Captain Smith is looking at a distress rocket that had just been fired. If he had have been on the bridge before Titanic was about to hit the iceberg the chances of a collision would be almost nil. The reason being that Captain Smith was the best Captain in Atlantic waters. He would have done the exact opposite of what was done to cause the collision. You see if Titanic had have hit the berg head on only one watertight compartment would have been flooded. The engines were also reversed. The ship would have turned more quickly the greater the foreward motion. Captain Smith new this.