He calls up the bridge and speaks to his fellow quartermaster Robert Hichens to give him the log reading. It shows that Titanic has travelled 45 nautical miles since the last reading at 8pm, at an average speed of 22.5 knots. One of the key tasks of the quartermaster on the afterbridge is to measure the ship’s speed and the distance run every two hours, using a log-line that trails in the ship’s wake. The Titanic is sailing at speed and at night into an area where Captain Smith has been warned there is ice. The Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton said in 1912 that it was his policy to slow
...more
