Things You Didn’t Know About The Titanic [Video]

Think you know everything there is to know about the Titanic?  Check your knowledge against these fascinating (and often forgotten) facts I uncovered. 

First of all, in the interest of disclosure, I am a Titanic nut.  I love reading about Titanic.  I will watch just about anything about Titanic.  So, yeah, I know a lot about Titanic.

1)  There were NO CATS on Titanic when it sailed out of England

Cats were often brought along on boats for good luck.  Cats also controlled the rodent population on boats.  But eyewitness accounts say the Titanic’s cat was seen leaving the ship with a litter of kittens when the ship finished its sea trials and docked in Southampton.  They watched as the cat deposited one kitten after another on the dock, to go back in and retrieve another.  The cat and the kittens disappeared later that day.

2)  Three dogs survived the Titanic sinking

Two were Pomeranians and one was a Pekinese.  They were small dogs that could be carried so no one really noticed them and they were carried away from the ship in lifeboats that were barely full.

3)  A full moon may have contributed to the sinking of the Titanic

The full moon on January 4, 1912 was the closest lunar approach since A.D. 796.  This, conclude some scientists, could have caused enough of a tidal shift to move icebergs farther south and into the shipping paths, putting Titanic’s maiden voyage at risk months before it happened.  A lunar approach that close will not happen again until 2257.

4)  There wasn’t any way for the lookout to see the iceberg that night

Historians believe the weather in the Atlantic that night made it nearly impossible for anyone to see the iceberg before Titanic hit it.  They call it “super refraction”, an anomaly which causes light to bend and you see a mirage.  This was reported by several ships in the area and probably is why the ship Californian could not see Titanic just 6 miles away.