A quick query......

[Bags]

I by no means wish to seem impertinent, however I have a question re. The wreck site.

I'm certain it has been/was taken into account, but has anyone determined just how fart the Titanic might have traveled in her approx. 2.5 mile descent from the surface?

My reason for asking is that the position of the wreck vs. the foundering co-ords does not jive in my head. It seems as though she ended up east of the CQD position, where I had the impression that as she drifted off the 'berg, her head had come about to the north.

Regards,

D. Gullon

 

[Michael H. Standart]

That the CQD position has been known to be in error has been known since 1912 and it was both the Californian and the Mount Temple which figured it out. They just weren't believed until the discovery of the wreck effectively ended the debate.

 

[Bags]

Granted, but would she not have covered some distance on her way down, or is negligible in the grand scheme of things? (newbie head says something around .5 knots traveled, assuming avg. Speed of 15 kts. Like I said, newbie, ) or is this kettle of fish just not worth the grey matter?

 

[Bags]

I should also mention my other thought, which is that if she glided a more significant distance, it may have an effect on the debate of which ship saw whom and when. IE did the MT, or the Californian, see her, and more to the point was there anything either could have done. (not that I subscribe to condemning people in absentia, or after their dead for that matter, more a point of getting all the facts lined up)

 

[Bruce A. Trinque]

I'm certain it has been/was taken into account, but has anyone determined just how fart the Titanic might have traveled in her approx. 2.5 mile descent from the surface?


Not only the major hull segements but also much debris such as the boilers, coal, dinnerware, and innumerable other pieces are all found in the same basic location. Much of this debris was spilled into the ocean when the hull broke in two at the surface. There was some dispersal (several hundred yards to the south) of the lightweight debris (such as coal) due to underwater currents, but items such as the boilers dropped essentially straight down.

As has been noted, the Titanic's position as contained in her distress messages was in error, no doubt due to the fact that it was obtained from dead reckoning that did not account for currents encountered during the day. It is hard for us in this era of GPS to realize that positions at sea could be fixed only at specific times (such as at noon and with the use of precise chronometers) and in between it was a case of a best educated guess.

 

[Bags]

Right, *self Gibbs*, I'd forgotten about the boilers. Something that big isn't going to care a whit about the currents. Thanks Mike and Bruce.

Derek

P.S. I have a descent idea about DR actually, if from an aviation standpoint and much more recent. I can only imagine how important solid readings would be on the ocean.