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MEET SAMUEL HALPERN

In his own words....


"I am a systems engineer and technologist by profession, with a longstanding interest in steamships and sailing vessels, the study of naval architecture, and the practice of celestial and coastal navigation. I have been involved with the study of Titanic for many years, and I am the principal author of: 'Report Into the Loss of the SS Titanic - A Centennial Reappraisal' (The History Press, 2011), principal author of: 'The Sting of the Hawke: Collision in the Solent' (printed by CreateSpace, an Amazon.com company; January 2015) that was co-authored with Mark Chirnside, author of: 'Strangers on the Horizon: Titanic and Californian - A Forensic Approach' (printed by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, 2019), and co-author of 'Titanic: Solving the Mysteries' (Blurb Books, 2019) with J. Kent Layton, et.al. I also have written numerous research articles for the Titanic Historical Society's: The Titanic Commutator, the British Titanic Society's: Atlantic Daily Bulletin, the Irish Titanic Historical Society's: White Star Journal, and the Titanic International Society's: Voyage. I have also published a number of online articles at: Encyclopedia Titanica, Great Lakes Titanic Society, Titanic Research and Modeling Association, Mark Chirnside's Reception Room, and on my own Titanicology website. In addition to the above, I have conducted an in-depth analysis and report into the 1956 collision between Stockholm and Andrea Doria that was presented at the Maine Maritime Academy in 2008, and is currently available on my Titanicology website. I also hold a private pilot's certificate for single-engine land aircraft, and was a yachtsman's mate and coastal navigator on a Catalina 25 in the 1980s, spending many weekends cruising the waters off Staten Island, Sandy Hook and Lower New York Bay."

 

- Samuel Halpern

Book of the month January 2021

Strangers on The Horizon Titanic and Californian - A Forensic Approach

Book Description:

 

On April 22, 1912, during the third day of the US Senate investigation into the loss of Titanic, it was learned that there had been a steamer in sight of Titanic. This steamer had failed to respond to distress rockets that were being sent aloft from the stricken Titanic as she slowly sank beneath the surface of the Atlantic following a collision with an iceberg. The following day, on April 23, 1912, a story was printed in a small New England newspaper that claimed that a small tramp steamer, the SS Californian, had seen the lights and rockets of Titanic, and had refused to come to her aid.This book takes a new look into what has since been called the Californian affair. It is significantly different from previous treatments of this highly contentious subject in that it does not try to simply interpret or reinterpret every single word that eyewitnesses said in 1912. Instead, it takes a novel approach of applying specific analytical techniques to test the many conflicting and contradictory statements that were made in 1912 in order to find the reality of what took place. It includes detailed analysis of distances, bearings, headings, speeds, drift rates, ranges of visibility and other quantifiable information that has never before been examined in any great detail. It provides answers to the question of where was Californian relative to Titanic that night, and were they in sight of each other. This book also looks into the role played by several other vessels that were in the area that memorable night, delving into some of the claims made afterward concerning rescue attempts and movements. In addition, the book also explores the moments leading up to, and immediately following, Titanic's collision with an iceberg, piecing together a detailed moment-by-moment picture of the events and actions that took place from the time the fatal iceberg was first spotted, to the time that the iceberg was last seen fading astern into the dark of night.

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