Why Was SOS Position 20 Miles From Wreck?

[Jim Currie]

Your arrogance is showing yet again. Why should I be surprised?

Please explain.

Arrogance, Sam? What is arrogant about stating a fact? Would you have preferred me to write:
" I do not need to speculate as to Captain Smith's actions when calculating his DR distress position because I have done exactly the same thing myself on countless occasions" ? Or even: "I don't need to speculate as to what Boxhall did with his 7-30 pm fixed position because I have done exactly the same thing myself"? Or how about: "I don't need to guess how 5th officer Lowe arrived at his 8 pm DR, because I've done that too."?
The point I'm making here, Sam is that if I wrote in the foregoing manner, I would have been accused of being a show-off or a Smart-Alec.
Unlike you, Sam, I rarely need to speculate. If I do, it is not complete speculation but speculation with a foundation in experience.
I have done 99% of the duties carried out by seamen witnesses to the tragedy. Am I supposed to Nun-like, walk close to the wall with my head bowed in modesty?

 

[Samuel Halpern]

If Smith did as you say and started from a DR to find another DR when a fix would have been available to him, then he was bound to be off in his distress position. You said he pricked the fix off on his chart but didn't write down the coordinates. He also had the 8pm DR available which I assume he would have pricked off on the same chart in addition to it going into the night orders book and scrap log. If that DR was 20 miles ahead of where it should have been, don't you think that Smith should have recognized something wrong by the great gap between the two which I can only assume would have been about 30 miles or thereabouts instead of about 10? Do you really think that Lowe could have made an error of 20 miles without the pressure of a sinking ship under him at the time, or that it would go unnoticed when he left it for Smith?

 

[Jim Currie]

The coordinates would be read out by Boxhall from his workbook, Sam. That was normal practice. Smith had no need for these coordinates, they were not of any great significance to him. Nor were the 8 pm DR coordinates of any significance to him. However, Lowe said, they were in writing and left for him to use or discard as he thought fit. Here is how he described the 8 PM DR:

"No; we never do. We simply put the slip on the table; put a paper weight or something on it, and he comes in and sees it. It is nothing of any great importance."

As for the accuracy of his 8 pm DR? On his bridge at any one time, he had a minimum of one Extra Master and two Master Mariners. Two of these were dedicated to providing accurate data on the progress of his ship. He would be perfectly entitled to expect nothing but the best from these men. Consequently, when they produced a DR position, he would expect them to have taken into account any and every influence affecting the position of his vessel. Sure, if he had the coordinates for the 7-30 pm ready to hand, he would have used them. You could argue that he could have looked for Boxhall's workbook and got them from there.
However, there is another thing you forget to take into account.
He had a great deal on his mind at the time. He may simply have forgotten that Boxhall took so long to give him the results of the 7-30 pm sights. He might have thought:
" 7-30 fix...8 pm DR not much can go wrong in half an hour". Simple!

You look for Gremlins where no Gremlins exist, Sam. Why would Boxhall say what he said about Smith using the 8 pm DR if Smith did not, at the time, refer to it?

 

[Samuel Halpern]

And Boxhall said that the ship was 20 miles ahead of the DR, not the other way around.
But even if Smith did start from 8pm DR, a simple extra 1 hour in run time could easily explain why his position was so far out. In any event, it all adds up to some very sloppy navigation by all concerned if you ask me.

 

[Tim Zukas]

If three altitude measurements were similarly affected [by abnormal refraction], they would all converge and appear to be a good fix.

To clarify: three altitude measurements in about the same azimuth would converge. Three measurements spaced around the horizon wouldn't converge, of course.

 

[Mila]

As you all know the Titanic's wreck site is located at 41.43N and 49.56W, but how the ice gets there? There's a permanent but ever changing cold water tongue of the Labrador Current there. This cold water tongue is actually a cold-core eddy or a meander or whatever you call it. If the ice does travel so far southward and westward it always occupies the center of this eddy ( the water is much warmer outside of the cold core of an eddy, the ice will not survive there and besides cold-core eddies trap the ice inside them.). Sometimes there could be an eddy inside an eddy , but for now I will not discuss this case.

So as you see from this 1914 chart the ice gets there traveling around on the left-hand side of the eddy, where the currents run to SW. Both Titanic and Californian were at the right-hand side of the eddy. They both were affected by north-eastern currents, with some variation (more north or more east). IMO this explains the discrepancy of the Titanic's SOS position.They did not account for currents that probably were stronger than usually. The both-eastern currents also nicely explain why Carpathia saw the green flare on her starboard side. The wreckage found south of the wreck site could have been brought there by wind that started at 4 a.m. or by smaller features that are located inside this tongue (and there are a lot of them).
The Californian was probably not affected by southern drift (unless she traveled around another eddy, which IMO is unlikely) until she reached the ice field. I believe that at 19:30 (when Californian took their position by Polaris) they could have noticed that the currents took them to the north of where they wanted to be and they adjusted they course a little bit too much. Another possibility they moved south because they believed there were less icebergs there. After the collision there was probably very little drift for the Titanic because there is no current so close to eddies' centers. The Californian was probably affect by the currents explained here Approaching and retreating Californian explained

The four Aprils 14 images below show the currents for a few years. As you see the shapes and the sizes of cold water tongues in them are different, but every year there were north-eastern currents on the way of all three ships: Californian, Titanic and Carpathia.