Superior Mirages, And The Titanic

This passed by in office E-Mail today. Apparently the Smithsonian Magazine this month is discussing the Titanic disaster, analyzing the effect of a superior mirage as being among the factors contributing to the disaster (click on the image to get a better look).




As one co-worker wrote:

It's definitely interesting. I have never heard of this phenomenon, but it seems totally plausible. It also adds to just how unlucky that entire fateful trip was. I am actually wondering how iceberg collisions hadn't happened more often because the environmental factors were likely present on many winter days, year after year. I suppose the presence of icebergs would be the most variable factor. Technology would make this a non-issue for the past few decades, but before that, I would have thought there would be other stories.

I wrote back:

As a matter of pride (since both the ship's builder, Tom Andrews, and the ship's owner, Ismay, plus numerous guests, were on board), the command officers of the Titanic were attempting the fastest Atlantic crossing ever of a passenger ship. Part of that calculation was to keep to the north as much as possible, in order to minimize the distance traveled. It may be that they glided over that margin; that threshold that had kept previous ships safe.