I congratulate Mr. Maltin on his research. Something he did not mention was the terrible fact that Lookout Frederick Fleet was not good at judging distances. This came out in the inquiries after the sinking. It is yet another horrible thing that came together that awful night.

Thank you for solving how the Titanic sank.

Here are some questions i have how many passengers were on the ship and where did the Ice berg hit the titanic

The movie was awsome until it got to the end then i cryed!!!

All researchers should agree on a common reason why the Titanic sunk.

At last someone who has an answer to all the idiots that think that the Titanic was sunk on purpose or did not hit a berg or was switched. I have seen the documentary 3 times now in full and 7 times in part and have read one book. I have read other books, but not one that deals with the natural events of that night. The clear night with no moon, the warm air above cold, the stars as a thousand lights, the stillness of the sea, all came together to cause a mirage effect. It both explains why the lookouts did not see the iceberg until it was on top of them and why Captain Lord may have not realized that he was looking at the Titanic and got confused by the lights and signals. It also proves that it was the Titanic that sank because the plates and the design of the ship are looked at and how strong her steel and rivets were. The berg did not make one clean slice in the side of the ship, it made several smaller ones side by side and the steel rivets were forced out, partly as they were iron in places. I have been looking at all of the ridiculous conspiracy theories all night and it was refreshing to finish by reading a proper scientific explanation for the sinking of the Titanic: an iceberg hit her, but the natural forces around her made it almost impossible that she did not collide with this berg. A perfect cold night, that was too perfect for the human eye to cope with; and when nature and human error conspire; then disaster follows. 1500 people may have gone to their deaths because there were not enough life boats, but nature created the disaster that sank an 'unsinkable' ship in the first place, and human beings sadly gave her a hand.

Captain Smith was responsible for Titanic's speed, yet to back him up he was following protocol at the time. It was common practice to sail through Danger zones as quickly as possible and Smith took into consideration of Icebergs by sailing a more southern route. Cpt Smith also had faith in his ship and trusted his experience. It is easy to see why Smith acted on Ismays word and he wanted to end his career on a mega high by arriving into New York earlier than expected. A COMPLACENT CAPTAIN left The RMS TITANIC flying in the face of God. Crew members, particularly 2nd Officer Lightoller who warned Cpt Smith of ice being hard to see at night but under Smith's orders was told to maintain speed and heading, speed being the critical concern.

Dear ice4444 (and everyone else sharing this opinion),

Before you throw out this "theory" in disgust, WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY! Mr. Maltin presents a mountain of EVIDENCE to prove his point, I would like you to watch and weigh every piece yourself.

And, much more importantly, I'll tell you who cares: the hundreds (thousands?) of fishermen (and other ship users) who regularly travel in this same exact part of the North Atlantic, and who have to occasionally deal with this EXACT SAME weather phenomena.

Although it is rare, this phenomenon DOES OCCUR from time to time (the "Titanic" disaster was certainly not the only time) and it is extremely important for ALL SAILORS and SHIP CREWMEMBERS (to say nothing of the captains!) to know about it, to help prevent a nautical tragedy from ever occuring again for these same reasons.

Trust me, any kind of weather phenomena which distorts the horizon, presents a false horizon, and/or either completely obscures or distorts the images of other nearby ships, can have exceedingly dangerous consequences for all parties involved IF they have no reliable means of communication AND IF they are not fully aware of said phenomena.

All training of any ship's personnel in any country (or just the training of sailors in general), should include a full day's (or week's) training/tutorial on this particular phenomena (Super Refraction), and how to properly and safely deal with it, whether in the presence of other ships, or not.

-sincerely
A. Barrett

The NASA site 'Astonomy Picture of the Day' has a shot today about the so-called Fata Morgana, a recognized optical illusion much like the one Matlin describes. See a discussion in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage)

While a whole armada of things went wrong, it seems plausible there were visual oddities under weather conditions that Night to Remember that contributed to the collision by making the iceberg pretty much invisible on a moon-less, extremely still night with no whitecaps or waves to break visibly against the berg.

Titanic hit the ocean bottom at 30 knots. A new speed record for the time.

So the theory is that they could see further than normal ? It's not clear how that causes hitting icebergs and missing signals ... the opposite is more likely - icebergs more visible and sighnals travelling further !

Saw the documentary, I think it's a very revealing explanation that solved the mysteries of the clear sky, the California, etc. Most enlightening definitely.

Given the fact that Astor and many politically connected persons were aboard, there seems no reason not to consider whether the Titanic was sabotaged instead for whatever advantage that might have produced at the time. So many conspiracy theories surround current events that it seems logical to question whether they also surrounded past events, so, in not exploring that potential, great flaws in history can occur that otherwise might reveal devastating data exposed of how criminal minds deceive, and how media can be used for coverups. It seems rather odd that such an historical view has not been the topic of hindsight to a point where the sinking can be attributable only to an accident of such major proportions - that seems more unlikely than not - given the extent of the investment at the time, and the number of socially prominent persons aboard. Wondering if that really does them justice to chaulk it up to an accident.

Just saw the documentary and I agree with the findings 100%. It was a freak accident that nobody wanted to happen.

Exactly. Check the facts first! Binoculars didn't have any influence collision. They wouldn't have been used even if they were available. Any of the watchmen in nearby ships in the same conditions at the very same night didn't use binoculars. Cause binoculars just don't work too well in the dark. Bare eye is better for ice berg spotting in the dark.

This theory is not probably worth your time. Analysis of the titanic event revealed that the key to the cabinet with all the titanic's binoculars was left to london. The lookout guys could not get their hands on the binoculars and thus saw the iceberg too late. Check the facts first.

As a United States Merchant Marine deck officer, captain, The blame for the lose of the Titanic rests squarely on the shoulders of her Captain. For whatever reason, the captain of the Titanic was traveling at an unsafe speed for the conditions at hand. Ice had been reported to him and he should have been proceeding at a safer speed for the existing conditions. EOM However, to his credit, and thankfully, he did go down with his ship. Unlike the cowardly captain of the recent Greek ship wreck who deserted his ship, his post, his passengers and his responsibilities.

The high speed theories, heres another one:
No record attempt, only the standard procedure to burn coal that had selfignited in order to prevent the fire to spread in the hold, this causing the high speeed?

The fictional novel "Futility of the Wreck of the Titan" laid the blueprint for the robber barons to drown opposition. Marconi was funded by Morgan to steal Tesla radio patents, look it up.

Nice try, but if the ship had been built to spec in the first place, other research has shown that it may very well have survived the collision damage. It's a nice way to popularize your atmospheric research though.

There's no real mystery why the Californian did not respond to the Titanic's rockets. The watch officer of the Californian saw rockets, but did not see a distress signal. Protocols for using rockets or cannon to signal distress at night were well defined in 1912. A firing interval of one minute was specified. Signals at longer intervals were used to signal a ship not underway and requesting extra clearance from passing vessels. The Titanic fired eight rockets over a period of one hour - an average of once every seven to eight minutes. Responsibility for the confusion on the watch of the Californian rests with the poorly trained crew of the Titanic failing to follow protocols and sending a signal most logically interpreted as the exact opposite of their intent. It was entirely reasonable for the watch of the Californian to interpret the signals as being from another ship in the Californian's situation - not underway due to ice. Captain Lord of the Californian was not awoken because nothing seen by the watch officer warranted it. The initial inquests into the disaster failed to grasp this fundamental point.

Add one more to the list of bloopers committed by the Titanic's officers and crew that caused and added to the tragedy: maintaining speed in the face of ice warnings, failure of the radio operator to forward the acute ice warning from the Californian to the bridge, demanding that the Californian stay off air with safety messages so the Titanic could load the airwaves with frivolous messages, failing to launch full lifeboats, and sending the wrong signal when in distress.

I have a rather mystical theory:

Just as the Space Shuttle Challenger was doomed (one does not "challenge" the cosmos), so too was the S.S. Titanic:

“I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.”

--Captain Edward Smith

“God himself could not sink this ship!”

--Unknown Titanic crewmember to embarking passenger, Mrs Sylvia Caldwell.

WHO CARES! Hundreds of people died; and it sunk.

It doesn't help anyone to make up these crazy phenomena's that supposedly caused the wreck.

I know this topic is very sexy to many explorers but enough is enough.

The Titanic was filled with industrialists who opposed the Federal Reserve Bank. JP Morgan was supposed to wine and dine them to change their minds but instead he failed to make the sailing at the last moment and killed all of the opposition. Look it up.

Titanic was not trying to set a speed record. She was not capable of doing so. White Star had made a deliberate decision not to make their ships the fastest because of the cost and reduced passenger comfort due to severe vibration that was common in the faster Cunard ships.

Though Captain Smith was concerned with the speed of Titanic's crossing, he was not intending to win the "Blue Riband" prize for the fastest Atlantic crossing. He know that the Titanic had no chance of beating the current record holder, the RMS Mauretania, which had held the record for the three years previous to the 1912 and would continue to do so for almost 20 years after Titanic sank. Though it cannot be denied Smith played some part in the sinking, to say he was wholly responsibly by trying to break the speed record is unfair and incorrect.

Sounds right to me, problem solved. Lets move on.

Well put together article but entirely wrong!

Opticall illusion had nothing to do with why Titanic hit the iceberg. New calculations show that it was as little as 185 feet ahead of the ship when she started to turn. Unfortunately the word Gibraltar has been used in association with size.

JC

Perfectly feasible but the images need tweaking. Apart from that, other facts make this idea a non-starter.

Image Tweaks:

A. The rockets went as high as the other ship's masthead light.
B. 2. The image seen from Californian at 15 minutes past midnight was of a ship showing a red side-light, a white masthead light and a few lights near the stern which could have been portholes or windows.

Specific facts:

1. The ship near Californian stopped 12 minutes after Titanic stopped.
2. The last rocket was seen from Californian just after the other ship's lights disappeared.
3. Titanic's last rocket was fired half an hour before her lights disappeared

The facts come from the staements of Californian's officers.

While there were false horizons reported, the Titanic was not concerned with them. Captain Smith and the owners wanted to set a speed record on Titanic's maiden voyage. They discussed slowing down but didn't. A false horizon didn't cause the sinking -- Captain Smith's decision to proceed full speed ahead into poor sailing conditions caused the collision.

Captain Lord was known in sea circles as a drunkard and an abusive captain. Californian's crew solicited the Officer of the Deck to wake up the radio operator and the captain. He did not because he was afraid of the repercussions from Captain Lord. As a result, Californian's officers and crew members were shunned in merchant marine operations and gatherings.