Really? Then how you explain why Beesley saw only 2 lights (one of which was a mirage according to you). Should not he had seen 4 lights? Why nobody saw double sidelights? No, Boxhall’s description of an approaching steamer is not a description of a miraged steamer.
A miraged steamer really does look like an approaching steamer. Her light will rise up and double into two and the changing atmosphere will make it revert and get smaller and then rise up and get bigger again. The light will rise up so much that it will appear on a second invisible horizon and reflect underneath. The bottom light will also turn red (depending on the intensity of the inferior refraction).
It could easily be mistaken for a masthead light and red port light.
The light has risen up onto the false second horizon and reflected / inverted underneath.
If there was a red port light it would be low down and close to the surface and it would not be high enough above the surface to double in appearance. The masthead light would because it was much higher up, and its reflection would be very visible, while the red light would look the same in the middle.
e.g. If there was a red port light it would look like this at various times of the evening as the refraction fluctuated big and small.
Just like the butterfly's wings. Everything close to the line (the second horizon) would appear the same. Refraction makes the second horizon hazy which would also mask everything within it including a light. This is why the survivors could not even say with certainty that it was a light because it was in a haze/glare due to the inferior refracted horizon.
e.g. A stationary ship 20 miles away will rise up and double itself.
Mr. Crawford
"Sometimes she seemed to get closer; other times she seemed to be getting away from us......we could not seem to make any headway."
Q - What lights on her did you see? One masthead or two masthead lights?
A - Two masthead lights.
Q - You say you rowed how long?
A - Until we left the ship, because the ladies urged us to pull for the ship.
Q - Until daylight?
A - Yes, sir.
Q - And you got no nearer to that light?
A - We did not seem to be making any headway at all, sir.
This is why the witnesses were continually contradicting each other, despite the fact they were looking at the same thing.
Same principal applies to the aircraft carrier that was well beyond the horizon, but was levitated up ontop of a second horizon and inverted. If she were showing a green side light many decks above the surface then it would appear to rise higher and higher as the refraction intensified, while the reflected second green light would remain hidden because it would drop lower and lower over the horizon as the the refraction got bigger and the green light and masthead light would continue to rise higher and higher.
I believe this is why Gibson saw her masthead light and red port light getting higher and higher and he mistakenly believed she was listing heavily to starboard and when it got worse he really was totally baffled by what he saw.
Californian - Gibson
"Her sidelights seemed to be higher out of the water."
Q - Did you look to see whether these after-lights seemed higher up out of the water, or lower in the water?
A - I noticed them all at the same time.
Q - What, the red light and the others too?
A - Yes.
Q - And do you mean that the white light
(forward masthead light) seemed higher out of the water as well as the red light?
A - Yes.
He would not have a clue why her lights were all rising higher in unison and partially doubling in the glare. If he was accused of drinking on duty I doubt he would admit to seeing double.
Q - What was the difference?
A - That I cannot say.
Q - Were they in the same position as they were before?
A - They were in the same position, but they seemed to look different.
Q - They merely seemed to look different?
A - Yes.
Q - Am I to understand that, as far as you could tell, the position of the white lights had not changed?
A - They seemed to have changed, but I cannot say how.
Q - Changed in what sense? How had they changed?
A - They did not look the same as they did before.
Q - I know; you have said that two or three times, and you have been asked what the difference was, and I should have thought you could have told us what the difference was. What was it?
A - I cannot say, my Lord.
Q - Cannot you tell us what the difference was?
A - No.
This would also explain why Stone observed her rockets bursting close to her masthead light because her lights were rising higher up and magnifying due to the strong inferior refraction which masked her true distance and appearance and created the illusion her rockets were bursting close to her elevated masthead light..