The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-07-27
DID TITANIC SINK ON ATLANTIC SH0AL?
Nautical, Writer Suggests Iceberg Rested on Un-
 Chartered Rock

An article published in this weeks issue of the Nautical Gazette under the caption Many Rocks Reported in the Atlantic" calls the attention of those who ridicule the idea of the existence of a submerged rock in the North Atlantic at the position where the Titanic struck something and sank to the fact that many rocks have been reported by careful naviga- tors where the charts today report deep water and that several of the rocks are strangely near" the Titanic position.
 More than 25O such rocks and shoals are reported in "Imray's Atlantic Ocean Pilot" edition of 1883, and a 7noir of the North Atlantic mentions many more. declares the writer in the Gazette. and goes on to say:
 With so many reports utterly ig- Hored by existing charts, the National Gazette ventures to suggest again position be once more authoritatively made. If there exists a shoal with only eleven or twelve fathoms upon which icebergs would ground, to say nothing of rocks level with the sur face, they should certainly not be ig- nored. and if there really is deep wa ter the fact should be settled once and for all, although the Sainthill Bank, some 600 miles to the eastward in eighty to a hundred fathoms, is said to be of volcanic origin.
 This seeming neglect of the proper charting of the ocean during the last few years has been caused, the writer in the Gazette believes, by the virtual abandonment of deep sea sailing and by the interest of navigators of steam CTS in getting to their several destina- tions regardless of consequences.
 In demonstrating the accuracy of the soundings made by navigators of sailing ships and reported in the two nautical handbooks mentioned, the writer says:
 When a man in a sailing ship takes repeated soundings in fine weather within a few hours of each other and not only sees rocks but gets samples of the bottom on the arrning of his telling any fairy tale when he reports a sf1oa1 fin that position.
 The rocks and shoals which as re- ported are strangely near the Ti- tanic position. latitude 41.40 longitude 59.14. according to the Gazette writer, are the Nile Rocks. latitude 44O4. long- itude 449.09: the Hervagault's Break CTS, latitude 4a-2O, longitude 1928; the Watson Rock, latitude 4018, longitude $40: the Anna Rocks, latitude 39.30, longitude 50.30: the Hamilton shoat, latitude 4e25. Longitude 54.2S; the Ky
 
 and a vigia in latitude 40.53. longitude B
 The Nile Rocks were sighted by Captain Marvin of the sailing ship Nile hailing from Windsor, N. S., and bound from Antwerp to Philadelphia On the morning of August 2, 1879, &C., cording to the writer in the Gazette, the Nile sighted 1.-two rocks about B yards apart. three to five feet above the water and about a half mile to the ieeward of the ship
 The Hervagault's Breakers were first sighted in 1713 by Captain Her. vagault of the. French ship Le Con- querant Tn May, 1927. Captain Max we'll of the ship Home. voyaging from Liverpool to New York, saw the breaking over three sunken rocks, the last tailing off to the southwest with long ledge.
 !. Tn regard to the Watson Rock the editors of ''Irnray's Atlantic Ocean Pilot have this to say, according to the writer in the Gazette:
 It ie probable rock or bank exists somewhere about this locality, for in the month of October, 1875, the above danger was reported to have bee1 again sighted by Captain Lopez of the Spanish ship Santisi1na Trinidad on passage from New York to Cadiz. The rock is described as cifcular. black, about twenty-six feet in diam eter. having two small peaks on the southern part Captain Lopez exam ined the rock from a boat, approach ing within sixty yards on the north eastern and southwestern sides, and finding no bottom there in eighty-two Tathoms. But on the northwestern and southeastern sides he approached within thirty yards and made sound ings at depths of twenty-three and thirty-two fathoms respectively. Far tl1er off there was no bottom at eighty two fathoms. On sighting the rock 1t was about three feet above water and the falling tide left about as much more visible. The position ascertained 40-16.37 north. 1ognitude 53.22.10 west.
 If the existence of rocks and shoals in the position of the Titanic as claimed to be possible by the Nautical s-azatta should not be demonstrated,