91. The Port Said lighthouse at a height of 60 feet should not be visible from a ship 58 miles away on a spherical Earth
“The lighthouse at Port Said, Egypt, at an elevation of only 60 feet has been seen an astonishing 58 miles away, where, according to modern astronomy it should be 2,182 feet below the line of sight!”
Dubay and Winship can't do trigonometry for this unverifiable historic observation
As usual his calculations are incorrect. Using the correct figure and calculation, the observer on the ship would have to be at a height of 1569 feet.
Dubay copied this account from Thomas Winship's Zetetic Cosmogeny.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Iberia_(1873)
However there are several reasons to doubt the accuracy of this account. First, the ship's log is an important legal document that passengers would not have generally not have had access to.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logbook
Without reference to the ship's log it is hard to explain how the passenger could have known any of the details listed in the extract. If by some chance the log was available to this passenger, the figures given do not add up. 324 miles in 24 hours makes a speed of 13.5 miles per hour. From Noon to 7.30 the steamer would have travelled 101.5 miles, making it 67.5 miles from Said instead of the stated 58. By the passengers own account his observations are shown to be inaccurate.
How inaccurate they were is a matter for speculation, but the fact that they are inaccurate certainly devalues this observation as any sort of credible proof.
For example, If the steamer was travelling faster than the passenger believed, or was much nearer originally, and slowed significantly on approach to Said the distance to Said would have been much nearer than 58 miles. In fact I would be very surprised if ships did not slow significantly on approach to port given the gradual increase in traffic that would occur.
There is also good reason to believe that these observations of distant lighthouse sightings are bogus.
For details click the link below.
Why Dubay's lighthouse quotes are bogus
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Dubay and Winship can't do trigonometry for this unverifiable historic observation
As usual his calculations are incorrect. Using the correct figure and calculation, the observer on the ship would have to be at a height of 1569 feet.
Dubay copied this account from Thomas Winship's Zetetic Cosmogeny.
"Extract from a letter written by a passenger on hoard the SS Iberia, Orient Line. "At noon on Thursday, 27th of September, we were 169 miles from Port Said ; by the ship's log, our rate of steaming was 324 miles in 24 hours. At 12 p.m., we were alongside the lighthouse at Port Said, it having become visible at 7.30 when it was about 58 miles away. It is an ordinary tower, about as high as the tower at Springhead (60 feet), lit by electricity." According to modern science, the vessel would be 2,182 feet below the horizon."The SS Iberia operated by the Orient line between 1881 and 1903, which shows that this is yet another historical quote that is impossible to verify.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Iberia_(1873)
However there are several reasons to doubt the accuracy of this account. First, the ship's log is an important legal document that passengers would not have generally not have had access to.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logbook
Without reference to the ship's log it is hard to explain how the passenger could have known any of the details listed in the extract. If by some chance the log was available to this passenger, the figures given do not add up. 324 miles in 24 hours makes a speed of 13.5 miles per hour. From Noon to 7.30 the steamer would have travelled 101.5 miles, making it 67.5 miles from Said instead of the stated 58. By the passengers own account his observations are shown to be inaccurate.
How inaccurate they were is a matter for speculation, but the fact that they are inaccurate certainly devalues this observation as any sort of credible proof.
For example, If the steamer was travelling faster than the passenger believed, or was much nearer originally, and slowed significantly on approach to Said the distance to Said would have been much nearer than 58 miles. In fact I would be very surprised if ships did not slow significantly on approach to port given the gradual increase in traffic that would occur.
There is also good reason to believe that these observations of distant lighthouse sightings are bogus.
For details click the link below.
Why Dubay's lighthouse quotes are bogus
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