TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => General discussion => Topic started by: Roger London on November 29, 2014, 01:15:36 PM
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Was Nauru light 56 METERS?
It so daunting to face you Gatling-gunners on this forum; well this is my theory!
Fred was a professional in seamanship (ocean masters license, any tonnage, any waters) and navigation (head of PAA/PanAm navigation).
1) Whilst he, like any navigator, would wish to utilize any and every useable source to potentially enhance mid-course accuracy, he would be fully wise to the uncertainties of identifying another vessel, be it the Ontario or Myrtlebank. Without such absolutely positive identification he would not alter course regardless of the information.
2) He knew Nauru/Pleasant* was one reliable source; islands don’t move. He obviously did not know Nauru specifics hence his requesting a report inclusive of light height; very professional. He had no grounds to challenge the height of 5600ft, did he? There are over 1500 peaks in the world over 5000ft, some 200 of which are in the western pacific, and an even greater percentage along west USA, and throughout the Pacific ocean**. Most of the pacific islands are sea-volcanoes rising steeply for thousands of feet, Nauru would have fitted that bill. He didn’t know otherwise.
3) Equally nobody else who handled the Nauru telegraphed report could have challenged its contents or the information would have been corrected. Had Fred been alerted to its flawed integrity he would have immediately requested a further and confirming report, and informed AE ‘no departure’ until he had this vital information.
4) He would have been adamant they could not possibly undertake 2500miles to a dot-island without mid-course evaluation of head & cross winds. Nauru fitted this bill perfectly, with a light visible over 100miles (at altitude), affording an excellent 100 to 200mile baseline to evaluate the wind. Even with positive identification Ontario and Myrtlebank lights would not.
5) The Nauru report likely originated with the one multi-roled weather reporter - radio operator. A islander intimate with the recent German occupation which ended 1919. The Germans lived and married on the island. They would have introduced metrication, and specifically not imperial measurements! With two or more prior generations having been educated in metric, metric would be the norm. The subsequent and very-distant imperial treaty ‘owners’ of Nauru would not have changed the system, they would not have even bothered about Nauru; they had far too much else to attend to after WWI.
6) During German ownership they likely upgraded, possibly founded, the light. With the airstrip & port on the south/west end of the island, Yaren district, a good navigational light was essential, and a simple ‘sea-level’ beacon for shipping on the north end. Quite understandable for the light to have been situated on the south end near the top of the 200ft hill above the airstrip. Not to be confused with the present day tall (TV/communication?) mast further west which serves the populace.
7) The Yaren light would probably have been on a short mast above the radio station at 56METERS, circa 187ft, above sea level. Not 5600ft, not 560ft. 560ft was a previously speculative, and subsequently unsubstantiated, suggestion on this forum. Why would Nauru want a light on a massive 360ft high mast? A light just above the highest point of the island circa 200ft would be visible all-round at distance; and if they did have such a light it would preclude the need for the small beacon light on the north coast.
8) To Morse transmit 56m he would send the ‘5’ and ‘6’ in normal Morse then dash dash for M. However as this was included in a weather/position report the door was wide open for the receiving operator, not expecting an M, to take the dash dash as the then common operators’ abbreviation of a ‘long-dash’ ‘long-dash’ for subsequent/trailing zeros. Hence he misinterpreted this as 5600.
9) After receipt and before dissemination to their prestigious customer Earhart, someone attempting to be prudent checked the message for clarity. Possibly a routine procedure, as some of the operators may well have not been proficient in English spelling and a superior/overseer checked all important messages. So someone who knew the ‘world-standing’ of Earhart and knowing the vagaries & potential ‘inefficiencies’ of the laid-back lifestyle of so many Pacific populations at that time, very wisely, and routinely, checked and embellished the message. This may sound strange to many readers in this over-educated present-day but 77 years ago in very hot climates, with slow life-tempo and semi- or uneducated populations life was very different. Obviously to him 5600 could only have been feet (no other unit works) and so the message was seemingly-rightfully, and with the best intentions, enhanced! To Fred the message would have appeared definitive (. . . until he subsequently discovered the position error!).
10) Fred’s course would unquestionably have been planned to use Nauru light. Why would he have asked for such specific light-height information otherwise? Ontario & Myrtlebank were not pivotal, purely supplementary.
11) Next time I plan to submit regarding the huge navigational error that 5600ft Nauru light could have introduced to an unsuspecting Fred. Possibly ending up way south of Howland not well north!
12) That’s all TIGHAR . . . I’ll turn my PC off now to duck the Gatling onslaught! The above is meant with most sincere intentions and NOT in any way to decry any other contributors input. It’s is NOT an attack on anybody. I HAVE read a lot on TIGHAR and intend to be accurate . . . some failure is inevitable, my apologies. Roger
* surprisingly Nauru/Pleasant does not appear as a 'Category' heading in the TIGHAR database/index.
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-prominent_peak
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Nicely done. See the latest posts in the 'Celestial Choir' thread and see how this matches up.
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I’ll turn my PC off now to duck the Gatling onslaught!
Well, if you've turned your PC off you're fully protected from critical review. If you ever turn it on again I would ask that you go back through your treatise and find everywhere that you used the words "would" or "would have" or "would unquestionably" and substitute the words "might" or "might have" or "seems logical to me that." "Would have" is a guess masquerading as a fact. A theory built on "would haves" is a house of cards. Build your theory on documented facts, then construct a testable hypothesis and go test it.
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Gatling guns are sooooooo old school. I just pull out my trusty Phaser and slide the setting from "stun" to "this isn't going to end well for you" if I want to get serious.
Which, in this case, I don't. Call it post-Thanksgiving largess.
LTM, who knows "the engines, they canno' take much more, Captain!"
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 ECSP
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Roger
Interesting thought line.
Ric's right about the "would have"s, what they did and what we think they would have done are two different things. "Might have" acknowledges the uncertainty. Don't sweat that now, just rephrase going forward.
I'll be interested to hear about the navigational error that you think might have been induced by using such information.
Looking forward to your next post.
Andrew
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Interesting read, a couple things pop out to me
1. Navigation is apparently a hell of a lot more complex than I ever imagined
2. There's a huuuuuuge assumption in there, that the island would operate on the metric system and not the imperial measurements.
it's all a possibility, but you can't take things like that as for granted; you've got to test that theory. For instance, what system do they use on the island now? Do we have anything historic suggesting what was more commonplace there? Any interviews with people of a similar profession from the area? etc.
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I know it's here somewhere in 'Celestial' but for the life of me I can't find it -
The lights at Nauru were mentioned as commercial lights for the guano operations, I believe, and yes - a rather glaringly erroneous 5600 foot navigation light was mentioned. Oops - that's a 'woulda' - I can't know that it was glaring, but...
It seems like we beat hell out of a dead-horse-still-standing on this before, and perhaps it was LaPook, tongue firmly in cheek, who suggested that the piles of guano had accumulated high enough to make that possible on an island with natural terrain standing no more than 200 feet... which is a lot of guano (he knew that).
"Who knows" comes to mind. I am not expert at sea navigation - or aerial, for that matter - but somehow doubt Fred Noonan falling into a trap over the height of that light. What may have been more important was the overall lighting situation - commercial mining lights - and if the beacon were picked out, perhaps intensity of same to the trained and experienced eye.
Of course I may be wrong, but my impression is that even if Noonan were dealing with ambiguity over light height at Nauru, if lights were visible in that direction he may have made use of them for bearings, and time of passage, etc. Time of onset with bearing, time of passage with bearing, all might be useful - using an assumed speed for want of knowing for certain the distance of those lights. All of which admittedly drives potential error, of course. Here again, the practiced eye might derive something useful as to distance.
Might that reported height have driven him to look at what charts he had, scratching head as to such a height? Did he have charts with that detail? That's not clear to me. But if beacon height at Nauru was critical data, then it seems a poor practice for a seasoned master to accept a radio report, especially one with a fairly glaring potential for error. Yes, some sea mounts have high volcanoes - but Noonan had Pacific experience and I'm not sure he'd fall for that assumption.
Interesting line of thought, though, and I admit that tinkering with the navigation-think about this flight is irresistible and probably will never go away until the lost flight is finally found. It's as if we just know if we could get into Fred's head deeply enough, the whole thing would open up and the mystery would disappear.
Thunk-n-dunk, Gardner's reef, the Marshalls, East New Britain... take yer pick - but choose your winds well. Pass go at Nauru and proceed to the sunrise plus a couple of hours and we have a call that in all likelihood puts the bird in a bush somewhere along a line that should run reasonably close to Howland. Question is of course, north or south - and by how far? Can the mystery of Nauru on Noonan's horizon tell us that..
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In the Chater letter the report on the Nauru Light says it could be seen by ships at sea at a distance of 34 miles. From 560 feet above sea level the horizon is 29 miles distant. From a ship whose bridge is 20 feet above sea level the horizon is 5.5 miles distant. Add these together and you get 34.5 miles. I think this pretty well proves that the light was 560 feet above sea level.
Bruce W Badgrow
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Nice work.
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I know it's here somewhere in 'Celestial' but for the life of me I can't find it.
Here's (http://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,555.msg8204.html#msg8204) Gary's guano hypothesis Jeff. There is discussion throughout the thread regarding the Nauru lights.
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Thanks Jim. Thought I remembered something piled high and smelly back there.
Bruce's dissection, including the information in the Chatter report, makes sense. I get a feeling that an experienced master like Noonan might not have overlooked the visibility factor and might well have come to a logical conclusion about the light as to reasonable distance from same. It seems to me that information on distance of visibility might trump speculation about how height was treated. I do realize, however, why height would be important. I merely point out some faith in the master's judgment where conflcting details occur in the record.
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'Scuse me but where is the evidence that Noonan had the slightest interest in the lights at Nauru? When Earhart arrived in Lae on June 29 she discovered that Lae had no meteorologist. All that raw weather data she had asked the U.S. Navy to send to Lae was useless because there was no one there who knew how to use it. The next day she had the radio operator at Lae send a telegram message via "Vacuum" (a wire service like Western Union) to the Chief Wireless Inspector at Rabaul - a Mr. Twycross - asking that he round up weather reports from "Narau (sic - should be Nauru) or Ocean Island (note the "or"), Tarawa and Rabaul. Nauru was the only station to respond. In addition to the weather they threw in some gratuitous information about the lights.
If Noonan was on course he wouldn't be within a hundred miles of Nauru. Noonan didn't ask for information about the lights. Earhart didn't ask for information about the lights. The Nauru operator just threw it in thinking it might be helpful.
This is a classic example of a house of cards built on "would haves."
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Who's building a house?
Good points though.
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Link to pagein "The Sound of Wings" states info was not requested but sent regarding the lights. Interesting why they though she might be able to see them from 50 miles away and thought her course could bring her that close...if I reading it properly.
http://books.google.com/books?id=IDquAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA277&lpg=PA277&dq=Nauru+Lights&source=bl&ots=C2S0LgcxdX&sig=O8UU32fzEnAHWt344K0sSwTqJO8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=keB8VJPGJ4HxggTYp4GgAQ&ved=0CEEQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=Nauru%20Lights&f=false
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Who's building a house?
All the angst about how high the light really was. It doesn't matter. There is no reason to think the light is relevant. Every time someone discovers some new discrepancy in the data it instantly becomes the KEY TO THE MYSTERY.
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I don't see it as a key, and in fact view it as probably irrelevant but an interesting thing to ponder - and in doing so believe it is demostrable that it in fact holds no key.
I also don't care to impart any sense of defensiveness about the core theory by being too reactive about it, and have no fear of such discussion.
Just a different point of view, I suppose - no foul intended.
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No harm. No foul.
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Wireless radio tower at Nauru in 1924....looks about 300 plus feet in height; ( judging by an estimated 18 foot ridge peak on the station house beneath it.)
Photo credit due , National Archives of Australia
This story states a light on top of tower......
http://www.warsailors.com/raidervictims/vinni2.html
During wartime, allied ships were required to follow certain defensive procedures. These included a black-out which prohibited the showing of any lights, including navigation lights. In consequence, no other ships were visible to Triaster as she steamed towards the Island. All that could be seen, when the rain squalls permitted, was the fixed white light on top of the Nauru radio mast.
http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?138653
According to bit taken from this story, this tower was destroyed on/ about Dec 11th ,1941.
Threats on Nauru[edit]German attacks[edit]
German attacks on Nauru the 7, 8, and 27 December 1940.See also: German attacks on Nauru
The Second World War first reached Nauru in early December 1940 when two German armed merchantmen disguised as civilian freighters targeted the island. Their aim was to disrupt production of phosphate and thereby weaken the agriculture-based economies of Australia and New Zealand. Orion, Komet, and their supply ship Kulmerland headed for Nauru with the purpose of destroying the main infrastructure. Due to bad weather conditions they were unable to make a landing on the island, but sank several merchantmen in the area. On 27 December, Komet returned to Nauru, and though again unable to land a shore party, severely damaged the mining facilities and exposed loading jetties with gunfire. The island's chief administrator, Frederick Royden Chalmers, a former Lieutenant-Colonel in the Australian Army who had served in the Boer War and First World War, reportedly stormed along the waterfront hurling verbal abuse at the German ship, which slipped away unharmed.[7]
Declaration of war by Japan[edit]For the Japanese, the importance of Nauru was twofold: first, they were interested in acquiring the island's phosphate deposits; second, Nauru was potentially a good base from which to launch aerial attacks against the Gilbert Islands and to threaten the sea route between Australia and North America.[8]
The attack on Pearl Harbor, on 7 December 1941, marked American entry into the war in the Pacific. On the 8th (actually the same day, as the international Date Line separates Hawaii and Nauru) a Japanese surveillance aircraft was sighted above the island.[9] The first attack took place on 9 December; three planes flying from the Marshall Islands bombed the wireless station at Nauru,[10] but failed to cause any damage.[8] The Nauruans, warned by observers on Ocean Island 350 kilometres (189 nmi; 217 mi) to the east, managed to seek shelter before the attack.[8] The following day, another plane made a second attempt on the radio station. The third day, four planes made a low-altitude strike and finally destroyed it.[8] During these three days, 51 bombs were dropped on or close to the station.[8] The governor of the island, Lieutenant-Colonel Chalmers, sent a message to Canberra stating that he thought the Japanese hadn't destroyed phosphate production facilities as they intended to occupy the island for its resources.[8] All maritime contact with the rest of the world was interrupted. The BPC ship Trienza, en route with supplies, was recalled. Until the end of February 1942, there were daily sightings of Japanese planes over the island.[8]
In other parts of the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese advance rolled forward. They occupied the Gilbert Islands, north-east of Nauru, during Christmas 1941, and in January 1942 they took Rabaul, south-west of Nauru, and established a major base there.[8] Nauru was therefore isolated, situated between the two main Japanese axes of advance. On 19 February 1942, the bombing of Darwin marked the first time in its history that Australia was directly targeted on a large scale by a foreign power. News of the attack caused deep consternation on Nauru.[8]
If photo dates and story links are correct , it appears that the light might possibly be around 560 feet ...tower placed on highest point of island.
Photo credit due , National Archives of Australia
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Here to complete the story is a view of the aftermath of the Japanese bombing raid, which was successful in bringing the tower down.
Old maps suggest that the old light pulsated every 8 seconds ,and that the tower was at 171 meters in elevation.
Later it seems that the light was replaced ( I believe in the mid 1930's) with a fixed white light.
There appears to be a small mound ( present in 1924 photo) and again in this post bombing photo taken some 19 years later.
I am unsure as to which, if any, objects outlined are the remains of the base the tower, I placed a maroon square around what appears to be remnants of a concrete pad , and also placed a red box around a dark patch that appears to have a path/road around/ up to it . I don't see any tower scrap, maybe someone else can.
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171 meters does equal approximately 562.5 feet.
Interesting story and pictures, Jerry.
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171 meters does equal approximately 562.5 feet.
Jerry's quotation was "171 meters in elevation."
That doesn't look like a 50-story tall antenna to me.
Seems to me that "171 m in elevation" may mean "171 m above sea level."
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Precisely.
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Correct,....from sea level. Wikipedia mentions that the highest point on Nauru is some 233 feet above sea level, looking at the radio building and estimating it's roof peak height at 18', I estimate the tower at some 330 feet in height.
From this map of nauru , published date 1921 , one sees that the WAT ( wireless attenna mast) was at 171 meters (above sea level) and that the light atop pulsated every 8 seconds. This light was only visible to 15 nm. The new light was 5,000 candlepower and was mentioned as being visible from 34 nm, per the telegram.
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This war hero , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xDVSn2JL10 photographed what looks like a damaged tower in April 1943. While on patrol in the surrounding waters of Nauru, the periscope observer noted what he thought looked like 6 radio towers on the island, along with what he described as a tower on the highest hill that appeared as if it had radar equipment atop. http://www.drum228.org/warpatrols/warpatrol05.html I believe he was identifying the Shewing phosphate mining towers as the 6 radio towers,..... and the tower atop the hill with the radar equipment ? It may be he was indeed photographing and observing what was left of the Radio antenna mast, ( possibly a portion above collapsed in upon itself to appear as if it had radar type looking equipment atop). In this photo it looks as if only about a third of the tower remains, and the bottom portion near the base looks severely damaged. The Ariel photo attachment , taken Dec 1943 , in which I boxed what appears to be tower base remnants, doesn't appear to have tower scrap around it, (at least to my eye). If, I am looking at things correctly and thinking about things correctly , then it appears a tower scrap cleanup may have been conducted sometime between April 1943, and Dec 1943.
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The lights to mine phosphorus during night time were also mentioned in the telegram,....this view appears to show them, strung along the cable between shewing towers. They look like the porcelain coated steel variety, ( green on top, white on bottom), like one would see hanging over a garage door back in the 30's, 40's 50's .
Photo; Courtesy ; National Archives of Australia