Great stories of the old days, Martin. I remember them only too well.
As for what was written about who said what? here is Lightoller's evidence in full:
"Yes. We [Capt. Smith] spoke about the weather; calmness of the sea; the clearness; about the time we should be getting up toward the vicinity of the ice and how we should recognize it if we should see it - freshening up our minds as to the indications that ice gives of its proximity. We just conferred together, generally, for 25 minutes....We commenced to speak about the weather. He said, 'there is not much wind.' I said, 'No, it is a flat calm,' as a matter of fact. He repeated it, he said, 'A flat calm.' I said, 'Quite flat; there is no wind.' I said something about it was rather a pity the breeze had not kept up whilst we were going through the ice region. Of course, my reason was obvious, he knew I meant the water ripples breaking on the base of the berg. We then discussed the indications of ice. I remember saying 'In any case, there will be a certain amount of reflected light from the bergs.' He said, 'Oh, yes, there will be a certain amount of reflected light.' I said or he said - blue was said between us - that even though the blue side of the berg was towards us, probably the outline, the white outline, would give us sufficient warning, that we should be able to see it at a good distance, and as far as we could see, we should be able to see it. Of course, it was just with regard to that possibility of the blue side being towards us, and that if it did happen to be turned with the purely blue side towards us, there would still be the white outline."
Even without a wind or any size of sea, they would have expected a long - low swell in that part of the ocean. Even in a ship like Titanic on such a night, a long, low swell would have been apparent. A large berg would behave like a ship in such a swell and displace water as it slowly pitched rolled and gyrated. Consequently, there would be a bright phosphorescence around its base. Not so with small ice in such conditions.
Lightoller also said:
"Capt. Smith made a remark that if it was in a slight degree hazy there would be no doubt we should have to go very slowly."
He used the adjective "hazy" to indicate a reduction in visibility which is entirely different from the noun haze and did so because in the North Atlantic in spring time there is a great deal of fog and the first sign of it is a fine mist.
I think you will find that other captains expected to, and in fact, did, meet with fog westward of 50 West
Smith was within a few feet of his bridge from the time he left Lightoller until they hit the ice. In fact, I think you will find that he was on and off it several times including wheh Boxhall reported the 7-30 pm position to him, and would have been nearby at the change of Watches at 10 pm
Be careful when passing on what some one writes in a book, Martin,
Geoffrey Marcus, like so many others when writing about this subject assumed certain things including what was in the minds of individuals. If he had any first-hand knowledge, he would have known that Lightoller knew as we all did, that you only get mist or sea smoke near ice when there is warm air bearing moisture in proximity to it. That is what causes the fog banks in spring. (and your breath to smoke in winter).
He also did what many authors did and still do, and that was, that he failed to read the evidence properly and in its entirety. There were two times for arrival at or near the proximity to where ice had been... note the use of the word "had". Lightoller thought 9-30 pm and Moody thought after 11 pm. Both these times were bases on Longitude - not latitude and that is important because to them, latitude was by far the most important consideration. I find no evidence that this was discussed in the messroom and in fact, Lightoller made his guess between 7-30 and 8 pm that night after dinner
Incidentally, I have been in thick fog in a force 12 with icebergs in the area when crossing the Grand Bank. It ain't funny!
