I think there is a flag under chrome://flags where you can turn off automatic page reloading if the system is disconnected from the internet.

That being said, doesn't appcache provide the offline page if the browser can't connect?

Totally good point; a quick test of the latest beta iOS, Safari seems to reload some pages and not others (window.focus?) So, it seems to be whatever JS magic the sites are using are handling a reload (latest ads! weeeeeeeee!!!)