STRANGE SIGHTS SEEN AT SEA

[Harland Duzen]

Can someone help me with understanding this phenomenon? When I was reading the testimonies, I came across a very strange phenomenon, or the way in which it was described.

3rd class passenger Edward Dorking, from boat B wrote:
I had never seen phosphorus in the ocean until the night of the disaster, and I remember seeing the balls of fire all about me, coming up to the surface and apparently bursting into a blaze of yellow light. I did not know what they were, and imagined then that I was dying.

Can someone explain to me what he saw? Maybe it was just hallucinations.

Would't that possibly be the ship's lights from portholes as the ship sank bodily into the water and then rose back up as she listed / tilted?

 

[Jim Currie]

I would say it was blooming plankton. I wrote about this in the fourth part of my Titanic article.

Absolutely! Mila. On my own private vessel, my kids used to flush the loo in the dark just to see the phosphorous.
As a young Apprentice on lookout on the bow, I used to watch the phosphorus trails of the dolphins as they escorted us on our way.
The most spectacular display I ever saw was while transiting the Straits of Gibralter during the Middle watch. There were so many dolphins in the area, that the see was luminous from shore to shore.

New subject: Thoroughly enjoying your work. Well done! and well thought out.

 

[Mila]

Thank you, Jim!
BTW IMO the fact that plankton was present at that night, could provide one more evidence that sea smoke was present also. Otherwise lookouts should have seen that phosphorus around the iceberg even if there was no waves.

 

[Aaron_2016]

On a related note, when Alfred Shiers saw the iceberg pass the ship he looked down at the water and noticed the phosphorous.

Q - Could you see the glitter of it?
A - I saw the phosphorous that was coming up in the water.


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[Mila]

One more implication comes out from the pretense of plankton. I mean eddies, many mesoscale eddies, and eddies of course mean currents, different currents, not necessarily the same for Titanic and Californian
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DiZKj1lUcAAkppp.jpg

 

[Robert T. Paige]

This was one night somewhere in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Japan.
There were little blobs of bluish light coming and going in the water as the ship proceeded.
It seemed as if something was being stirred up in the ship's wake.

 

[Jim Currie]

Thank you, Jim!
BTW IMO the fact that plankton was present at that night, could provide one more evidence that sea smoke was present also. Otherwise lookouts should have seen that phosphorus around the iceberg even if there was no waves.

I like your idea on a phenomenon, Mila, but you only see phosphorous in the water when it is moving or when a sea creature which has absorbed it moves. Classic situations are in the bow wave and the wake current at the stern. Or when you disturb a big fish and it moves off quickly.
Icebergs pitching and tolling (as they do) in a sea or swell, displace water. The resulting eddy currents cause the phosphorous- containing water to be seen.
As you probably know, most organic phosphorous is from rivers discharging into the sea and being carried around by surface and intermediate depth currents. very little phosphorous is entrapped in icebergs.
Additionally, the surface water in the vicinity of an iceberg and upwind or upstream of it is fresh, melt-water. I suspect this effects the distribution of the plankton and organic materials in the immediate vicinity. However, I guess you have looked at that?

 

[Mila]

very little phosphorous is entrapped in icebergs.

Jim, I do not think so.
For example here 20 Little Known Facts About the Titanic they write:

Had there been waves there would have been a bright phosphorescent line around the base of the iceberg due the tiny plankton dinoflagellates that glow with the faintest disturbance in the water. On the night the Titanic sank there wasn’t even the slightest wave to warn the ship’s crew of the iceberg. The conditions were incredibly rare for the North Atlantic at the time of the year. On pretty much any other night the iceberg would almost certainly have been spotted and contact could have been avoided.

And here Betrayed by the weather they write:

Without any swell there was no phosphorescence from plankton in the sea which would have glowed around the iceberg like a warning beacon.

And here Titanic | Titanic Facts they write:

These tiny plankton glow brightly even with the slightest disturbance. (Sailors had seen this phosphorescence many times as they rowed through such waters, every stroke causing a glow that clearly outlined each oar.) On that night there was not even a gentle swell that could have caused a phosphorescent line around the iceberg.

The thing is that according to Mr. Beesley there were some swells at that night. So IMO they might have seen some blue around the iceberg, if there was no haze there. Besides as Aaron noticed above Alfred Shiers saw the iceberg pass the ship he looked down at the water and noticed the phosphorous.

 

[Aaron_2016]

Would the surface of the water be free from pollution? e.g If the Titanic was steaming where many ships had crossed before would the sea in that area contain debris and oil on the water around the Titanic? If the large icefield was pushing everything towards the south would there be a concentrated build-up of pollution that wpuld push or drift towards the shipping lanes? Would this include oil, debris, and derelict ships?


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[Ioannis Georgiou]

For example here 20 Little Known Facts About the Titanic they write:

And here Betrayed by the weather they write:

And here Titanic | Titanic Facts they write:

Not the best places to use stuff. They are full of wrong claims.

 

[Mila]

Well, this one Quick Facts on Icebergs | National Snow and Ice Data Center would be satisfactory in your opinion?

As icebergs melt, they leak nutrients into the ocean around them. Recent studies have shown that the water surrounding icebergs teems with plankton, fish, and other sea life.

 

[Robert T. Paige]

This was one night somewhere in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Japan.
There were little blobs of bluish light coming and going in the water as the ship proceeded.
It seemed as if something was being stirred up in the ship's wake.

Just a question out of curiosity......:
Were there any reports of this from passengers or crew when the ship was steaming out on the open seas in any parts of the sea either from Belfast to Southampton or the rest of the passage ?

 

[Jim Currie]

Jim, I do not think so.
For example here 20 Little Known Facts About the Titanic they write:

And here Betrayed by the weather they write:

And here Titanic | Titanic Facts they write:


The thing is that according to Mr. Beesley there were some swells at that night. So IMO they might have seen some blue around the iceberg, if there was no haze there. Besides as Aaron noticed above Alfred Shiers saw the iceberg pass the ship he looked down at the water and noticed the phosphorous.

Helo Mila!

You might find this to be of interest. it is from the "Chemical Revue, 2007, 107, 563−576"

 

[Mila]

Not necessarily at sea, but often at sea, fogbows, fog shadows, the Spectre of the Brocken and solar glories are seen

 

[Oliver K]

I need to go out to sea one day just to see all the stars