Allan Clarke
Member
One of the big questions about the collision is how did the Titanic hit a 60ft. plus iceberg on the forward starboard compartments while turning to port and not have the whole side of the ship torn assunder? One theory is that Hichens and Boxhall got it wrong; the ship was turning to starboard to keep the stern clear of the berg. But I can't see how they could have been mistaken. A new theory is that the ship never struck an iceberg, but ran into heavy pack ice containing multi year growlers, which, of course, would be quite sufficient to do her in! A Newfoundlander, Captain Marmaduke Collins has written a new book called "The Sinking of the Titanic: An Ice-Pilot's Perspective." Like most people, I assumed the ship hit an iceberg. After reading his book and speaking to him personally, he makes a strong argument for his position. The haze Fleet and Lee saw two points on the horizon was in fact field ice. They saw a black mass above the forecastle peak, while Rowe took it to be 100-150 feet high at the stern (he could not answer Lord Mersey's question as to why the Titanic was not in contact with the berg if she was hard-a-starboard). Captain Collins spent most of his career navigating ships in ice, and says that what they saw was low lying pack ice visibly elevated and exagerated in size by the well known phenomenon of atmospheric distortion caused by a strong temperture inversion; the conditions the Titanic was in that night were perfect for this to happen. The greater the amount of light thrown onto the ice, the larger the "mirage" would appear to be; hence its being 60ft high to the lookouts and over 100ft high to the quartermaster. He particularly points to Boxhall, who at the American Inquiry said that he thought he saw a very, very low lying black mass behind the ship after the collision. This comes from a man who was right open to the position that the iceberg struck, but never saw it while it was right beside him! Collin's says that what Boxhall saw was the pack ice that Fleet and Lee had seen as haze, and the same stuff the Mesaba had sent a warning about earlier that evening. His argument is well thought out. He is a master mariner who spent his lfe on vessels moving through ice, not on those trying to avoid it. It is an interesting new perspective on the Titanic disaster and helps explain how a ship of that size moving 37 feet a second could hit a large iceberg while leaving the passengers and crew with the impression of a minor bump and doing so little structural damage to the starboard side.
Allan
Allan
