A Titanic Tragedy

The weather for the Titanic’s trip across the North Atlantic averaged daytime temperatures of 55 degrees. It was a moonless Sunday night on April 14th as the ship sailed across a calm, glass-like sea towards the ominous iceberg. Lookouts scanned the water below in freezing temperatures looking for waves breaking around the base of the icebergs. Reports had been made that the ice in that particular area of the ocean had been uncharacteristically bad for the entire year. The explanation for this change can be linked to the Earth coming unusually close to the Sun, a rare orbit pattern that took place from December 1911 to February of 1912. The high tides caused by the Sun’s closeness rerouted the currents and floated icebergs to locations they wouldn’t normally have been. In addition to the iceberg being unexpected and out of place, the two lookouts aboard the ship attested to seeing a hazy view, not an iceberg, on the horizon. This claim has been explained by a phenomenon known as a “cold mirage” which, similar to a desert mirage, is a result of cold air bending an image so that it is distorted. This may have been a factor for why the lookouts claimed they did not see the iceberg but rather a distorted horizon line. In fact, with these conditions, it may have been possible for the iceberg to be invisible to lookouts for at least 20 minutes. Within 5 seconds of colliding with the iceberg, Titanic’s compartments were smashed open along 200 feet and six of the sixteen watertight compartments were destroyed as water which was reported to be 28 degrees Fahrenheit, just below freezing, came rushing into the hull.