NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2019 May 2, 17:04 -0400
15545. Did you have occasion to look at the chart at all from 8 o'clock to 12?
- Well, as near as I can remember I went to the chart room with the
Captain, but the Captain put down the star position when I gave it him,
somewhere about 10 o'clock. He put the position on, and I was standing
close to him, but I did not take that much notice whether any other
positions were put on or not.
15546. Was that for the course?
- That was our star position, putting down the ship's position at 7.30. But this was about 10 o'clock.
15547. (The Solicitor-General.) I cannot hear what you say happened at 10 o'clock?
- The Captain plotted the star position of the ship at 7.30; he put that down on his chart at about 10 o'clock.
15548. (Mr. Scanlan.) Do you know what that position was?
- No, I do not, but the position you have in the Court is worked from that position.
15549. The position in which the collision occurred was worked by you?
- Yes.
15550. From the position indicated by the Captain at 10, I
mean the Captain worked out his position at 10. At 10 o'clock he worked
out the position he had been in at 7.30. Is that so?
- No, he put down the ship's position at 7.30.
15551. (The Commissioner.) I understood that the
Captain at 10 o'clock marked the chart with the position which the
witness ascertained at 7.30. Is that right?
- He put down the ships 7.30 position on his chart.
15552. At 10 o'clock?
- Approximately 10 o'clock.
15553. I understand at 10 o'clock the Captain put down on
the chart the position of the ship as you had ascertained it at 7.30?
- Yes.
15554. Had you both latitude and longitude?
- Yes, we had three stars for latitude, and I think three or four for longitude.
Don Seltzer
On 2019-05-01 15:16, Brad Morris wrote: > My answer, which cannot be verified, is zero. The navigation officers on > the Titanic did not use any stars, unless you count the Sun as a star. Pitman and Boxhall said otherwise. Relevant parts of their testimony are quoted and referenced in my original message from 2012: http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/Titanics-last-stars-Hirose-mar-2012-g18375 The last paragraph, where I estimate the time and place of Lightoller's final round of stars, puts the observations right at the end of nautical twilight. That seems improbable, and is contradicted by Pitman: "We just took a set of them at sunset, or just as it was getting dusk, when the stars were visible."
