While there certainly were time gaps between each of those events, they were not delays as such. The term 'delay' implies that the action could have been carried out earlier, which was not the case; they were bound by limitations of human ability and practical necessity.
Of course. I only mean by the word "delay" exactly what you are saying. There were necessary steps between the sighting of the ice from the crows nest and the ultimate action by Murdoch to avoid the ice.
In some sense one may argue some of those steps were 'technically' unnecessary, in as much as it would have been
possible for Murdoch to have ordered the helm hard over the moment he heard the bells; however, if one thinks about what would be required for the safe operation of a vessel the size of
Titanic, at least under normal circumstances, then one should realize that Murdoch being told what had been spotted, and then verifying that sighting before taking action, were both important and
necessary.
It is generally believed that Murdoch reacted as soon as he heard the bells from the crow's nest and started to scan the ocean ahead; some even consider the possibility that the 1/O had spotted the object seconds before Fleet himself, but I am not one of them. IMO after the bells Murdoch spotted the object, identified it as an iceberg through his binoculars and was assessing the best course of action when Moody received Fleet's phone call. By the time Moody repeated Fleet's message aloud, Murdoch had already decided on his helm order.
Of course you are correct; however, according to the official narrative there were only three men on
Titanic's bridge when the iceberg was sighted.
Those would be Murdoch who was on the navigation bridge, and Moody and Hitchens who were in the wheelhouse.
As we have discussed elsewhere, while Boxhall was on duty, Boxhall's official statement is that he came onto the bridge at the very moment
Titanic makes contact with that ice.
Of those three men we know with a certainty were on the bridge or in the wheelhouse, only Hitchens survived.
While other officers report what they heard second hand from Murdoch, and Boxhall testifies to "seeing" the telegraphs in the full-astern position (something that is contradicted by no fewer than 3 other witnesses), Hitchens was the only eye witness survivor.
And what do we know about Hitchens's testimony? He was in the wheelhouse, he heard and responded to the hard over order, he "heard the telegraphs ring," and witnessed Murdoch closing the watertight doors.
Hitchens's also says Murdoch ran onto the bridge wing at the American Inquiry, but then qualifies that with "I imagine... I was in the wheelhouse."
During the British Inquiry, Hitchens states four things of interest to me:
1. He states repeatedly that he could see nothing from the wheelhouse;
This tells us again that Hitchens's comments on Murdoch's movements on the navigation bridge prior to the collision during the American inquiry were complete speculation.
He really has no idea what Murdoch does, other than the ringing of the telegraph(s) and the issuing of the hard-a-starboard order.
2. Moody was in the wheelhouse with him during the entire series of events that led to Hitchens turn the wheel hard over;
This appears to confirm Moody was with Hitchens the entire time during the sighting of the ice and the maneuvering of
Titanic.
This is only important to me in as much as it applies to something unrelated to this thread, but that we have discussed elsewhere.
Namely, that if Greaser Scott is correct about seeing both engine telegraphs ring stop simultaneously
before the collision, someone else other than Moody must have been on the navigation bridge with Murdoch.
Note: Hitchens says nothing about Boxhall other than that Hitchens had "heard" that Boxhall was on his way to the bridge before the collision, but again he is very clearly completely unaware of what is actually happening on the navigation bridge from his position in the wheelhouse.
3. He heard the engine telegraphs ring before the hard over order was issued (he has no idea what those engine telegraph orders were); and
This is just interesting to me. If this testimony is accurate, Boxhall was truly not on the navigation bridge, and Greaser Scott is only correct about one thing--the all stop orders, if not simultaneously, at least appeared on both engine room telegraphs
prior to the collision--then Murdoch had to move across the navigation bridge to move both telegraphs into the "all stop" position before issuing the hard-a-starboard order to Moody and Hitchens.
None of which is really important to my ultimate point here, sorry.
4. He says that at least half a minute passed between the ringing of the bell in the crows nest and the hard over order.
Now all of the other things I have talked about elsewhere aside, for example how humans respond when questioned about their roles in traumatic events, or about how Hitchens could be a participating member (as the only surviving crewman on the bridge leading up-to and through the collision) in Lightoller's "white wash," I do have to admit that we should question how accurate this statement is just based on how human perception of time can be distorted, particularly during and after traumatic events.
Meaning only that it could very well have been around 30 seconds, but it could also have been 5 seconds that felt like 30 seconds, or it could have been two minutes that in retrospect feels compressed into 30 seconds.
Regardless, taking this reported time between the bell strikes and the hard-a-starboard order at face value, 30 seconds passed between the bells and that order.
This is all a
longwinded way for me to say,
I agree with you! It seems very unlikely Murdoch saw the ice before, or even simultaneously, with Fleet and Lee.
If what Hitchens seems to indicate at the British inquiry is true, and he hears the telegraph first... we can assume it took Murdoch 15 seconds or so to identify what was sighted, then another 10 to 15 seconds to operate the telegraph(s) and relay the hard-a-starboard order to Moody and Hitchens.
If we assume, which is also very possible (maybe even probable), that Hitchens's memory is a bit mixed up and the telegraph orders happened simultaneously with, or just after, the helm hard over order... then it took 30 seconds for Murdoch to respond after the three gongs from the crows nest.
With this time period in mind, it makes
far, far more sense to me that Murdoch had to take those 30 seconds to verify the information received from the crows nest before issuing orders aimed at avoiding the ice.
The other alternative is that Murdoch spotted the ice just before, or at the same time, as Fleet and Lee, and then waited 30 seconds to do anything about it.
Sam Halpern has broken this down very effectively in the table "Significant Events" of his book Prelude To An Allison.
Thank you! I do own this book, but I am currently 2,000 miles away from it. I will note this to take a look at when I get home.
