Samuel Halpern
Member
Jim,
There is also no reason why the ship would have been 20 miles ahead of her DR when those 7:30 sights were taken. You and I both know that. There certainly were no clock adjustment made between noon and when those star sights were taken at 7:30, so you can't blame the sights coming out 20 miles ahead of the DR on a clock setback. And that is the first thing that should have raised a red flag with Boxhall when he worked those sights out if his story about the ship being 20 miles ahead of the DR in 7 and 1/2 hours was true. The ship would have had to be going 2.7 knots faster than her assumed DR speed to achieve that, or easily over 24 knots. So what was Boxhall thinking if the 7:30 fix came showed the ship to be 20 miles ahead of the DR? Or was Boxhall being a good storyteller when he said that?
Pitman and Boxhall were the two guys who later claimed at the British inquiry that Smith turned the corner late. Pitman went so far as to say the turn was 50 minutes late. This of course is a bunch of nonsense since we know the ship had to be close to 126 miles from the corner at noon having ran 1549 miles by noon Sunday since taking departure off the Daunt’s Rock LV. The excuse of turning the corner late was made up to explain how the ship arrived at Boxhall’s CQD position at the time that it did.
I think you can tell that I don’t think too highly of either Boxhall or Pitman when it comes to relying on what they said.
So back to basics. No matter what you want to assume or believe, you cannot simply ignore that most passengers and crew alike put the accident time near 11:40 pm, and the foundering time near 2:20 am. This would not have been the case if the wheelhouse clock controlling the watchkeeping schedule of the deck and engine dept crew was put back before the accident happened. There was NO dichotomy in the times reported.
There is also no reason why the ship would have been 20 miles ahead of her DR when those 7:30 sights were taken. You and I both know that. There certainly were no clock adjustment made between noon and when those star sights were taken at 7:30, so you can't blame the sights coming out 20 miles ahead of the DR on a clock setback. And that is the first thing that should have raised a red flag with Boxhall when he worked those sights out if his story about the ship being 20 miles ahead of the DR in 7 and 1/2 hours was true. The ship would have had to be going 2.7 knots faster than her assumed DR speed to achieve that, or easily over 24 knots. So what was Boxhall thinking if the 7:30 fix came showed the ship to be 20 miles ahead of the DR? Or was Boxhall being a good storyteller when he said that?
Pitman and Boxhall were the two guys who later claimed at the British inquiry that Smith turned the corner late. Pitman went so far as to say the turn was 50 minutes late. This of course is a bunch of nonsense since we know the ship had to be close to 126 miles from the corner at noon having ran 1549 miles by noon Sunday since taking departure off the Daunt’s Rock LV. The excuse of turning the corner late was made up to explain how the ship arrived at Boxhall’s CQD position at the time that it did.
I think you can tell that I don’t think too highly of either Boxhall or Pitman when it comes to relying on what they said.
So back to basics. No matter what you want to assume or believe, you cannot simply ignore that most passengers and crew alike put the accident time near 11:40 pm, and the foundering time near 2:20 am. This would not have been the case if the wheelhouse clock controlling the watchkeeping schedule of the deck and engine dept crew was put back before the accident happened. There was NO dichotomy in the times reported.
