

Did the Titanic sink because of an optical illusion? - danvideo
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Did-the-Titanic-Sink-Because-of-an-Optical-Illusion.html

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js2
I'm a sucker for stories about the Titanic, but this story lead me to
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage)> which I found way more
interesting.

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joshAg
for me, the coolest fact was that the Titanic's spotter saw the iceberg when
it was still a mile away. For some reason, I thought the spotter only saw it
with hundreds or tens of yards to spare.

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panacea
The way film, TV and literature has always presented it, was it hit the berg
in an inky black night with scant but a faint glow from the swinging lantern
aboard the spotter's helm.

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PakG1
You know, this is a perfect metaphor for what often happens in organizations
in critical projects/operations when people misunderstand each other, leading
to disastrous mistakes and situations. The arrogant, sadistic captain of the
Californian that made people too afraid to act, the multiple missed distress
calls, the incorrect perception of what they saw of each other, it's got
everything.

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iwwr
One thing that might have saved the Titanic would have been to steer directly
into the iceberg, bow-on. That way, only one compartment (the front one) would
have been damaged), allowing it to stay afloat.

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perlgeek
That sounds like something that only works in theory. Hitting it perfectly
frontal is nearly impossible, and then it'll continue to rub on one of the
sides after the first impact.

Also remember that much of the crew thought the Titanic was unsinkable (at
least that's what popular books and movies suggest...), so an attempt to hit
it frontally in order to provide more damage seems quite far off.

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panacea
"and then it'll continue to rub on one of the sides after the first impact."

Not if it cranked up the speed!

Cue Hollywood dialogue:

Spotter: Captain, we're almost upon the behemoth... we can't avoid it!

Captain: Full. Speed. Ahead.

Scotty in the engine room: But we're a cruise liner, not a...

Captain: I said FULL SPEED!

Aerial Titanic etc...

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nikanj
No, it sunk because of an iceberg

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Fargren
And JFK died of a bullet, but we still wonder how it got there.

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emidln
Obviously pirates doing the FSM's work. It's well known that FSM hates
DiCaprio.

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panacea
Is the answer to forfty-fifths of headlines posed as a question, "no"?

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WayneDB
A theory exists that the owner of the Titanic - JP Morgan - was the force
behind it's sinking and that all the wealthy and powerful men that his group
wanted to get rid of were invited to be on that ship. You can read about it
here - <http://www.titanicuniverse.com/the-titanic-conspiracy>

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Drbble
Your summary elides quite a bit of the quackery of that article... Illuminati,
Jesuit secret agents, Federal Reserve...

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WayneDB
The site itself is not a conspiracy site. The article is written in a
completely neutral point of view.

It's your opinion that any conspiracy theories involving the aforementioned
subjects are quackery. If you think conspiracies never happen, you're wrong
and if you believe that all of our institutions exist for the good of mankind
you're even more wrong.

So, what was your point anyway? I was just pointing out that there's a theory
that exists. Are you accusing me of some sort of subterfuge here?

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tzs
It's not just his opinion that the article you linked to is quackery. It is
fact.

For instance, consider the stuff about the color of the flares, and red
meaning distress and white meaning identification. That's all made up. In 1912
the internationally recognized distress signals at night were:

1\. A gun or other explosive fired at intervals of about a minute,

2\. flames on the vessel,

3\. Flares of any color, used one at a time at short intervals,

4\. A continuous sounding with any fog-signal apparatus.

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WayneDB
Those weren't the examples that were given to me.

Even assuming you're right on that single fact, being incorrect on a single
fact still isn't quackery.

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RollAHardSix
Silly, the Titanic sank because of Geoffrey Palmer.

