so high.”

  Captain Rostron testified that every time he saw this light, he fired a rocket in answer: “I had been firing rockets and the Company's signals every time we saw this green light again.”

  In his autobiography, Tramps and Ladies, Second Officer Bisset of the Carpathia explained the sighting of this green flare by saying it went 500 feet into the sky, 25 miles away, and so appeared right on their horizon. But in fact it was just a hand-held flare in one of Titanic’s lifeboats, and yet that night it was seen at a distance of about 18 miles.

  Even when Carpathia was very near the lifeboat, the abnormal conditions of visibility continued to make it difficult to judge distances, as Bisset later explains, at 4.00am:

  “Steered cautiously towards a green flare sighted low in the water, at a distance difficult to judge in the continuing peculiar conditions of visibility. It appeared likely, but at first was not certain, that this flare was from a lifeboat…the light of the green flare towards which we were steering had burnt out.”

  But at 3.15am, just over half an hour after they had first sighted Boxhall’s green flare at 18 miles range, Carpathia observed the Californian at a range of about 20 miles. As the Carpathia
approached Titanic from the southeast, she observed the masthead lights and even the port sidelight of the Californian, two points on Carpathia’s starboard bow:

  Rostron: “…during the night previous to getting out of the "Titanic's" position. We saw masthead lights quite distinctly of another steamer between us and the "Titanic." That was about quarter-past three.

  25553. The masthead lights?

  - Yes, of another steamer, and one of the Officers swore he also saw one of the sidelights.

  25554. Which one?

  - The port sidelight.

  25558. What time was it?

  - About a quarter-past three.

  25559. And how was the light bearing?

  - About 2 points on the starboard bow.

  25560. On your starboard bow?

  - On my starboard bow; that would be about N. 30, W. true.

  As you can see from the following diagram, this is exactly where you would expect the Californian to appear from the Carpathia, approaching from the southeast:

  However, again the abnormal refraction misled Captain Rostron, making him conclude that the ship he saw must have been between him and the Titanic, rather than about ten miles beyond it, as – under normal conditions – they would not have been able to see a ships sidelight at 20 miles.

  Meanwhile, Stone and Gibson on the Californian were watching as Carpathia approached Titanic’s wreck site from the southeast, right on their starboard beam, firing rockets as she went, which Boxhall answered by showing flares in his lifeboat, which was still almost 10 miles ahead of the northwest-heading Carpathia, and which therefore appeared two points before Californian’s beam, as shown in the following diagram:

  In the thermal inversion, Carpathia’s high rockets 20 miles away appeared the same height as Boxhall’s low, hand-held flares, 10 miles away:

  As Apprentice Gibson on the Californian said in his April 18th 1912 affidavit to Captain Lord: “At about 3:20 looking over the weather cloth, I observed a rocket about two points before the beam (Port), which I reported to the Second Officer [this was a green flare from Boxhall’s boat]. About three minutes later I saw another rocket right abeam [this was the Carpathia answering] which was followed later by another one about two points before the beam [this was Boxhall steering them by his flares, as per Rostron’s testimony, cited above].”

  In the abnormally refracting conditions of that night, it’s also possible that Californian’s lights and Boxhall’s flares, and possibly even Carpathia’s rockets, may also have been seen at a great distance from the Mount Temple, as that ship approached Titanic’s wreck site before dawn, from the southwest.

  On the 9th of May 1912, an affidavit was submitted to the American inquiry from Dr F.C. Quitzrau who was travelling as a second class passenger on the Mount Temple at the time of the Titanic disaster. In his affidavit, Quitzrau said:

  “About 3 o’clock New York time, 2 o’clock ship’s time, the Titanic was sighted by some of the officers and crew; that as soon as the Titanic was seen all lights on the Mount Temple were put out and the engines stopped and the boat lay dead for about two hours; that as soon as day broke the engines were started and the Mount Temple circled the Titanic’s position…”

  This could possibly have been the lights of the Californian, observed beyond the ice barrier.

  Later, on the 6th of August 1912, W.H. Baker, Mount Temple’s new fourth officer wrote:

  “They were from ten to fourteen miles from her when they saw her signals. I gather from what was told me that the captain seemed afraid to go through the ice, although it was not so very thick. They told me that they not only saw her deck lights but several green lights between them and what they thought was the Titanic. There were two loud reports heard which they said must have been the ‘finale’ of the Titanic; this was some time after sighting her, I gathered … I must tell you these men were fearfully indignant that they were not called up to give evidence at the time, for they were greatly incensed at the captain’s behaviour in the matter.”

  Given the abnormally refracting air that night, it is possible that the ship seen from the Mount Temple, as she approached from the southwest, was in fact the Californian, beyond Titanic’s distress position, with the green flares from Boxhall’s lifeboat to the south-eastward of Californian…and those loud reports, if accurate, could possibly have been the booming from two of Carpathia’s distress rockets, as she raced to the scene, as a thermal inversion also has the effect of bending sound waves downward, away from the warmer air above and back down towards the ground, though sound waves travel much less far than light and whether any sound was heard would depend on where those sound waves hit the surface of the sea:

  Temperature Inversions & Sound Propagation Diagram, showing how sound travels further than normal in thermal inversions, due to abnormal refraction © Mike O’Connor, Physics Applied

  Californian then watched Carpathia come to a stop to pick up Boxhall’s boat at 4.05am:

  8017. When after 4? - Just after 4 o'clock - a few minutes possibly. The Chief Officer relieved me. I gave him a full report of everything I had seen and everything I had reported to the Master, his instructions, when the steamer disappeared, and the way she was bearing - the whole information regarding the watch. He looked over on the port beam, and he remarked to me, "There she is; there is that steamer; she is all right." I looked at the steamer through the glasses, and I remarked to him "That is not the same steamer; she has two masthead lights." I saw a steamer then just abaft the port beam showing two masthead lights apparently heading much in the same direction as ourselves.

  This is confirmed by Stewart at the British Enquiry:

  8596. Did you see anything?- Yes, I saw a steamer to the southward.8597. At 4 o'clock in the morning?- Yes.8598. What was it you saw at 4 o'clock in the morning?- I saw two white masthead lights and a few lights amidships.

  8604 "I looked to the southward and saw a light. On looking through the glass I saw two masthead lights and a lot of lights amidships, apparently a four-masted steamer. This was 4 a.m."

  8633. When the Captain said: "She looks all right," what was he referring to? - She just looked like an ordinary steamer stopped. 8643. It comes out for the first time in the last minute? - I thought all the time that that ship had something to do with it or knew something about it.

  8905. Is it in your mind at all that it was the "Carpathia" you saw?

  It was the Carpathia, stopped and picking up Titanic’s lifeboats.

  A very deceiving night

  At worst, the deceiving conditions caused Captain Lord to conclude that what they were observing the night the Titanic sank was a nearby cargo ship with no wireless and a slack crew who would not reply to his Morse lamp, which had probably got into some difficulty owing to the dangerous ice conditions. In the circumstances, he decided that it was better to wait a few hours until daylight, when he could investigate the matter safely.

  At best, he may have only been made aware by Gibson that it could really have been a situation of distress after the nearby stranger had disappeared, when he still felt he could not do anything useful until daylight. The low rockets could genuinely have struck him as company signals, especially if he had also been informed, as Stone claimed, that it appeared Titanic began steaming away as soon as she began firing rockets. After all, a ship in distress does not steam away from possible assistance: The tragedy is that, in those peculiar conditions of visibility, a ship sinking would look like one steaming away, and the latter would be much more likely.

  Nevertheless, Stone and Gibson had worked out that something was wrong:

  Stone: 7900. But you knew they were not company's signals, did you not?

  - I said I did not think so.

  7901. (The Commissioner.) You did not believe they were company's signals?

  - I had never seen company's signals like them before.

  7902. Then what did you think they were?

  - I did not think what they were intended for; white ro
ckets is what I saw them as.

  7903. Wait. You did not think they were company's signals?

  - No.

  7904. You did not think they were being sent up for fun?

  - No.

  7905. What did you think?

  - I just thought they were white rockets, that is all.

  7906. That you know because your eyes told you of it, but what did you think they were being sent up for?

  - Naturally, the first thought that crossed my mind was that the ship might be in trouble…

  Gibson: 7527. You have told us what the Officer said to you. Did you think yourself when you looked at her through the glasses that something was wrong?

  - We had been talking about it together.

  7528. (The Commissioner.) I should very much like you to tell me what you had been saying to the Officer?

  - He remarked to me -

  7529. I should like you to tell me what were you saying to each other?

  - He remarked to me that a ship was not going to fire rockets at sea for nothing.

  7530. Who said that?

  - The Second Officer.

  7531. A ship is not going to fire rockets at sea for nothing?

  - Yes.

  7532. I daresay you agreed with him?

  - Yes.

  7533. What took place after that between you and him?

  - We were talking about it all the time, Sir, till five minutes past two, when she disappeared.

  And this attitude of concern on the part of Stone and Gibson was confirmed by Evans, the wireless operator:

  CFE177. Did any other officer of the Californian say anything to you about having notified the captain three times that a vessel was sending up rockets?

  - I think the apprentice did.

  CFE178. What is his name?

  - Gibson.

  CFE186. Now, witness, tell me if you heard anybody else say anything about the captain having been called three times and informed that rockets were being sent up, the night the Titanic sank?

  - Well, I do not remember any other special individual, but I know it was being talked about a lot.

  CFE187. Collectively?

  - Yes, sir.

  CFE188. There was a lot of talk about it, but you cannot recall any individual who spoke to you about it?