Detail about white stern light

[David G. Brown]

It would seem that White Star went to almost no expense to meet the letter of the law.

-- David G. Brown

 

[Bob Read]

We can talk about what we speculate Titanic should have had but there just isn't any evidence for an electric stern lamp in any location other than the one in the photo. We've combed every Olympic class vessel photo for the minutest details and not once has something like what is being proposed has ever been seen. While this was not like the other navigational lights, it may have satisfied regulations, thus no other stern lamps.

Regards,
Bob Read

 

[Robert T. Paige]

Sorry about that, I got it wrong:

My Quote:
>>Was the "stern light" (just above Kate Winslet's head in the photo on the post) shown in "Titanic" added just for lighting effects rather than being historically correct or is this another light rather than the "stern light" in question ? I believe there is a comment to this effect on one of the DVD commentary tracks ?,

Actually, I believe the light to which I was referring would have been the light about midway up on the flagstaff rather than the stern light.

Bob Godfrey Quote:
>>She's a very conscientious passenger, who's observed that the ship appears to be going down by the head and is doing her best to redress the balance. In the picture below she's enlisted the help of another passenger, but clearly their efforts are to no avail. <<

As you will notice from the photo, both passengers are pulling up on the railing, trying in vain to pull the Titanic up out of the sea.

Jim Currie Quote:
>>Additionally: who was standing on the iceberg shining the light on the lady in question?<<

Probably the same person who standing in a lifeboat...or another iceberg.. shining the light on the Titanic, with its shadow showing on the iceberg in "Titanic" (1953).

 

[Bob Read]

Robert:
The light attached to the flagstaff was not found on any of the Olympic class ships.

Regards,
Bob Read

 

[Jim Currie]

Nice one Sam!

I wonder if the light you mention was to illuminate the area around the stern in port so that if the props were to be turned at night - people would be able to see that the area around them was clear of obstructions. In my day, we used to hang what was called a 'cluster' over the stern for that purpose. Probably 'posh' ships had permanent ones. The light shown could certainly not have met the criteria you quote from Nichols. I used and still have the next version of that.

By the way, does that one have the pages showing all the various rocket sequences? One of the earlier books has no less than 5 pages of rocket signals to be used at sea. No wonder these lads on Californian were confused!

Cheers!

Jim.