Significance of the time on the Straus cabin clock

[Tarn Stephanos]

I believe Parks mentioned that the clock spotted on the fireplace mantle in the Strauss suite on C deck had it's intact hands frozen at '2:04'.

Odds are the clock stopped the moment it became submerged- but some have suggested it may have continued to function for some minutes.....

I'm curious how important you all feel the Strauss clock is in helping to fix a timeline at to which areas of the ship were flooding and when, particularly during titanic's final quarter hour...

What other key events were happening on other parts of the ship at that very moment the hands of the Strauss clock stopped at 2:04 AM?

 

[Bill Wormstedt]

On a very high level, Tarn (and Sam H. can probably give far more detail);

At around 2:05, Collapsible D was being lowered 10 feet or so from the Boat Deck, and the front end of A Deck was just going under water. So the same area of C Deck was 20(?) or so feet under water. How far back that water would be on C Deck, I don't know, but I would *guess* back to the Struass suite.

Within minutes of this, the rising water got onto the bridge, the forward funnel fell, and the actual breakup of the ship started.

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

so at the very moment water filled the Strauss suite, collapsible D was either being filled with people- or in the process of being lowered- At that very moment, I suspect officer Lightoller and some men were removing the covering from the portside boat atop the roof of the officers quarters...

 

[Bill Wormstedt]

That would have occured about that time, yes.

My understanding of the sequence would be:
Load and lower D to the water, by Lightoller and Wilde
attempt to lower B to the deck, Lightoller crosses to look down on A
front of bridge starts going under
Lightoller gets into water off the front of the bridge
funnel collapses when water is at it's base

 

[Samuel Halpern]

The last time I saw the video it was difficult to tell what the hands read, but I thought it showed a later time than 2:04. Or was that just dirt on the clock face that made it appear that way? Parks, is there a clear image somewhere?

In any event, it was a spring wound clock, not a slave clock to one of the master clocks in the chart room. The time on the clock is only as accurate as the person who set it every day, and how well it kept time over the period between windings. Five minutes either way would not be unexpected.

If I had to guess, I would say the Straus' rooms, C-55-57, which were located on the starboard side near the 2nd funnel casing, would have flooded about the same time that the bridge went under as noted by Lightoller. I'm taking into account that the water was level with the forebridge and the crow's nest at that time, and the ship had a list to port about 10 degrees from what could be estimated based on port-side lifeboat gap from the ship's side.

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

Parks is the best person to verify the time on the clock- on a different thread I'm sure he mentioned the hands read 2:04.

With the clock being a windup clock- is it possible it still functioned for a few minutes even after being submerged?
If so, then the time on the clock might not reflect the time the clock became submerged...Perhaps its ticked on another 5 minutes before breaking down...

If the clock was wound daily by a steward, I suspect it must have been accurate....

 

[Will C. White]

It may very well have functioned for some unknown period after it "went under"; the water would have to dampen the mechanical impetus of the internal works before it failed. Make an interesting engineering experiment if one could get an exact replica and subject it to the same approximate water pressure; say, 1 atmosphere.

 

[Parks Stephenson]

Go for it, guys. Let me know what you find out.

Parks

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

Well, I wore my watch in the shower today, showered 8 minutes, and it stopped ticking 2 minutes after I was out of the shower..I don't know if this helps...

 

[Damon Hill]

My watch fell in the toilet once (before I'd done anything fortunately) and it still worked

 

[Mark Robert Hopkins]

Could the Strausses' clock have continued operating a significant number of minutes after it had contact with water? If so, that might make it harder to determine the precise time the suites flooded, although we do know that they were submerged by 2:04. To assert that the clock went underwater at that very moment would be a hasty jump I wouldn't venture to make.

 

[Parks Stephenson]

quote:

To assert that the clock went underwater at that very moment would be a hasty jump I wouldn't venture to make.

I made that jump...just another example of my foolhardiness.

Parks​

 

[Will C. White]

If the clock had a pendulum as the source of operating power, water would tend to dampen (no pun intended) the motion almost instantly. A spring wound may very well have operated under water for at least a short period. It all has to do with the mechanics of the thing. Nowadays we have wrist watches that can go deeper than a man can with no ill effects; special tanks and those one breath wackos included.

 

[Mark Robert Hopkins]

Well, the point is that if clocks realistically are able to operate when submerged, as some of the examples shared here seem to testify, then there's a reasonable doubt which makes it wise not to assume that the clock died right away. The fact that some clocks continue to operate while submerged proves that it's not an absolute condition, if that makes sense.

quote:

I made that jump...just another example of my foolhardiness.

Well, it was an understandable jump at the time, Parks. You introduced a new piece of guiding information that also serves as evidence that can and will establish further knowledge of the sinking. That never needs an apology. Great work! ​

 

[Parks Stephenson]

Mark,

Would my jump seem even more understandable if I were to prove that the Straus clock was in fact a slave clock in the Magneta system and therefore completely electric-driven, not mechanical?

Parks