Sunderland University climatologist Dennis Wheeler has made a name examining ships' logs dating back to the seventeenth century to understand weather patterns.

This treasure trove has helped experts work out what will happen in the future.

Now a U.S.-based company, investigating the Titanic's sinking, wants to piece together the weather conditions moments before the Titanic ploughed into an iceberg on her ill-fated maiden voyage.

Dr Wheeler said: "This American company wants to get information from the log books of ships in the area where the Titanic sank, but we don't have very much at all. There are also gaps around World War Two and World War One, due to disruption and information being lost."

British naval vessels were among those named as being near the cruise liner as she went down.

Their logs could provide vital clues to a fresh investigations into the Titanic's loss, as U.S. Navy records were lost in the 1960s and Merchant Navy log books are difficult to find.

Dr Wheeler said: "There were quite a number of merchant ships in that area, but because of takeovers and changes over the years, the paperwork and log books have been binned. It has left us trying to find the Royal Navy stuff at the moment.

"History suggests it was a fairly calm night and that the ship could be seen from some considerable distance.

"We know exactly what ships were there – we just have to find the log books at Kew, pull them out and have a look. Something may turn up.
"If it does it will give us a much more detailed picture."

Dr Wheeler has been plotting weather patterns using Royal Navy log books, 300,000 of which are stored at the National Archive.

The logs, which have never been examined before in so much detail, chart sea temperature, air pressure, wind force and other conditions.

Liner may have been vilnerable to stormy seas

RESEARCH suggests that, even if the ocean liner had not struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, structural weaknesses made it vulnerable to any stormy sea.

It sank in just under three hours, with 1,500 dying on board in the Atlantic, off Newfoundland.

Less than two hours later, the Carpathia arrived and pulled 705 people in lifeboats to safety.

Built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Titanic, pictured, was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time of her sinking.

Her maiden voyage was from Southampton to Cherbourg, in France, then on to Queenstown, in Ireland, and finally New York City.

Titanic was 882 feet nine inches, or 269 metres, long and weighed 46,328 tons.