An aurora that lit up the sky over the Titanic might explain why it sank

Space.com ^ | September 26, 2020 | Mindy Weisberger

[White Lives Matter]

Glowing auroras shimmered in skies over the northern Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912 — the night the RMS Titanic sank. Now, new research hints that the geomagnetic storm behind the northern lights could have disrupted the ship's navigation and communication systems and hindered rescue efforts, fueling the disaster that killed more than 1,500 passengers.

Eyewitnesses described aurora glows in the region as the Titanic went down, with one observer testifying that "the northern lights were very strong that night," Mila Zinkova, an independent weather researcher and photographer, reported in a new study, published online Aug. 4 in the journal Weather.

[White Lives Matter]

Now this is something I never considered. It's an interesting theory.

[OttawaFreeper]

One important thing to keep in mind is that wireless (believe it or not) was used mainly as an entertainment device aboard passenger ships with passengers being able to send and receive greetings while at sea. As a result, it was not used as an emergency device until that fateful night. The wireless operator aboard the Californian had gone to sleep by the time that the Titanic began sending emergency calls and it was a blessing that the Carpathia’s was still up at that time to hear them and tell Captain Rostrom about the situation.

Had the Californian’s been awake to hear the signals, that ship likely would have arrived even before the Titanic went down and saved most if not all lives lost that tragic night and Captain Stanley Lord would have been the real hero. Wireless service thus was required to be on 24/7 aboard all ships going forward from that event.

[White Lives Matter]

What gets me is that the Californian was just 5 miles away and could see the Titanic’s distress rockets being launched.

[SunkenCiv]

Edited list of Titanic keyword topics, chrono:

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[CharlesOConnell]

Divine intervention has long been a blamed by some for playing a role in the sinking of the Titanic during its maiden voyage in 1912.

Harland and Wolff, the East Belfast shipyard where the ship was manufactured, was notorious for not hiring Catholics.In the 1900’s the workforce was entirely Protestant and virulently anti -Catholic.

“At Harland and Wolff it was not unknown for workers to paint on the sides of ships under construction the words “NO POPE” in letters ten feet high or more,” writes naval historian David Allen Butler.

There were widespread stories that each rivet hammered into the Titanic was accompanied by a ‘f.. the pope epithet

Any Catholics who were hired were subject to blatant discrimination.Some had hammers dropped on them from above and the atmosphere against Catholics was described as “poisonous”

The author and historian Daniel Allen Butler writes about a how anti-Catholic sentiment in Northern Ireland at the time of the ship’s construction was blamed by some for the tragedy.

“Very active in Ulster politics at this time was one William James Pirrie, who became the Chairman of Harland and Wolff in 1895. He instituted an unwritten but strictly enforced policy that the firm would never knowingly employ a Roman Catholic,” writes Butler about the era during which the Titanic was being crafted in Belfast.

Butler goes on to write how rumor has it that “a cryptic anti-Catholic message was hidden in her [the Titanic’s] hull number, the one given to the Titanic by her builder, Harland and Wolff. That mysterious number was 3909-04: when written out and viewed in a mirror, the number spells out the words NO POPE–providing a certain bit of leeway is allowed with the 4.”

[GOPJ]

They thought fireworks were part of a celebration...

[C210N]

It was the Olympic that actually sank in 1912. Tons of vids and articles about the insurance angle.

[logi_cal869]

No, it won’t, unless it created the atmospheric effects which prevented the lookouts from seeing the iceberg until it was too late...

...and influenced the engineering of its bulkheads & rudder...

...and weakened its hull due to a coal bunker fire...

[Sequoyah101]

Interesting PING.

[EEGator]

My death ray worked!...

[GenXteacher]

Cavalierly speeding through pack ice without enough lifeboats had more to do with it, I think.

[TheZMan]

This.

[White Lives Matter]

You have a point.

[Toirdhealbheach Beucail]

A bit more explanation in the article. The author theorizes that the solar storms could have impacted the ship’s compass and thus mis-directed the ship to the iceberg.

Agreed, the title is a bit misleading. “Contributing Factor” might have been more correct.

[SKI NOW]

Had the Californian’s been awake to hear the signals...

And if the Titanic had come to stop like the California and the Carpathia had because of visibility, and not steamed on by it also wouldn't of sunk.

[Hootowl99]

My first reaction when I read the excerpt is that the author was full of it. I started to reply but then decided to read the article first. With that done, I can say the author is full of it on a more informed basis.

1. The captain was steaming Titanic at a way excessive speed at night, in a known iceberg zone and in heavy fog. What a maroon. If a rescue ship had arrived sooner and thus most passengers rescued, the Captain would have been thoroughly disgraced and punished. Going down with the ship was too little for what he deserved.

2. The frequencies that long distance wireless operates at are affected by ionosphere influences having to do with ionization caused by solar wind. The auroras in far northern and southern latitudes are visual representations of this. For long distance radio transmissions, operators chose frequency bands that favor short, medium or long distance to take advantage of the bounce characteristics that will enable their point A to B target. It’s not an exact science. Even fixed land based wireless stations (ex. US Coast Guard, FAA) have several designated frequencies they constantly monitor to assure that they can be reached. Heck, back when we had a CB base station at the lake, I’d mess with it late night and could often faintly receive conversations a few hundred miles away but could not receive consistent signals from truckers on the highway 5 miles away mostly over water. This crazy bounce effect was well known by wireless operators of the day and today.

3. Now, the possible compass effects of the super charged ionosphere breathlessly described. Okay, let’s give the author his theoretical 0.5 degree compass error and assume he knew the compass deviation error perfectly and the dead reckoning plot was perfect. So what... The captain was playing Russian Roulette with lives and ship for the vanity of setting a transatlantic speed record. I think this was his last command before retirement IIRC. Well, no cookies and adoration for him.

[DuncanWaring]

To the best of my knowledge, the only navigation equipment the Titanic had was a sextant.

Auroras don’t interfere with them.

[McGruff]

Gee, thought it was an Iceberg.

[elcid1970]

What about the known reasons for the disaster?

1. Bruce Ismay ordered Captain Smith to push Titanic to nearly 23 kts, faster than her sea trials, to get to New York in record time. This of course would increase her stopping distance.

2. Her course was altered to a higher latitude for the same purpose, even though this placed Titanic in known ice fields.

3. Wireless was for all types of communications including emergencies. Distress codes including SOS were used that night. In addition, Titanic’s operators received many ice reports from other ships earlier that day.

4. What aurora borealis? The night was pitch dark as it was new moon phase. The lookouts strained to see ahead in the blackness.

5. The lookouts saw the iceberg too late BECAUSE THEY HAD NO BINOCULARS! These were in a locked compartment in the crow’s nest but the key was in the possession of a White Star employee who failed to board at Southhampton. It recently sold at auction for a huge price.

6. It was a combination of conditions and human errors which caused the collision, not mysterious lights in the sky.

7. It can be argued that Titanic’s steel was made brittle by cold seas. It appears that the iceberg did not pierce the hull, but buckled it for 350 ft of its length.

There is a youtube vid depicting wireless traffic between Titanic and other ships that night. Chilling to listen to.

[slouper]

Good grief, the ship hit an iceberg and sunk. it’s over already! TWA 800 anybody?