Smithsonian Channel: Titanic's Final Mystery [Blu-ray] [Import]

If the information and data contained within is accurate, it goes a long way to explaining some of the odd happenings of the night of April 14, 1912 in that area of the Atlantic.
Video-wise, shots of the main character walking to various locations seems like filler and detract from the extremely fascinating scientific analysis. Tim Maltin did his homework and weaves eyewitness accounts with information provided by other ships in the area to construct a meterological scenario that plausibly explains how cold water (combined with warm air) "mirage" phenomena could have obscured the iceberg from two experienced, sharp-eyed lookouts. His theory also explains how similiar mirage phenomena befuddled the Captain and crew of the nearby steamer, the Californian, regarding the identity of the Titanic, as well as confused morse signals relayed between the two ships, a mere 5-9 miles apart.

I could not rate 5 stars though, because in Maltin's desire to absolve Capt Lord of the Californian of inaction, Maltin does not address the fact that Titanic's (distress) rockets/flares were clearly seen by members of the Californian's crew and reported to Capt Lord. Instead of waking his wireless operator for clarification, he dismissed them and went back to sleep.

No cold water mirage theory can explain Lord's lack of curiosity or dereliction of duty as a ship's Captain in treacherous waters (Californian was stopped due to field ice), and his duty to investigate maritime distress. Perhaps Maltin could have saved the filler footage of his walking to various locations and devoted it to the controversity of the rockets and Lord's inaction.
However, this is smart stuff I highly recommend.

'Titanic's Final Mystery' purports to answer questions regarding why the nearby Californian did not come to Titanic's aid, and why the Titanic's lookouts did not see the fatal iceberg until only 37 seconds away.

The Californian had stopped upon reaching the edge of a large ice field, and its radio operator, Cyril Evans, called to tell the Titanic of the situation. Unfortunately, the Titanic's on-duty radio operator was busy with personal messages to/from passengers and responded with 'Shut up, I am busy!' Evans went to bed, and ten minutes later the Titanic hit the iceberg.

Titanic's first distress call followed, 25 minutes later, followed by five rockets. Californian's Captain Lord was told, and responded to signal with the Morse lamp, but did not request wireless effort. The gist of the preceding was later confirmed by several sources. Lord later gave conflicting statements at ensuing inquiries. Both inquiries concluded that Captain Lord failed to provide proper assistance to the Titanic.

Director Nigel Levy, however, despite claiming to have exhaustively researched testimony from eyewitnesses, formulated an abstruse theory of reverse miraging that purports to explain why Captain Lord could have concluded the Titanic that he saw was actually a much smaller ship.

Similarly, Levy contends that rare atmospheric conditions (Fata Morgana) prevented spotting the iceberg earlier - supposedly the lookouts could see 30 minutes ahead (about 12 miles). But how? Levy also tells us it was a moonless night!

Other sources report that the Titanic's radio operators received six messages 4/14/12 from other ships warning of ice. Not all were relayed to ship's officers - turns out the radio operators did not work for White Star Line, but the Morse company. Regardless, the Titanic's speed was not reduced, and it continued at 25 mph. One survivor reported the see was so smooth that the stars were clearly reflected - now known as a sign of nearby pack ice. Had the sea been rougher, waves breaking against the icebergs would have made them more visible. Other evidence from experts reports that the steam-powered steering took up to 30 seconds to turn, and the center propeller was stopped, reducing the rudder's effectiveness. Had First Officer Murdoch simply turned the ship while maintaining speed, Titanic might have missed the iceberg.

Again, Levy ignored these sources, and utilized his same Fata Morgana theory (actually lifted from amateur historian Tim Maltin and an academic expert). While scientific experts have not rendered an opinion on the Levy/Maltin explanation, Wikipedia sources assert that such a mirage only occurs in the vertical dimension - thus, would not explain Captain Lord's claim that the ship he saw was too small (short) to be the Titanic.

Bottom-Line: Levy's explanation relies on selective extraction of material from subsequent eyewitness testimonies, violates the common-sense Principle of Parsimony, and represents egregious plagiarism. Further, it doesn't begin to excuse the facts that the Titanic had too few lifeboats, its radio operators did not act responsibly, the Californian's wireless should also have maintained operations, and that even knowing the Titanic didn't have enough lifeboats, they were launched without being near full. (Levy claims this was because passengers felt safer remaining on the ship - perhaps, but if so this would simply represent another failure of Captain Smith's leadership.) I do not understand why the Smithsonian would stand behind such sloppy and seemingly dishonest research.

This is a fascinating DVD with Tim Maltin touring the world in pursuit of his theory that optical illusions (super-refraction) caused the Titanic lookouts not to see the iceberg until it was too late and the watch officers of the nearby Californian to misjudge the sort of ship they could see 10 miles away. The best evidence in support is the German archive material which clearly shows that other ships in April 1912 passing the area where Titanic sank noted in their logs the strange phenomenon of super-refraction, false horizons etc.
As other reviewers have noted,the weakness of the DVD is that it ignores the distant rockets seen by officers on the Californian. Twist and turn as you may, the inaction of Captain Lord in these circumstances is serious. Maybe the Californian could not have saved many lives if she had immediately steered towards those lights, but she could certainly have tried. That's the kernel of the argument against Lord. Another oddity is the sheer number of heavenly, shining stars shown in the DVD. Not a single space anywhere in the sky. Were there really quite that many?
Although Lord always denied that his officers saw the Titanic, the third officer Groves was certain she was in sight. He said so at the official inquiries. The junior deck officer, Gibson, also thought at one point the distant steamer appeared to be listing. Captain Lord died in 1962. As a young trainee journalist I interviewed him a few months before he died. I remember him telling me that the ship firing rockets could not have been the Titanic as she was moving. The tragedy is that he didn't get off his settee to take a look.