Samuel Halpern
Member
There has never been agreement as to what was the difference between Titanic time and GMT or New York time (NYT). The American Inquiry settled on a value of 1 hour 33 minutes between Titanic ATS and NYT. The British Inquiry settled on a difference of 1 hour 50 minutes. At the Limitation of Liability Hearings in NY in 1913 a value of 1 hour and 39 minutes was implied by the White Star Line. So let us take a look at how these different times came about.
1 HOUR AND 33 MINUTES AHEAD — THE AMERICAN INQUIRY
At 4 p.m. NYT, Monday, April 15, Capt Rostron of the Carpathia sent a wireless message to Capt Haddock on the Olympic that said that the “Titanic foundered about 2.20 a.m., 5.47 G.M.T.” This makes the foundering time of 2:20 a.m. on the Titanic exactly 1 hour 33 minutes ahead of NYT which would be at 12:47 a.m. At the American Inquiry the issue of time on the Titanic had also came up.
Senator SMITH. Mr. Boxhall, you seem to be the one upon whom we must rely to give the difference between ship's time and New York time; or, rather, to give ship's time and give the New York time when this accident occurred.
Mr. BOXHALL. At 11.46 p.m., ship's time, it was 10.13 Washington time, or New York time.
So where did this 1 hour 33 minute time difference between Titanic time and NYT really come from? How did Captain Rostron get this information? Some people have suggested that the 1 hour 33 minute difference corresponded to the longitude where the collision took place. Titanic’s Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall’s distress position longitude was 50° 14’ W. That position works out to a time difference from GMT of 3 hours 21 minutes, or 1 hour 39 minutes ahead of NY time, not 1 hour 33 minutes ahead. So how did this 1 hour 33 minute difference come about?
Captain Rostron on the Carpathia obtained the foundering time from the Titanic's officers when they were picked up. The foundering time was reported as twenty minutes past two on a clock still set for April 14. If Titanic's clocks had been set back by the expected 47 minutes at midnight, that would make the foundering time of 2:20 a.m. on a clock set for April 14 the same as 1 hour and 33 minutes past midnight on a clock set for April 15. Now all this was probably discussed between Captain Rostron and Titanic’s surviving officers. But confusion was just waiting to happen. Someone must have somehow mistaken the 1 hour and 33 minutes past midnight as the difference between Titanic time and time in NY. By subtracting this 1 hour and 33 minutes from 5 hours he got a difference of 3 hours 27 minutes from GMT. Then to get the foundering time in GMT, he just added those 3 hours 27 minutes to 2:20 a.m. The result is 5:47 a.m. GMT, the time that Rostron put in the message to the Olympic. Unfortunately, it was accepted without question.
Thus we see how confusion, with the possibly of some hasty calculations, easily leads to erroneous results. It should be noted that this 1 hour 33 minute time difference never came up at the British Inquiry a few weeks later.
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