| My On-Line Publications |
| Titanic's Master of Time A detailed look into the workings of the Magneta clock system that was installed on Titanic, and the impact of time adjustments that were carried out as the vessel traveled across the Atlantic. Collision Point A reappraisal of the location of where Titanic collided with an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912, including a collision sequence animation, an estimate for Titanic's final stopping point following the collision, and a comparison to the 1992 work of the MAIB. Iceberg Right Ahead A stochastic analysis of the density and distribution of icebergs in the region where the Titanic went down, including a realistic view of the sighting distances involved on a calm, clear, and moonless night. Keeping Track of a Maiden Voyage A look at the noontime positions of the SS Titanic during the first three days of her maiden transatlantic voyage, including the GMT of local apparent noon, the amount of clock setback, and the average speed made good for each day of her short voyage. (Originally published in the Irish Titanic Historical Society's White Star Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2, August 2006.) Olympic and Titanic: Maiden Voyage Mysteries Co-authored with Mark Chirnside, we explore some of the navigational aspects of the maiden voyage of Olympic and her ill-fated sister, including the uncovering of a 100-minute error in calculating Olympic's average crossing time and speed that was never before realized which understated her overall performance all these years. (Originally published in the Titanic International Society's journal Voyage, No. 59, Spring 2007.) Somewhere About 12 Square Feet A look at how that famous 12 square feet of aggregate hull opening, which described the extent of damage done to the S.S. Titanic, came about, and how a simple milk container can be used to visualize and quantify the flooding that took place on the ship over time. Speed and Revolutions The development of a slip table for the Titanic, including the derivation of curves of speed versus propeller revolutions with and without the central turbine connected up. Titanic's Hidden Deck A look into cellular double bottom of Olympic and Titanic which were made up of 44 separate watertight compartments below the level of the tank top. Titanic's Prime Mover A in-depth examination of the propulsion and power plant installed on the Olympic and Titanic, including how it all worked (including animations of the workings of various machinery) and how well it compared to the all-turbine plants of Lusitania and Mauretania. Titanic: Changing the Reality This hard hitting response, co-authored with Mark Chirnside, was written in 2008 to Dave Brown's paper, "Titanic: Changing Course," which was originally published on the GLTS website, that deals with issues of navigation and time. Speed and More Speed In this article, co-authored with Mark Chinside, we examine: - How fast was Titanic going when she collided with the iceberg, and when did she achieve that speed? - Did the ship have enough coal on board to run at full speed across the Atlantic? - Was Titanic out to break any crossing record and arrive in NY a day ahead of schedule? - How much influence did J. Bruce Ismay have on Capt. Smith regarding the matter in which the vessel was driven? - Was there any justifiable reason why Capt. Smith would drive his ship at full speed at night in a region of ice? (Originally published in the Titanic Historical Society's journal The Titanic Commutator, Vol. 32, No. 182 and 183.) Why A Low Angle Break? This short article explains why Titanic was much more likely to break in half at a relatively small angle of trim (between 10° and 15°) rather than at a high angle as once previously thought. Use is made of a simple analogy to a floating beam pivoted at one end, and a curve of bending moment Vs. trim angle is derived. A Matter of Stability and Trim This article derives the height above the keel of Titanic's Center of Buoyancy (KB), Center of Gravity (KG), and Metacenter (KM) for the night of April 14, 1912, before the accident took place. Also derived are the ship's Metacentric Radius (BM), Initial Righting Arm (GZ) and Righting Moment (WxGZ) as a function of heeling angle in degrees. In addition, the location of its Longitudinal Center of Floatation (LCF) is also derived. These parameters, along with the ship's displacement (W), draft (T), and Metacentric height (GM) on that night are also discussed. Knowledge of these parameters are a must for anyone wanting to build an accurate floating model that has the same stability and trim characteristics as the real ship, or for analyzing other aspects dealing with its stability or trim. She Turned Two Points in 37 Seconds This in-depth article deals with the turning characteristics of Olympic and Titanic. Based on data presented by H&W's naval architect Edward Wilding, we were able to recreate the turning circle of these ships with the helm put hard over with the going full speed ahead. We also were able to determine the performance during several zig-zag maneuvers where the helm is ordered shifted to the opposite side at a specified time following the initial helm order. The article also looks at the classic story of Titanic's encounter with the iceberg and the various claims made by eyewitnesses. It also looked into the dynamics of the initial impact with the iceberg. Several appendices are also included with show the details behind the various curves and data that are presented as well as other related results. Rockets, Lifeboats, and Time Changes This article, now available on line, was first published in TIS's Voyage 70, Winter 2009 issue, and in BTS's Atlantic Daily Bulletin, December 2009 issue. It deals with rocket sightings on the Californian and how they correlate with rocket firings, lifeboat launchings, and planned time changes that took place on the Titanic. DOES ANYONE REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT WAS? Originally written as an article and now incorporated into a book called: Titanic - An Enigma In Time. The work is an extensive in- depth look at the issue of time carried aboard Titanic on the night of the disaster. It originally started as a response to an article written by Senan Molony and posted on the Encyclopedia Titanica website, called: "When Did Titanic Try For Help?" Molony's paper was written to discredit the claim presented in my article "Rockets, Lifeboats, and Time Changes" (see above link) that the difference between NY time and Titanic time was 2 hours and 2 minutes, claiming that it was 1 hour and 33 minutes. 12:35 A.M. Apparent Time Carpathia At the US Senate Investigation into the Titanic disaster, Capt. Rostron said that he received the distress message about Titanic from Harold Cottam at 12:35 a.m., Monday, April 15, 1912. He also explained that 12:35 was Apparent time, and time in New York was 10:45 p.m. Sunday night. Was he right? Was Carpathia's clocks 1 hour 50 minutes ahead of clocks in New York? Or, was this another piece of erroneous information that was blindly accepted as true all these years? Now included as Appendix M in 'Strangers On The Horizon: Titanic and Californian - A Forensic Approach'. Navigational Inconsistencies of the SS Californian This is now part of Chapter I, "A Californian Voyage," in 'Strangers On The Horizon: Titanic and Californian - A Forensic Approach'. Finding the Apparent Floatation Pivot Point (AFPP) To someone looking from far away as Titanic slowly trimmed down by the head over a period of some 2 ½ hours following the collision with an iceberg, the ship would have appeared to be slowly pivoting about an axis on her original waterline located somewhere about 1/3 the vessel's length from the stern. This short technical paper derives the location of this Apparent Floatation Pivot Point (AFPP) when the vessel's draft aft and draft forward are know. It also shows why the location of the AFPP remains about the same location as more water entered the ship in a relatively confined space forward, and also shows why the angle of trim would tend to increase in direct proportion to the volume of floodwater that came into the vessel in the early stages of flooding. The Enigmatic Excursion of the SS Birma This is now part of Chapter XV in 'Strangers On The Horizon: Titanic and Californian - A Forensic Approach'. The Drift of Wreckage Using the same models used in air/sea rescue operations, we show that the wreckage seen by Californian on the morning of 15 April 1912 some ten miles south of the Titanic wreck site resulted primarily from the action of a south setting Labrador current, not by the action of the wind that sprang up at dawn. It also shows why the floating wreckage seen would be to the south of where many of the bodies would have been, an area that was avoided by both Californian and Carpathia. Now part of Chapter XI in 'Strangers On The Horizon: Titanic and Californian - A Forensic Approach'. What Color Were They? In a 2012 National Geographic special on Titanic, definitive statements made that the distress signals sent up from Titanic threw stars that were colored, and that the color of the stars or balls could be seen through viewing ports cut in the nose cones of signals found in box at wreck site. Yet, eyewitnesses who paid particular attention to the distress signals being sent up from Titanic, both near and far, and insisted that those signals threw stars that were principally white in color, have been dismissed based on faulty interpretation of what is seen on the tips of the signals found in this box. This 17 page article challenges those definitive conclusions that were stated before a nationally televised audience, presents close-up color photos of the box of signals discovered in the 2004 dive, and presents detailed descriptions of the socket signals themselves and how they were fired. (This article was revised on February 22, 2021.) Proceeding New York Unless Otherwise Ordered This article was first published in the Atlantic Daily Bulletin, journal of the British Titanic Society, in September 2012. The article takes an in-depth look at why Carpathia's Capt. Rostron delayed communicating his decision to take Titanic survivors to New York, and reproduces Carpathia's most likely route of departure from the scene of the wreckage. It also explores the question of timing, Carpathia's course made good to reach the lifeboats, and the witnessing of her arrival on the scene in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912. Now part of Chapter X in 'Strangers On The Horizon: Titanic and Californian - A Forensic Approach'. The Almerian and the Mount Temple - A Tale of Two Ships This article was first published in the December 2012 issue of the Atlantic Daily Bulletin, journal of the British Titanic Society. It deals with the movements of two vessels, Mount Temple and Almerian, on the morning of April 15, 1912, following the Titanic disaster. Mount Temple was one ship that has been implicated by supporters of Capt. Stanley Lord of the SS Californian as the possible mystery ship seen from Titanic that failed to respond to Titanic's distress signals. Almerian was later identified by Capt. Lord as the small tramp steamer that was seen going northward near where Mount Temple was stopped while he was heading southward on the western side of the ice field before cutting through the field to reach the rescue ship Carpathia picking up Titanic's lifeboats on the other side. This article deals with the various claims and allegations that have been made based on new, hard evidence that has been uncovered dealing with the movements of Almerian. Now part of Chapter XIV, "A Tale of Two Ships - Part 2: Almerian," in 'Strangers On The Horizon: Titanic and Californian - A Forensic Approach'. I Thought it Was a Narrow Shave In this article we look closely at the timing of the order to turn Titanic away from the object sighted ahead after the lookouts sounded their 3-bell warning. We show that to completely avoid striking the iceberg without further action, the hard-astarboard helm order would have had to come about the same time as those 3 bells, offering the 1st officer on the bridge almost no time to assess the unfolding situation. This article is now part of my book, Prelude to an Allision: Titanic's Fatal Encounter Revisited. Mistakes in the Night This article dealt with the issue of why Titanic's distress positions transmitted by wireless in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912 were so far west of the wreck site. It explored how simple mistakes made in haste can produce erroneous results. The first, a simple mental error on the part of Captain Smith when comparing the time difference between two events, and then an error by 4th Officer Boxhall when reading from the wrong column in a traverse table. Now part of Chapter II, "A Maiden Voyage," in 'Strangers On The Horizon: Titanic and Californian - A Forensic Approach'. We Could Not See One Body This revised and expanded article dealt with the issue as to why Carpathia and Californian did not report seeing many floating bodies amongst the wreckage on the Morning of 15 April 1912. It also looked at how the general circulation of current in that part of the Atlantic may have affected to paths of vessels on their way to the rescue, as well as the locations of bodies and wreckage sighted several days after the disaster. Now part of Chapter XI, "Drifting Ice and Meandering Currents," in 'Strangers On The Horizon: Titanic and Californian - A Forensic Approach'. Lights to Port - Lights to Starboard In 1956 two passenger liners, the SS Andrea Doria and MS Stockholm, collided in one of the most famous shipping disasters of the mid 20th century. It was later called the first major radar assisted collision in the history of shipping. This article presents a detailed report into the circumstances that led up to the collision and subsequent loss of Andrea Doria that resulted. A shortened version of this article was originally published in two parts in the journal of the Titanic International Society in Voyage 75 and Voyage 76, in the spring and summer of 2011. Brace for Collision! What if Titanic had collided head-on with the iceberg? Would she be able to stay afloat, or would she sink faster than she did on the night of April 14th 1912? This article takes an inside view into these questions by quantifying the force and energy behind a head-on collision with an immovable object, derives the stopping deceleration in terms of g forces that would be experienced by those on board, derives how long in time such a collision event will last, and looks at the damage that can be expected to the vessel. It also considers the damage expected if the ship was going at a slower speed than it was going that night, and compares the derived results for Titanic to that of other vessels involved in head-on collisions. In addition, a realistic scenario of how such an accident could have come about is also presented. 'Abandoning The Titanic', Abandoning Reality: The Truth About the SS Mount Temple. In November 2020, a new programme aired on PBS in the United States. Aired as an episode of the Secrets of the Dead series, it was entitled 'Abandoning the Titanic.' In certain other countries, the programme aired under the title 'Titanic: A Dead Reckoning.' The show featured a number of major historical errors; indeed, its very premise was historically flawed. In this article co-authored with Mark Chirnside, Tad Fitch, J. Kent Layton and Bill Wormstedt, we detail these historical errors and set the record straight. The Object on the Barge What is that image seen on the floating-crane barge in a 1912 photograph of Titanic being fitted out in the Thompson dry-dock at the H&W shipyard? Was it a propeller waiting to be fitted onto the center-propeller shaft of Titanic? How many propeller blades does it really have? Using 3D CAD imaging, some of these questions can now be answered. The Object on the Barge - Part 2 In this short article we analyse the actual size of the 3-bladed solid-cast propeller seen on the floating-crane barge in a 1912 photograph of Titanic being fitted out in the Thompson drydock at the H&W shipyard. What we find is an almost perfect match to the dimensions specified in a H&W engineering notebook, making the object on the barge most likely the center propeller waiting to be fitted onto Titanic. The Fallacy of a Camouflaged Iceberg Did abnormal refraction caused confusion with Morse signaling, or caused rockets to be seen to go no higher than half the height of a vessel’s masthead light, or caused the fatal iceberg that sank Titanic to be camouflaged by a false horizon? This article explores some of these claims, as well as considering the possibility of some form of haze in hindering the lookouts from spotting the fatal iceberg that Titanic struck from being seen earlier than when it was. This article is now part of chapter VI. "Haze, Sea Smoke, And Mirages" in my book, Prelude to an Allision: Titanic’s Fatal Encounter Revisited. Titanic's Center propeller - The Evidence Mounts One more piece of growing evidence that Titanic was indeed fitted with a 3-bladed center propeller has recently surfaced. This, from the builders of Titanic, in what they presented in 1912 as an aid to the Wreck Commission's investigation into the loss of the newest White Star Line vessel. What Lurks Ahead This article takes a serious look into the question of what might have happened, everything else being the same, if Titanic had not struck that fatal iceberg on the night of April 14th 1912. Sorry to all the fiction lovers out there, but this article will not take you on a trip into the Twilight Zone. LIFEBOATS, LAUNCH TIMES, LIST AND TRIM – Part I This article reviews some of the earlier work that dealt with the question of Titanic lifeboat launch times and sequencing, explores the differences between those works, and looks at a few matters that may have been overlooked, possibly misinterpreted, or perhaps not fully considered previously. LIFEBOATS, LAUNCH TIMES, LIST AND TRIM – Part II This article, a continuation from Part-I, presents a revised lifeboat launch timeline for Titanic with supporting documentation for the event times that are shown. This article also presence derived curves of List Vs. Time as well as curves of Trim Vs. Time that the ship took on over the 2 hour and 40 minute period from the time of impact to the time of foundering. In addition, there are two separate appendices that deal with the lifeboat davits that were used on board the vessel and what was discovered at the wreck site. A Tale of Two Eyewitnesses Two written eyewitness accounts of the events seen during the night from the bridge of the SS Californian were withheld from the two inquiries that followed the Titanic disaster. These accounts are the earliest documented accounts of what was seen during the period of time that Titanic was sending up distress rockets in a failed attempt to attract the attention of this mysterious steamer seen on her port bow while passengers were being sent away in lifeboats. This article presents these two first-hand accounts in a side-by-side format, pointing out where they support each other, and where they differ from each other. It also talks about what these two eyewitnesses had to say during the British inquiry that followed, and also what Captain Stanley Lord and others from Californian had to say about what took place between the hours of midnight and 4am in the morning. Avoiding Titanic's Fate What would it have taken to avoid the fate that befell Titanic? This short article looks at the 61st crossing of the SS Mauretania, and the action taken by her commander William Thomas Turner after receiving several ice warnings on April 14th and 15th before he heard about Titanic. Rockets Bearing South-Southeast by Compass This short article proves that the SS Californian could not have been where her Captain Stanley Lord said she was. What's an Hour Got to Do With It? This article explains how a very simple and understandable mistake made in the rush to derive an initial distress position by Captain E. J. Smith had led to a result that turned out to be over 20 nautical miles too far west of the wreck site. "It May Have Been a Dozen or It May Have Been More" How many distress rockets were actually sent up from Titanic as she was slowly sinking on the night of the 14th-15th of April 1912? Was it only eight as seen on the SS Californian, or was it more? This short article makes the case that about a dozen distress signals were fired over the course of about an hour from Titanic, and explores why only eight were seen from the stopped Californian. How Did They Get There? This short article explores the question of how did Titanic and Californian end up where they did on the night of April 14th 1912. It uses results from a number of analytical studies that were done leading to the findings that were reported in my book 'Strangers On The Horizon: Titanic and Californian - A Forensic Approach'. It shows and explains the courses-made-good of both these vessels over the surface of the earth from the time they individually turned the area of the Corner until they individually were forced to stop because of ice that they encountered. Moving 800 People Across the Deck This article explores how naval architect Edward Wilding from Harland & Wolff, the builders of Titanic, came to the conclusion that moving a large group of passengers across the deck to correct a list as lifeboats were being loaded late in the sinking process would not have had any significant effect. |
| The following is a list of articles that I authored or co-authored and published on-line. You can view many of these by clicking on the title which should take you directly to the article. |
| Copyright © 2007-2025 Samuel Halpern. All rights reserved. |