NavList:

There is a theory making the rounds that tides may have had a role in re-floating icebergs a few months before Titanic struck one on April 14, 1912. There are some aspects of this that are probably worth discussing here. Jim Donnary, NavList lurker, pointed a few of us to an article at discovery.com:
http://news.discovery.com/space/moon-titanic-120306.html

For those of you who subscribe to Sky & Telescope (you can get a digital subscription for a reasonable price), they have Titanic on their cover this month (yes, cheap trick). The article is interesting though I am not convinced. Dave Walden pointed us to a link to the cover art:
http://media.skyandtelescope.com/images/FC-2012-04-172px.png

And National Geographic's web site also has a story:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/120306-titanic-supermoon-moon-science-iceberg-sky-sink/

Note that the S&T article mentions Bowditch twice. That's a rarity. Also, they refer to Wood's "Strategic Role of Perigean Spring Tides". By chance, I bought this years ago. It's a huge tome that convinces me of one thing: the author, Fergus Wood, would have happily blamed a sunny day on perigean spring tides if he could.

-FER
PS: I just checked the message boards before hitting "post" and I see that Paul Hirose has just sent a message about an entirely different aspect of the Titanic story. An amazing coincidence!
----------------------------------------------------------------
NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList
Members may optionally receive posts by email.
To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com
----------------------------------------------------------------