I really resent the accusation, Capt. Collins, that I fudged data. What I did was identify an error in the number that was transcribed, a transposition error in the last two digits made by either the person who wrote down the number, or by Lowe himself when he testified. We absolutely know that his "162 miles to the corner" is obviously incorrect no matter how you look at it. You, Capt. Collins, on the other hand, would like to use 110.5 miles to the corner which you derived based on Pitman's 5 PM ETA testimony at the British Inquiry, something which contradicted his testimony at the American Inquiry where we have this exchange:
Senator FLETCHER. Do you know any such designation as the "corner?"
Mr. PITMAN.
Yes, we were supposed to be at the corner at 5.50.
Senator FLETCHER. What do you mean by that?
Mr. PITMAN. That is 47° west and 42° north.
Senator FLETCHER.
At 5.50 p. m. you turned what you call the “corner?''
Mr. PITMAN. The corner, yes.
Should I accuse you of fudging data because you rejected Lowe's "162 miles to the corner," which he gave in evidence at the American Inquiry and decided instead to use 110.5 miles based on Pitman's changed story given at the British Inquiry?
As far using 126 miles being the correct number, this can be checked two ways.
First way is to consider the difference between the total distance from the Daunt's Rock LV to the corner (42°N, 47°W) and the known total miles run from Daunt's Rock to noon on April 14 (1549 miles). For this we need some practical checks on the distance from Daunt's Rock to the corner taken over the route of travel.
1) Consider the data from Olympic's maiden voyage westbound, which is listed in the article that Mark Chirnside and I had posted recently on ET,
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/item/5540/. Noon 18 Jun 1911, position 43° 45'N, 43° 52'W. Distance from that location to the corner is 173 miles. Cumulative miles recorded since leaving Daunt's Rock on 15 Jun 1911, was 428+534+542 = 1504 miles. Total miles to corner would be 1504+173 = 1677.
2) Consider the data from Olympic's 2nd voyage westbound, which is also listed in that article. Noon 16 Jul 1911, position 42° 36'N, 46° 03'W (which is 8.6 miles north of the GC track from Fastnet to the corner). Distance from that location to the corner is 55.5 miles. Cumulative miles recorded since leaving Daunt's Rock on 13 Jul 1911, was 525+560+534 = 1619 miles. Total miles to corner would be 1619+55.5 = 1674.5.
3) Consider the data from Olympic's 3rd voyage westbound. Noon 13 Aug 1911, position 42° 39'N, 45° 24'W, (which is 6.6 miles south of the GC track from Fastnet to the corner). Distance from that location to the corner is 81 miles. Cumulative miles recorded since leaving Daunt's Rock on 10 Aug 1911, was 516+543+536 = 1595 miles. Total miles to corner would be 1595+81 = 1676.
These distances (1677, 1674.5, 1676) are based on data taken from Olympic's log. Three different voyages over the same route of travel that would be used by the Titanic a year later.
Now consider the data from Titanic's run to noon 14 Apr 1912. Cumulative miles run since leaving Daunt's Rock on 11 Apr 1912, was 484+519+546 = 1549 miles. Add 126 miles distance to corner to this cumulative number and you get
1675 miles, totally consistent with the data we have from three Olympic crossings that followed the same route of travel. As I said in my paper, the daily mileage runs that were listed in the Pitman memo that were used here can be verified from other independent sources. The 14 Apr 1912 noon location that I derived (43° 02'N, 44° 31'W) would be located 7.8 miles south of the of the GC track from Fastnet to the corner, also consistent with what was pointed out in the Olympic data. Course to the corner from my derived Apr 14 noon location is 126 miles at 240.6 deg true using mid latitude calculation.
The second but less direct method that points to 126 miles being the right number for the distance to the corner comes from 5/O Lowe himself.
Senator SMITH. What speed did you use in getting the 8 p. m. position?
Mr. LOWE. I used the speed for the position at 8 o'clock, and got it by dividing the distance from noon to the corner by the time that had elapsed from noon until the time we were at the corner.
...
Senator SMITH. ... I want to know whether you fixed the position of the ship at 8 o'clock Sunday night upon the speed of the ship at noon on Sunday or upon the speed of the ship at noon at the time you gave her position.
Mr. LOWE. You may be out just as much or more by the revolutions as I am by the hour - that is, by dead reckoning, the way I ascertained the position of the ship at 8 p. m..
Senator SMITH. In order to ascertain the ship's position accurately at 8 p. m. you must know her speed at 8 p. m., must you not?
Mr. LOWE. Her speed at 8 p. m.?
Senator SMITH. Yes.
Mr. LOWE. If you take the average speed from 12 to 6 - that is giving her a run of six hours - she will not jump up in two hours, from 12 to 6 o'clock, from that average speed. You have six hours in there to take a mean on.
...
Mr. LOWE. This is the only figuring that is required to get the speed [handing the chairman a paper].
Senator SMITH. And you are able to say that the speed at that time was 21 knots?
Mr. LOWE. Twenty-one knots or under; it was really 20.95, about.
In the slip of paper he handed to Senator Smith he showed a speed of 21 knots. In his example he also talked about using a run of 6 hours. So how did he get 21 knots in the paper he handed to Senator Smith? He simply divided the distance to the corner by 6 hours. He just wanted Smith off his back in that discussion about speed. Well this is a giveaway of the distance from noon to the corner. Work it backwards.
Take Lowe's 21 knots and multiply it by his 6 hours and you get 126 miles.
As I said, it seems they got the course angle right, but the distance recorded in the transcript, 162, should have been 126.
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Finally, you are trying to make a point that the ship would not be steered on a course to ground the ship on Fastnet light. I agree. It would be steered to pass Fastnet light some distance off to the south. You like to use 3 miles south which I believe corresponds to today's lane for west bound traffic. I really don't know how close or far from the light they may have come in 1911 or 1912, the depth of water there is a good 45 meters just off the reef that the light is located on (which extends about 1 km to the NE and to the SW from the light). But using either a 1/2 mile off or 3 miles off does not make much of a difference in getting an estimate for the ship's Apr 12 noon location.
I got to the noon location for Apr 12 by taking a line from Fastnet to 49° 45'N, 23° 38'W (La Touraine message) and going out 429 miles (484 mile run - 55 miles from Daunt's Rock to Fastnet light). That got me to 50° 06'N, 20° 43'W. If I were use a departure point 3 miles south of Fastnet, then I would have to go out 484 - 56 = 428 miles (484 mile run - 56 miles from Daunt's Rock to 3 miles south of Fastnet) along the line from that point toward 49° 45'N, 23° 38'W. That would get me to 50° 05'N, 20° 42'W, only about a mile different from what I got when using the coordinates of the light itself. And this Apr 12 noon location has absolutely nothing to do with deriving the noon locations for Apr 13 or Apr 14 since the turning point I used to get to Apr 13 noon was the 49° 45'N, 23° 38'W La Touraine message location.
The Apr 13 location was obtained by going from the La Touraine message location to a point close to the great circle track such that the total mileage from Daunt's Rock LV to that point added up to 1003 miles, the cumulative distance traveled to that point. The other constraint was that the distance from that point to the Apr 14 noon location had to equal 546 miles, the run distance to noon Apr 14 that we know about. The noon Apr 14 point was obtained by going 126 miles on the reciprocal of Lowe's course line to the corner.
The bottom line here Capt. Collins is that the derived noon locations are decent approximate positions at best. We don't have the exact location data from the logbook as we have from the Olympic. As Bill West indicated, there may be other ways to estimate some of these noon locations. But what has to add up are the mileages which we do have, including the remaining mileage from noon to the corner which cannot differ very much from the 126 miles without the total distance to the corner being inconsistent with the crossing data from the Olympic. Certainly, your 110.5 miles is way out of line with this.
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Oh, the good thing about operating in 3 dimensions is that you can usually go over your departure point without worrying about grounding on rocks. The bad news about operating in 3 dimensions is that you must keep your vessel moving unless you can bring it down safely onto the ground, or if equipped, onto the water.
