Contemporary news photos related to the sinking of the Titanic
You’ve heard the story, you’ve seen the movie. The supposedly unsinkable Titanic hit an iceberg and then sank early on the morning of April 15, 1912, killing over 1,500 people. The gigantic ship had left Southampton, England, on her first voyage only five days before. The wreck still lies on the ocean floor, below more than two miles of water.
Some reasons for the high death toll are known, including too few lifeboats and confused evacuation procedures. Ever since the disaster, though, questions have lingered: Why did the crew not see the iceberg in time? Why did the Californian, a freighter sailing just a few miles away, not respond to distress signals?
A researcher used old weather reports and ship’s logs to shed light on the mysteries and develop a new theory. This theory proposes that an optical phenomenon called super refraction distorted the sightlines of the crews of both the Titanic and the Californian. The illusion was caused by the temperature differences in the layers of air—cold air over the cold Labrador current under air warmed by the Gulf Stream. This thermal inversion refracted light in such a way that a false horizon appeared. The iceberg was camouflaged between the true and false horizons. The layered air also disrupted communication between the two ships. So, although human error certainly played a part in the tragedy, a meteorological condition may have been the ultimate culprit.
The catastrophe did produce one positive result. Lawmakers approved new regulations to keep ships, passengers, and crew safe. A 1912 cartoon showed Uncle Sam at a ship’s helm, saying “By ginger, I’ll take a firmer grip on this business hereafter.”
Image credit: © Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
Related Links
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Did the Titanic Sink Because of an Optical Illusion?
Follow the graphic illustration of how the thermal inversion may have helped cause the disaster.
(Source: Smithsonian Magazine, March, 2012) -
Why the Titanic Still Fascinates Us
Read the complete article about the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’ssinking, including the memoires of several survivors.
(Source: Smithsonian Magazine, March 2012) -
Researchers: Rare Astronomical Alignment May Have Doomed Titanic
Even the sun and moon may have played a part in the disaster.
(Source: CNN, March 7, 2012) -
Sinking of the RMS Titanic
This article provides background and extensive details about the catastrophe.
(Source: Wikipedia; accessed March 31, 2012)
1st Comment,
The disaster about the titanic was really bad, and it actually just became viral on youtube about 3 years ago. The Titanic happened along time ago, to hard to remember.
~BlackNinjaX6
Where can i find the author
wow its like some kind of magic trick
this was so long time ago and ppl are still curiose about tht day
No no this is what happened, the captain of the ship was eatin a sammich, then didn’t notice that there was a sea monster in the way of the ship, so they crashed into the sea monster and then a time stopper came and turned the monster into an iceberg, so yeah they hit an iceberg
cool but too science fiction
I like titanic more.However, Baz Luhrmann (romeo and jleiut director) is a marvelous director, and I really like the way his movies look aesthetically, so I like Romeo and Juliet too. And of course it is Shakespeare who doesn’t love Shakespeare? :)And I like Kate better. I think Claire Danes is ugly :p
who is the author
i love this movie/story it’s so sad
NO THE CAPTIN WAZ LISTIN TO THE RADIO AND ROCKIN’ OUT, DIDN’T NOTICE THE GIGANTIC ICEBERG IN FRONT OF THE SHIP, so ya, that’s y it sanc
the movie is s dramatic but so sad
*cries*
Cheeseburger
I’m sad for the loss of people
Poor people… That was indeed a sad time
I have never thought that Titanic killed that many people. I thought a lot of people got serious injury,
but not getting killed that much. I feel so sad and I also feel bad for those of who fot killed and their families.
I feel that we will never know what happened that fateful night. Through all the reasearch and all the evidence we won’t know. The crew, captain and the main people that saw what happened to it to thier grave. The few survivers know what happened and we should belive them and not try to come up with a crazy idea. I think this article has some good points but in the end you can’t take back hitting the iceberg.
I think that it was very sad.