I have been reading the American Titanic Inquiry, and have come to notice a couple of odd statements made by lookout Fredrick Fleet.

1. He stated on two seperate days at the inquiry that the ship started to answer the helm and go left when he was still on the phone to the bridge warning them about it (iceberg right ahead!!)

Does this suggest (as other authors have suggested), that Titanic was much closer to the berg than most people thought, and that it was the berg that turned the ship, instead of its own rudder?

2. When Senator Smith and the others would ask "how far away the berg was when you saw it", he would always respond "I cannot say", or "I have no idea". The only thing close to an answer he gave was that the berg was about the size of the tables next to him in the room when he first saw it.

No matter how many times Senator Smith and the others would hammer this question, his response was always the same.

Senator Smith even tried to trap him with a question of how far away was lifeboat no 6 away from the ship when he went down. Fleet said it was about a mile. Then Smith asked him how he could judge that distance and not the distance between the iceberg and the Titanic when it was first spotted. Fleet's response was that he overheard someone say that.

Does anyone out there think there was a coverup as some have speculated?

I don't think it was a coverup. I seems too stupid. Moreover, we can think that when he saw the iceberg, Fleet was quite tired, and too stunned to calculate how far it was.

I've often heard about the theroy that the ice berg was turning the ship before they actually spotted it. Now if it did indeed take 27 second's from spot to colliosion then that can be ruled out. My thought's on it are, as the ship got closer, the light emited from Titanic iluminated the berg, and sure enough the more you see the more you think 'Oooo dear god TURN'. If the berg was turning the ship, then it need to be some HUGE berg to do that from 1000ft (ish) away from the spotable berg. By that I mean, 27 second's till they felt the actual collision, the berg couldnt of turned the ship without causing some sort of noticeable vibration. Dark calm night, and that rare phenominan of 'black ice', as the ship got closer, the light showed up more of the ice berg and
gave the illusion they where turning, when in actual fact just more of the right was being illuminated as they closed in on it.

Martyn

Interesting thoughts Martyn,

I think it would also interesting to find out how much the ship's light actually illuminated the berg before the collision, and also how long it took before they saw it lit up and not just its silluette(As you know, they stated that it looked like a large black mass that made the stars dissapear behind it).

I would think it would take some time, since there was not much light on the front superstructure so that the officers vision was not impaired. I guess the only a few lights might come from the front A deck and B deck cabin areas?

Quote:i don't mean to be a bug, but i was 37 seconds not 27.

What do you mean by this. Do you know the exact timing or your are only guessing.


"i don't mean to be a bug, but i was 37 seconds not 27."

Thanks,

soni2006

Quote:

The theory of 37 seconds came from one of the inquiries (I think the British) in which they included evidence given by Quartermaster Robert Hitchens (the man who was at Titanic's wheel) to try a test of turning capabilities using Titanic's sister ship Olympic.

Quartermaster Hitchens stated that after he turned the wheel hard over, the compass on Titanic turned two points when the ship finally struck the berg.

Driving the Olympic at the same speed (roughly 21 - 21 1/2 knots), when the helm was put hard over, it took her about 37 seconds to turn two points on the compass.

That's basically where they get that number.

And that is why I started this thread, because lookout Fredrick Fleet said that the ship struck the berg when he was still on the phone warning the bridge. And that might give some evidence that the ship hit the berg much quicker after the berg was spotted. Possibly a much shorter time than 37 seconds.

I was just reading that in "Ghosts of Titanic." The seconds were from the Olympic's results. But if he picks up the phone and they hit it was obviously closer. The phone message went something like "What did you see?" (Iceberg Dead Ahead!) "Thank you, Iceberg Dead Ahead, Thank you."

That would take about 5-6 seconds tops. But also, if the ship turned two points....I doubt it would turn that quick in 6 seconds....

Interesting topic.