This topic is a question I never gave much thought to in all my years of being obsessed with ocean liners and modern ships, and this video was a fascinating take on the answer from start to finish. The perfect short documentary RU-vid video, IMO.
6:31 One problem I see with the "spotlight in dense fog" idea is that you ruin your own ability to see in the dark...and other ships that are doing the same also can't see you because of their own glare. So you end up with a case of both ships brightly lit, but also sailing blind.
@@brestingheedness thats why fog lights exist. They massively improve visibility on a car. And no. A lantern lit in a very thick fog is easy to see even from a distance.
I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it, apologies if I've missed it - "imperator" is (in English) generally pronounced im-PEAR-a-tore, roughly following the Latin. Thanks for the video!
I remember watching Titanic in theaters. When the ship was sinking, flares were used to see the status of the the ship as it went down. I thought to myself, "Why didn't they use flares as it was sailing." This video reminded me of that, flares at a 45° angle could be for spotting, flares straight up a signal for help. Or similar to port and starboard, flares of certain colors and or angles to mean different things.
Warships do have star shells they can fire, but to be useful they have to go a long way, have a parachute, and aren't inexpensive - 4"/25 caliber is about the minimum, and the 5"/38 of the US Navy was used extensively. Flares of the era drop to the ocean far too quickly to be useful, as steaming at even 10 knots you'd have to fire about one per minute, and even then they wouldn't see very far ahead.
Another use for powerfull serchlight still in use today is when you are ice navigating at night. When I was a cadet onboard MV Arctic, going in the canadian north in january and february, the ship was fitted with three powerfull lights on the foremast and 2 wing searchlights by the wheelhouse. With thick flat ice, it was necessary to find the path of least resistence up the Hudson straight. Thanks for your vids, really interesting even for a seasoned mariner.
FYI: "a moonless night" is most associated with a new or nearly new moon. The moon is not in the earth's shadow but rather it's own. The moon is actually on the opposite side of earth, potentially along with a solar eclipse.
Ive never considered this question before but intrigued to see it posed. Its no wonder it has over 1.1 million views. But i will add this; all ships have powerful search lights dotted all over incase of ill intended flotsam, jetsom , pirates or simply to spit a man overboard.
Correction Mike. It was a dark night because the moon was below the horizon and yet to rise. When the moon is in the Earth's shadow that's a lunar eclipse, a rare event.
0:00 havent watched the video yet, proffesional sailor here, a ship doesnt have headlights because the captain cant see directly in front of the ship and the lights would not be powerful enough to see anything in front of the ship. thats why ships have radars. the reason for the lights on ships (that dont illuminate the deck) is for navigational purpose aswell. the lights are to indicate what is the front of the ship, the back of the ship, the sides and the cargo if its highly dangerous. (like gasses or explosive materials) now lets see what this video has to say! 11:13 yep, nailed it! its all true! good video!
Moonless nights don’t occur because the moon is in earths shadow. That’s a lunar eclipse, and you can clearly see the moon the whole time during one. A moonless night is caused by the moon being in a position in its orbit where it is overhead of the daylight side of the earth, and it either isn’t visible at all at night, or only right around dawn or dusk.
As a seafarer, it will cause wrong reading in identifying ships at night, that's why headlight doesn't exist. We use nav lights such as green for starboard, red for portside, white all round light for Forward mast and Aft mast. With these lights, we could easily identify whether we are on a head on situation, crossing, etc.
I see a perfect analogy to this is the headlights in cars throughout history. The first ones had none. You didn’t drive at night. Then they fitted lanterns onto the side, then eventually incandescent lamps, to fast forward HID lights, then LED, and now Lasers. I honestly don’t know why we ever needed to move past LEDs. They’re too bright anyway. They’ve made driving more dangerous for everyone at night.
It's the same for planes, planes do have landing spotlights, but they're only on when coming in to land. They have navigation lights similar to ships, the left wing had a red light, the right wing a green light, and a white light on the tail of the plane. There are also anti collision strobe lights on the aircraft as well. Planes can be closing in on each other at 5 hundred to thousand miles per hour Combined.
With modern jets, the chances of seeing another plane on a collision course are very small. Most passenger planes have a system called TCAS that detects an imminent collision by radar and orders the pilot to immediately ascend or descend so that one plane goes up and the other one down. Pilots are told to obey TCAS even if air traffic control says something different.
The primary purpose of head lights on horseless carriages (aka cars) is so others can see you & not so drivers can see where they are going. It's literally why they are called "head lights".
One not-so-important detail: it's not the Earth's shadow that causes a moonless night, but the position of the Moon when it's between the Sun and the Earth. When the Earth's shadow falls on the Moon, we have a lunar eclipse. Cheers :)
TY, it's nice to know why they didn't have headlights. Since they still don't for the most part, without the radars, only if the moon is covered they won't be able to find their way around an iceberg bc, like the case of Titanic, the moon was covered, all they saw was black. If the moon is not covered, they can navigate bc the moonlight shines on the ocean.🌊
Was on a Cargo Ship a container ship (around 2003) and the Radar crashed. It was a really old ship 34 years and although it still had all the latest tech and back up, like satellite navigation, the radar was seen as the main tool onboard to see ahead. However as we where hundreds of miles away from any other ship and in calm waters, this was not a big problem. It was fixed a few hours later. However to help reduce any impact, the captain did slow the ship to half speed.
My uncle in the USCG used to say something about how there were only red lights on the deck bc that was the only one that wouldn’t mess up your night vision
I've been wondering about the "preserving night vision" aspect when regarding new car headlights too. New car headlights are so bright that they really do affect your night vision. Sure, they light up the area near your car incredibly brightly, but that hurts your night vision and your ability to see *_outside_* the headlight beam. Car makers also make the LED lights more blue-white than they really should be. Slightly yellower light colors similar old halogens would help preserve nigh vision, even if the LED's themselves are brighter. All the screens and lighting inside new cars don't help with night vision either.
I live in Norway and a few years ago a naval frigate crashed violent into an oil tanker at night near an oil terminal. The frigate later sunk. The oil tanker had its deck spotlight on as they prepared the ship for the travel as they sailed (not allowed actually). Part of the accident was that the bridge on the frigate mistook these powerful lights as the lights on the oil terminal. As the light on the oil tanker appeared stationary sailing at a very slow speed. Edit the frigate was named Helge Ingstad and the tanker was named Sola TS. It is long article about the accident on the Navy Lookout named "Learning the lessons - the loss of the Norwegian frigate Helge Ingstad" (google do not allow links outside RU-vid)
Many ships do, in a way, have headlights. Many ships do have spot lights that they can use. When they do have spot lights the lights can typically be turned. Spot lights are typically set up to be used as signal lights in addition to checking in specialty circumstances.
I assumed it was because putting headlamps on a ship would require such powerful lights that smaller ships' crews ran the risk of being temporarily blinded - kind of like when you come across the knobs in the big pseudo-trucks with those LED headlamps on a dark road. Which isn't safe when you're driving either, but at sea it seems like an almost guaranteed way of having the smaller ship 'run over' by the bigger one.
Ships have radars and GPS navigation. That is their eyes at night. They DO, however, ALSO have spotlights, to catch the reflections on boyes in narrow straights. They may not always use them, because they rely on their radar and the light signals some of them are equipped with. When boats enter our bay, they also navigate by help of two red lights signals on land, which have to be in line.
We’ve had to use the spotlight above the bridge on our boat numerous times over the years, going through the canals on the Gold Coast at night and another night we lost main engine power on Sydney Harbour and had to light up nearby marina that we were being blown towards. Another time coming into the heads we had steering issues which had us taking a drunken approach so a large cruise ship behind us lit us up with the most incredibly bright light I’ve seen. We’re 160 tons but felt like an insect in that beam.
Ruining your night vision can also be when your hiking through the woods. I had used a bright lantern once and I couldnt see beyond the lights radius and the dark was ALOT darker too.
We had headlights. They were spotlights really. The were adjustable by using handles on the deckhead of the bridge. A few times they were used to assist the captain at night during Southern Ocean storms. They helped him monitor the direction of the massive swells. That's because he had to do what is called punching during what we call dodging. The ship has to take on the wave dead on, because it could potentially roll you if it hits you side on. It also helped with control of the engine. More power to climb the swell and less heading back down the other side. Giant seas and gusts over 100 knots. How big? The bridge is at the height of a five story building. It was not uncommon on the bridge to be looking up at the crest of the next wave, rather than down. P.S. During the first really nasty storm I was in down there, I went up to the bridge and all the Norwegian officers were up there with their survival suits laid out and ready. They are quite used to rough seas, but looked nervous that night.
having been as a small child a lot around the Volga river, I can say that in a river scenario lights were often used... most barges and tugs I think have a searchlight of some form installed somewhere on the mast I think, at sea, there were two traditional issues, first one being energy consumption (in the 1890s-1820s lights were very power hungry) and the second that to be powerful they had to necessarily be fairly narrow in terms of beam-arc. resulting in the fact you limited how much horizon you saw at one time (binoculars had a similar issue)... by the time lights became practical to be a consideration, radar technology was fast becoming the better option.
Most big ships are so big that even if the crew could see something they would have probably no chance of avoiding it. I even wonder if the Titanic could have avoided the iceberg if it had a searchlight as it was thought to be travelling at quite high speed. Radar is more or less the only way to sail big ships in the open ocean and in busy shipping lanes under strict orders of land based control rooms sending orders out like air traffic controllers.
River ships (and coastline ships, and specialized ships) have lights (controlled powerful spotlights) Of course, a river ship is not only water, but also the shore (coast), and what is on the shore (coast)
Great information. I was wondering about this a while back while watching a history channel. I can see how the light would mess with their eyes and they would only show up to a certain distance where as in the darkness the eyes can see much further.
The late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was mentioned in dispatches for his role as the searchlight officer on board the battleship HMS Valiant at the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941.
Forgot to mention advanced tactical night vision goggles. Expensive ones that amplify existing light and others that do IR (heat signatures). Could come in handy if electrical was knocked out perhaps or maybe just the radar.
Interesting video. I do think you should define the difference, between, floodlights, spotlights, and searchlights, because they are vastly different both in design, utility, and operation. I would say that most fishing vessels that set and pull gear, do have forward looking floodlights. Coastguard vessels have all three types of lights. Regarding the Titanic, a well operated searchlight could have peered several nautical miles ahead and would probably have been used since the ship was new and things were still in working order.
Hi thank for your information my husband loves your videos and loves the titanic and he hopes you keep it going and he loves the video about the empress of Ireland because his family is from Ireland and he cried but he was also happy watching the video so thank you
Did you say they spotted the iceberg 500 metres to 1,5 km before titanic? It sounds so much longer of a distance than I ever imagined. It doesn’t help an ordinary person’s comprehension of the situation that I have no idea how fast the sea measurements of speed are in km/ h either
The telegraph operator on board was busy sending the mail to stateside so to speak and even told one of other nearby ships that tried to warn Titanic to shut up which the other guy did for the night. Else the Titanic's crew would've been made aware of icebergs drifting more south than they usually do. I said that based on several Titanic videos I've watched so if I'm wrong...
Hi, Mike. Long over due, but love your work! - Keep it up! Do you find Gyroscopic stabilizers fascinating? A piece on the REX would be cool a cool topic!
So here’s the thing I don’t think a spotlight would’ve done very much at the time because the technology wasn’t developed enough yet. In addition to that shipping companies may find it unnecessary to put high lumen capacity lights on the front of the ship given the specific technology that most ships have on board.
When me and xxtenacion went sailing earlier used moonlight Later on we used spotlight Eventually he started rapping while we were sailing Nigga, why you trippin'? Get your mood right, uh Shawty look good in the moonlight All these pussy niggas so bad mind I used to say. Calm down x im trying to move the jib here ...eventually he made a catchy song. Crafty little fellow
I would probably fit ships with narrow strip lights a little over the water line that rotates like a radar every minute or so. This way any obstacle would briefly be lit by a small line of light. XD
Only someone that have been on the open ocean at night would understand how dark can it get. It can be very creepy. If it happen to be foggy, it's even worse. I do understand now how they didn't see the iceberg. I wouldn't either.
Of all the intricate, provocative, intense, deep, meaningful contemplations of existence, death, the hereafter & the Universe, this is one question I have never asked and never wanted to. Thank you for wasting 56 seconds of my mortality as that is how long I devoted to this waste of time.
07:00 FYI thats a photo of a Xenon Arc lamp like what is used in high powered projectors. Those are sealed and filled with Xenon gas and last for ages. They are also stuck using a high voltage high frequency igniter. These were not invented until the 1940s. Carbon arc lamps on the other hand use 2 thick rods of graphite and a have a system to move the electrodes together as they are open to the air and burn up over time. To strike you physically touch the electrodes together.
it seems like something they should have had, but used extremely sparingly, like various other safety equipment. considering the conditions - they knew icebergs were around, they knew it was extremely dark and calm, the captain wanted to travel faster than was sensible - if they had had it, perhaps they would have actually used it just in that specific situation.
Reminds me when I tried to walk through a forest at night with a flashlight and I couldn't really see much as it was too blinding, so I turned it off and I could see much better after my eyes adjusted
As it happens in 1981/2 I worked on a container ship (CP ships) going from Feliixstowe to Montreal and as an experiment a big ultra violet search light was installed on the bridge to spot icebergs. Don-t know if it worked, I forgot to ask.
I remember having a houseboat & mounting powerful lights on it, the lights were only useful when docking when there was something solid to reflect the light, on open water the light was useless, maybe a pencil beam would have been better as normal light was absorbed into the water.
just a thought... in WW2 Germans would use spot-lights to seemingly direct AA fire.. but now I wonder if they did it to deliberately blind the pilots so they were unable to see what they were dropping their bombs on. Given that any sort of radar tech had to be land based and they were using a still relatively ingenious way to guide bombs, one of the few things I can think of to spoil a bombing run would be going blind.
1:40 "It was an unusually dark night, moonless as they say, when the moon is hidden by the Earth's shadow" There was no lunar eclipse on the 14th April 1912 (although there was partial eclipse on 1st April). The reason why it was so dark was because the moon phase was in a waning crescent that had less than 10% visible from earth. This a normal part of the 29.5 day lunar cycle and nothing like a lunar eclipse, a much rarer event where the Earth's shadow is cast over the moon.
...I do know that barge tows on rivers DO use powerful spotlights - I've had them shining right at me while driving - which I imagine on the rivers is a situation similar to the Suez situation. The channel can get close to shore in some places.
Just last year, while on a cruise, the lights on our balcony were extinguished with the sunset so as to not interfere with the bridge. Or at least that's what the sign on the wall said.
As a Captain,the last thing I want is an extremely bright white light in my face when I’m looking out for red lights,green lights, and dimmer white lights.
I thought headlights are effective only when it is able to reflect light off the surroundings and give a perspective to the navigator. Suez was a very apt example where the waterway is extremely narrow. Otherwise, in the open waters, with nothing to reflect light off, they probably would be pretty inconsequential. Unless ofcourse they were in fleeting distance of an iceberg or a landform. More often than not it would have been too late by then. Probably the same reason why spaceships don't have headlights. It's just a conjecture. I may be wrong though.
for 1 the light reflects off the water, so you can't see anything anyway. Ships avoid each other by their navigation lights, mast light, and as applicable, radar. Smaller ocean going vessels such as private sport fishing boats and private yachts can have radar as well, of course, and radar reflectors. The also have UHF 2 way marine radios so they can communicate with other vessels, including commercial vessels, regardless of size. At night there is also generally at least three people on deck (private vessels; commercial vessels more) on watch, looking for other traffic and obstacles, such as overboard containers. You'd be shocked how often a container ship loses a container or hundred or more in rough seas. Lost containers can float for minutes, days or weeks, or even months after going overboard - well after the storm has passed and seas are calm again. Not too long ago a super container ship lost over 1100 containers - a full third of what she started with - in one voyage from Asia to Hawaii and California. 🤯😳 Lost containers cannot be recovered or salvaged.
Very good video, although with a serious astronomical blunder, in the expression “moonless, they say, when the Moon is hidden by the Earth’s shadow and blacked out” (min. 1:42). A night with no Moon (or during the “New Moon phase”) is not because the Earth’s shadow covers it: the latter happens only during the lunar eclipse! On the contrary, the Moon phases (new Moon, crescent… full Moon, etc.) are determined by the relative position of the Moon in relation to the Sun, as seen from the Earth’s perspective. The curvature of the crescent is given by the portion of the visible Moon being illuminated by the Sun at a certain phase of the month (or of the lunar period) and it’s not at all due to the Earth’s shape projecting its shade on it. This happens only during the lunar eclipses. It’s a frequent misconception, but quite a big one.
10:19 Ha, our ex Dutch ferry MS Midsland. Nut sure what it has to do with icebreakers, but still cool footage. Another (fast) ferry from this shipping company, the MS Koegelwieck actually does have headlights.
Very interesting video… we know Airplanes have headlights aside from the markers/beacons on the wings etc. Trains have them so this video was very enlightening Thanks for sharing!
I'm curious how lasers would work in this situation, I'm thinking of the ones that shoot out lots of beams at once like in a square that allows you to see the shape of objects clearly in darkness.
