by Tim Maltin
Tragically, the same heavily stratified air in the thermal inversion, which Beesley noticed was making the stars appear to be Morseing to each other, was rendering the real Morse code signals between the two vessels incomprehensible, even to the point where Titanic’s steady electric lights appeared to be the flickering oil lamps of a much smaller vessel.
So the same process that explains the twinkling stars observed on the night the Titanic sank also explains why the Titanic and Californian could not read each other's Morse lamps. Anytime a light beam travels through air with a temperature gradient—in this case, the inversion layer—it encounters many small changes in air density (or refractive index). These density changes, combined with the cumulative effect of turbulence along the very long line of sight between the two ships, cause the light beam to alter its path slightly with each new encounter. Although at about 10 miles apart the Titanic and Californian were at the normal, outer limits of the range of their Morse lamps, the extreme clarity of that night should have meant that those signals could be read at much greater distances than 10 miles, that night. After all, as Titanic’s fourth officer Joseph Boxhall recalled in his 1962 BBC radio broadcast, above, he could even see the porthole lights in Californian’s hull.
But the intervening air and light winds and calms of that night would have been continually altering the path of the light from these lamps. Observers, therefore, would have seen the light flickering on and off, as the stars were that night, similar to the on and off signals of the Morse code itself. Any message was thus rendered indecipherable by this extreme scintillation in the abnormally refracting thermal inversion, which Beesley described as staccato flashing.
Stooping rockets
As well as trying unsuccessfully to contact the Californian by radio and Morse lamp, Titanic had also been frantically sending up distress rockets to try and attract the Californian’s attention:
Boxhall: 15394. Could you see how far off she was?
- No, I could not see, but I had sent in the meantime for some rockets, and told the Captain I had sent for some rockets, and told him I would send them off, and told him when I saw this light. He said, "Yes, carry on with it." I was sending rockets off and watching this steamer. Between the time of sending the rockets off and watching the steamer approach us I was making myself generally useful round the port side of the deck.
15395. How many rockets did you send up about?
- I could not say, between half a dozen and a dozen, I should say, as near as I could tell.
15396. What sort of rockets were they?
- The socket distress signal.
15397. Can you describe what the effect of those rockets is in the sky; what do they do?
- You see a luminous tail behind them and then they explode in the air and burst into stars.
15398. Did you send them up at intervals one at a time?
- One at a time, yes.
15399. At about what kind of intervals?
- Well, probably five minutes; I did not take any times.
These rockets went high into the air and were clearly observed by Steward James Crawford, who had been ordered by Captain Smith to row towards the Californian, drop his passengers off and then return to the Titanic. As Crawford was rowing towards the Californian he had his back to her, facing the Titanic and therefore had a ringside seat as Titanic’s rockets were going up:
17972. After the boat was launched that you were in, did you see any rockets sent up?
- Yes, from the "Titanic." I also saw the morse code being used.
17973. About how many rockets did you see sent up?
- I should say I saw about a dozen go up; probably more.
17974. A dozen rockets from the "Titanic"?
- Yes, they kept going up.
17975. And you could see those quite distinctly?
- Yes.
17976. And should those lights have been seen by the steamer towards which you were pulling?
- Yes.
17977. Those rockets should have been seen?
- Yes, I think they ought to have been seen.
The Commissioner:
Well, we know they were, Mr. Harbinson.
17978. (Mr. Harbinson.) Yes, My Lord. (To the witness.) Seen distinctly?
- Yes, I should think they ought to have been at the height they were sent up from the "Titanic."
But the peculiar atmospheric conditions that night caused Titanic’s rockets to appear to rise to only half the height of her masthead light. Although the cold air near the sea surface caused abnormal refraction which made the Titanic loom up higher than she would normally appear, the warm air higher up was refracting normally. This meant that when Titanic began firing distress rockets - which in reality rose to a height of about 600 feet - these exploded in the normally refracting, warm air, high above Titanic and appeared at the normal height for their distance, but therefore did not appear to rise very high relative to the looming Titanic, and this was observed by Second Officer Stone on the Californian:
7921. Tell me what you said to the Chief Officer?
- I have remarked at different times that these rockets did not appear to go very high; they were very low lying; they were only about half the height of the steamer's masthead light and I thought rockets would go higher than that.
7922. Well, anything else?
- But that I could not understand why if the rockets came from a steamer beyond this one, when the steamer altered her bearing the rockets should also alter their bearings. [Author’s note: In fact it was the Californian which was altering her heading and not the Titanic altering her bearing.]
7923. That pointed to this, that the rockets did come from this steamer?
- It does, although I saw no actual evidence of their being fired from the deck of the steamer except in one case.
7924. (Mr. Butler Aspinall.) Which is the one case?
- One rocket that I saw that appeared to be much brighter than the others. [Variable refraction]
7930. I suppose, at any rate, now you have not any doubt but that that ship which was showing you the navigation lights was the ship which was showing you these series of rockets?
- Except, as I say, that they were very low; they did not appear to go high enough to me.
It is also interesting to note that the duct or miraging layer of air through which Titanic was seen, could also have caused the ship to disappear completely, depending on the eye height of the observer, as mirages are very observer-height specific, and this may be what happened when Greaser Earnest Gill of the Californian observed Titanic’s rockets, but without seeing the ship at all:
Californian’s Greaser Earnest Gill
ERG014. About 12.30 you began first to see the rockets?
- Yes, sir; at first, when I saw it was not very plain.
ERG015. Off on your starboard bow?
- Yes, sir.
ERG016. What kind of rockets were they? What did they look like?
- They looked to me to be pale blue, or white.
ERG017. Which, pale blue or white?
- It would be apt to be a very clear blue; I would catch it when it was dying [i.e. low down]. I did not catch the exact tint, but I reckon it was white.
ERG018. Did it look as if the rocket had been sent up and the explosion had taken place in the air and the stars spangled out?
- Yes, sir; the stars spangled out. I could not say about the stars. I say, I caught the tail end of the rocket.[i.e. when the rocket was low down]
ERG019. Did you see any lights on the steamer where the rockets were sent up?
- No, sir; no sign of the steamer at the time.
ERG020. You could not see any lights at all?
- No, sir.
Titanic’s rockets were high enough not to be affected by the duct, but Titanic was in the duct and so her visibility would have been very height-dependent. Indeed, Gill admits as much in the following testimony, when he describes seeing the Titanic, half an hour before she fi
red her first rocket:
ERG028. You think it may have been the Titanic?
- Yes; sir. I am of the general opinion that the crew is, that she was the Titanic.
ERG029. When did you first see her?
- At four minutes after [sic afore] 12, exactly.
ERG030. How do you know that?
- Because at five minutes to 12 I was working with the fourth engineer at a pump that kicked, that would not work, and while we were interested in our work we forgot the time; and I looked up, and I said, "It is five minutes to 12. I haven't called my mate, Mr. Wooten. I will go call him." And I got to the ladder to climb out of the engine room and get on deck. That taken me one minute, to get up there.
ERG031. Was this ship moving at that time?
- I did not take particular notice of it, sir, with the rushing to call my mate. I went along the deck. It taken me about a minute going along the deck, to get to the hatch I had to go down, and I could see her as I walked along the deck. Suppose I am going forward, now; I could see her over there (indicating), a big ship, and a couple of rows of lights; so that I knew it was not any small craft. It was no tramp. I did not suppose it would be a "Star" boat. I reckoned she must be a German boat. So I dived down the hatch, and as I turned around in the hatch I could not see her, so you can guess the latitude she was in. As I stood on the hatch, with my back turned, I could not see the ship. Then I went and called my mate, and that is the last I saw of it.
Gill’s testimony also suggests that the stooping or even inverting rockets that he saw appeared to be exploding above a false horizon, which Gill calls only “what appeared to be the water’s edge” in the following testimony from the British Inquiry:
18157. (Mr. Rowlatt.) Did you see anything in the direction where the steamer had been?
- I had pretty nearly finished my smoke and was looking around, and I saw what I took to be a falling star. It descended and then disappeared. That is how a star does fall. I did not pay any attention to that. A few minutes after, probably five minutes, I threw my cigarette away and looked over, and I could see from the water's edge - what appeared to be the water's edge - a great distance away, well, it was unmistakably a rocket; you could make no mistake about it. Whether it was a distress signal or a signal rocket I could not say, but it was a rocket.
The graveyard watch
To all of these very confusing factors we must add that, in these conditions, a ship which is sinking will look the same as a ship which is steaming away - the latter being much more likely - and one which is steaming away from a nearby ship cannot be in need of help; and this was possibly also in the minds of Second Officer Stone and Apprentice Gibson as they watched the Titanic slowly disappear, throughout that agonising night:
Stone:
7813. What did he tell you?
- He told me the ship was stopped, surrounded by ice, and he pointed out another steamer.
7814. He pointed out another steamer. What could you see of the other steamer?
- One masthead light and a red sidelight and two or three small indistinct lights.
7816. Is that all he said about her?
- And that the Third Officer had called her up on the Morse lamp and received no reply.
7817. He told you that?
- Yes.
7818. Did you look and see these lights yourself?
- Yes.
7819. How far away did you judge they were?
- Approximately about five miles.
8088. What kind of steamer did you judge her to be from the appearance of the lights you saw?
- A smallish steamer.
8089. Judging from the appearance of the lights, could she possibly have been the "Titanic" in your opinion?
- Not by any means.
7942. During that 20 minutes did you notice anything which you would call funny or odd about her light?
- Yes.
7943. What did you notice?
- On one occasion I noticed the lights looked rather unnatural, as if some were being shut in and others being opened out; the lights appeared to be changing their position - the deck lights.
7944. Her deck lights?
- Yes, and I lost sight of her red sidelight.
7944a. That would be consistent with her altering her heading?
- Yes.
7945. What was there funny about it?
- Merely that some lights were being shut in and others exposed and I remarked to Gibson that the lights looked peculiar, unnatural, but when I took the glasses and brought her under close observation I took it to be due to the fact that very likely she was porting for some iceberg close at hand and was coming back on her course again, showing her other lights, the original lights.
These lights of a village, 23 miles away, refracting in a superior mirage in Alaska, shows how confusing miraged lights can appear © James W. Helmericks
7956. And after Gibson had returned did you continue to keep this ship under observation?
- Until she disappeared, yes.
7957. What did you see of her which disappeared?
- A gradual disappearing of all her lights, which would be perfectly natural with a ship steaming away from us.
7958. (The Commissioner.) What do you mean by all her lights?
- The deck lights, which were in view. The masthead light would be shut in except for a slight flickering, the glare of it, and the red sidelight would be shut in altogether. The lights I would see would be the lights at the end of the alleyway or engine room skylight, and the stern light.
7959. (Mr. Butler Aspinall.) Did the stern light that you speak of as disappearing, suddenly become black or gradually fade away as if it was going away?
- It gradually faded as if the steamer was steaming away from us.
7960. Did it have the appearance of being a light on a ship which had suddenly foundered?
- Not by any means.
Gibson:
7515. What had you noticed between one o'clock and twenty minutes past one, looking at her through your glasses?
- The Second Officer remarked to me, "Look at her now; she looks very queer out of the water; her lights look queer."
7516. You are sure that is what he said - "She looks very queer out of the water"?
- Yes.
7517. Did he say what he meant?
- I looked at her through the glasses after that, and her lights did not seem to be natural.
7518. (The Commissioner.) What do you mean by that?
- When a vessel rolls at sea her lights do not look the same.
7519. But there was no water to cause her to roll, was there; you were not rolling?
- No.
7520. There was no sea to cause her to roll?
- No, Sir.
7521. (The Solicitor-General.) He made this observation to you. Did you look at her then through your glasses?
- Yes.
7522. What did you see?
- She seemed as if she had a heavy list to starboard.
Author’s note: From when Gibson began observing at 12.15am until she foundered at 2.20am, Titanic carried a list to port, so her whole, gradually sinking hull may only have appeared to rise up, in the abnormally refracting air. The true height of her port light, in feet above sea level, can be seen in the following chart:
7544. Was anything said between the Second Officer and you as to whether this was likely to be a passenger steamer?
- No.
7545. What did you think?
- I thought she was a tramp steamer, and I told him so.
7632. When you saw her first. Now, tell me, when you first saw that glare of lights in the afterpart, could you see a line of lights?
- No.
7633. It was more than a single light, was it not?
- Yes.
7634. Could not you tell, when you first saw it, whether that glare of lights in her afterpart was running level with the water?
- No.
7636. Now I wish you would just
try and tell us what you mean when you say that later on, when you looked at her through the glasses, you thought she had a list, or you thought her lights looked queer; what was there about her lights to make you think that?
- Her sidelights seemed to be higher out of the water.
7637. The sidelights seemed to be higher out of the water?
- Yes.
7638. Do you mean that there was any time when you saw both sidelights?
- Her red sidelight.
7639. And you say that watching her, you thought that her red sidelight did not stay at the same level, but got higher?
- Yes.
7640. That was your impression was it?
- Yes.
The Commissioner:
That would make a list to starboard?
7641. (The Solicitor-General.) Is that why you thought she had got a list to starboard?
- Yes.
7642. You thought her red light was rising out of the water, and so you assumed that the other side was dropping?
- Yes.
7643. Did you call the Second Officer's attention to that?
- Yes; he remarked it at the time; he told me to look through the glasses at it.
7650. Just tell us. You say the Second Officer spoke to you about it; what did he say?
- He said, "Have a, look at her now, Gibson; she seems to look queer now."
7651. You have not said anything about her port light yet, you know; did he say anything more?