The story of what Capt. Stanley Lord of the Californian was told about the stopped steamer that was firing rockets during the night, and why what was told to him would not have been alarming.
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 over ground 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 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 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 Masthead Light
A detailed look at the chatacteristics of Titanic's masthead light, including how bright it would appear to be, and at what distance it could be seen when viewed from the deck of another ship.
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 the Lusitania and Mauretania.
Titanic: Changing the Reality
A hard hitting response to Dave Brown's recently published paper on the GLTS website, "Titanic: Changing Course," dealing with issues of navigation and time. Co-authored with Mark Chirnside.
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.
It's A CQD Old Man
A fresh look at the question of why were Titanic's distress possitions transmitted by wireless in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, so far west of the wreck site. The first position transmitted for the first 10 minutes, and attributed to Capt. E. J. Smith, was about 20 nautical miles off, while the second position, worked up by 4/O Joseph Boxhall, was 13 miles off. This two-part on-line article had appeared in the journal of the Titanic International Society, Voyage, Issues 64 and 65, and also in the journal of the British Titanic Society, Atlantic Daily Bulletin, September and December 2008. It is an entirely revised work of my original two-part article, “A Minute of Time,” first published in 2005 in the journal,of the Titanic Historical Society, The Titanic Commutator. (Part 1 can be viewed HERE; and Part 2 can be viewed HERE.)
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?
This article (in PDF format) is a hard hitting 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 on-line article "Rockets, Lifeboats, and Time Changes" (see above link) that the difference between NY time and Titanic time was 2 hours and 2 minutes. In this article I show that his arguments advocating a 1 hr 33 min time difference defies the way time was kept at sea, and has with it some astonishing implecations if it were true.
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?
Navigational Inconsistencies of the SS Californian
This article, in PDF format, looks at a number of navigational inconsistencies in the information reported in the logbook of the SS Californian. In particular, I show that Californian's reported noontime position for April 14, 1912, was slightly in error, a result of a simple entry error when her longitude was recorded in her logbook. After correcting for this small error in longitude we find all calculated dead reckoning (DR) positions from 9:40 a.m. to 10:21 p.m. fall neatly into place for the reported course headings she was put on, and consistent for the speed that she was making that day. We also show that her logbook entries for that day, which were later written up, were not in agreement with several wireless messages she sent out, and offer direct evidence that the DR stopping point derived in this paper agrees with the actual position Capt. Lord sent to Capt. Gambel of the Virginian before receiving back official word about Titanic on Monday morning.