Sound of rockets

[Aaron_2016]

My understand is, Beesley was in lifeboat 13 which rowed towards the north and Boxhall was in lifeboat 2 which rowed towards the south. The Carpathia would have stopped firing her rockets when she approached Boxhall's boat which was perhaps a considerable distance away from lifeboat 13, so her rockets would appear high from boat 2 but very low from boat 13. I believe the Californian probably could not see the Carpathia's lights because she was just beyond the horizon, or possibly they could actually see her masthead lights but it was so faint that they mistook it for one of the many stars that could be seen low down on the horizon and they could not positively identify it at the time as a masthead light. As daylight approached the stars faded and the masthead lights would turn off. Question is, did the Carpathia continue to fire rockets after her masthead light switched off? I recall several accounts who said the Carpathia appeared to steam right passed their lifeboats and turn around. Perhaps this would hide her masthead lights from the view of the Californian while she continued to fire more rockets, or possibly she was turning to avoid several icebergs which hid her navigational lights?


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[Samuel Halpern]

Dave was wrong about the sounds produced. The second bang was the louder of the two and may have had a range under good downwind conditions of about 10 miles.

 

[Mila]

My understand is, Beesley was in lifeboat 13 which rowed towards the north and Boxhall was in lifeboat 2 which rowed towards the south. The Carpathia would have stopped firing her rockets when she approached Boxhall's boat which was perhaps a considerable distance away from lifeboat 13, so her rockets would appear high from boat 2 but very low from boat 13. I believe the Californian probably could not see the Carpathia's lights because she was just beyond the horizon, or possibly they could actually see her masthead lights but it was so faint that they mistook it for one of the many stars that could be seen low down on the horizon and they could not positively identify it at the time as a masthead light. As daylight approached the stars faded and the masthead lights would turn off. Question is, did the Carpathia continue to fire rockets after her masthead light switched off? I recall several accounts who said the Carpathia appeared to steam right passed their lifeboats and turn around. Perhaps this would hide her masthead lights from the view of the Californian while she continued to fire more rockets, or possibly she was turning to avoid several icebergs which hid her navigational lights?


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Aaron, as I said many times in other threads I do not think that either Beesley or Stone and Gibson saw the rockets burst, because if at 3:30 Stone sees 500 feet high rockets so low that they would be invisible if they were just a little bit lower it means that he and Beesley saw flashes created by detonator, the bursts should have been a few degrees above the horizon. It appears that it is very similar to what Stone saw of Titanic rockets. I now believe he might has seen only a flash from the detonator. I just do not understand why the witnesses in both situations could not see the bursts that should have been brighter and higher. I know Gibson saw one, but he saw it with glasses. Besides Beesley heared the sound, and even Sam say it could not have been more than 10 miles, probably less because there was no wind at that time.