Today I...April 11th

Today I..

...went back to work after three days off that went by far too quickly.

...sat at my desk this afternoon thinking about how I would have much rather been back at the Indigo bookstore spending the afternoon reading my book by the windows overlooking McGill College Avenue and then chatting away with my friend V after she surprised me by coming to join me. She had seen my status update mentioning how I was enjoying a quiet afternoon there and came for some quality one-on-one time :o)

...found that the day went by quite quickly despite my wishing I was reading my book and chatting with V

...am looking forward to this evening's Titanic documentary on the National Geographic channel. So far this week I have learned that after studying her debris field, a team of experts determined that the Titanic more than likely tilted up at no more than a 23 degree angle rather than her stern rising all the way up out of the water. The same team of experts also determined that she split in two between her second and third funnels rather than between her third and fourth funnels. I have also learned that the reason why the Titanic struck an iceberg and  sank was that her look-outs more than likely did not see the iceberg in time due to a cold weather mirage, a phenomenon caused by light crossing from cold, dense air to warmer air. Cold water mirage conditions, also called refraction, were reported by several ships in the same area the Titanic was in, which caused the iceberg the Titanic struck to be invisible to her look-outs until she was nearly on top of it. See the double horizon in this picture of a cold weather mirage from Finland? That's probably what happened To Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee, the Titanic's two night look-outs, except in their case the iceberg would have been cloaked by what looked perfectly normal: a very, very starry night sky with no moon.

These conditions are also why the Titanic and the Californian could not see one anothers' Morse lamps as they tried to signal back and forth to one another. The mirage effect made the lamps look like mast lights flickering. The mirage effect is also what made the Titanic look so small to the Californian. See the boat in this picture?

That is an oil tanker that looks like a fishing boat on top of looking like it has a second bridge floating upside down on its real one. They used the same image on last night's documentary (Titanic: Case Closed) to illustrate how the Titanic could have looked like a tramp steamer to the Californian who was such a very short distance (on the open ocean, at least) from the Titanic.

So that is what I have learned since Sunday, or at least part of it. I can't wait to learn more!!! If you have the National Geographic Channel, the Titanic documentaries are on every night at 9:00 P.M. and are well worth the watch!