yotsuya
Member
My take is that had they successfully avoiding the bow hitting, they would have still made the second turn and avoided the stern hitting as well. The only way the stern would hit is if they failed to make that second turn at the right time. I don't see that as likely in any scenario.That's not entirely true according to Sam Halpern's calculations ie avoiding the bow did not necessarily mean that the stern would have escaped impact. That's what I had thought before and looked at beyond certain limits it is right, but not always.
I am sure that there is a limit before which IF Murdoch had spotted the iceberg and given appropriate orders, he definitely could have avoided an impact altogether. But that did not mean that the same order given within all timeframes before the actual one would have avoided impact; some of them would have made the bow swing to port earlier yes, and thus avoid impact, but the stern then would have swung more towards the berg and likely impacted, causing worse scenarios in some cases.
Sam considers all possible options in his book (some of which do avoid impact) and you should really read it carefully, especially the outcomes of different hypothetical scenarios measured against the actual one. It is especially important to read the chapter about why a ship does not turn like a car or other road vehicle.
At the end of the day, all our speculation is just theory and has to be considered against practicalities like the atmospheric conditions that night, the speed and maneuverability of the Titanic and limitations of human night vision and reactions. The first two conditions were obviously unchangeable and as for the third, we don't know for certain if Fleet or Lee - or Murdoch for that matter - could have seen the iceberg any earlier than they actually did. I personally believe that there was a latent period between Fleet spotting "something" in the horizon and actually recognizing that it was a solid object in the ship's path and ringing the 3 bells. The million dollar question - two questions in fact - is/are how long that latent period was and whether it made any difference. I think that lag might have been between 25 to 30 seconds and since Murdoch's first reaction was to the bells from the crow's nest, there is the possibility that he could have then spotted the berg himself that much earlier. But then, I agree in Sam's deduction that Murdoch, having identified the iceberg, spent a very short but finite time in assessing the position of the closing iceberg with the path of the ship before giving his first helm order. Had he spotted the iceberg earlier (which also meant at a greater distance), would he have been able to make his assessment and give the order within that same timeframe? Would it have been the same order followed by the same set of maneuvers (Engines Full Stop, etc)? Would the orders and maneuvers have made a difference? We just cannot know for certain.
