Titanic: the ship which never sank?

12:24 PM Mystery 0 Comments

The titanic before its voyage

                 For more than a decade, Titanic stood as a great mark of love, glory, disaster and sacrifice. It was popularly called as the "Unsinkable ship" with the tagline "Not even God can sink this ship". Unfortunately, this gigantic ship was engulfed by the ocean on her maiden voyage killing 1,517 people. With the movie Titanic, made in 1997, James Cameroon was extolled for his great depiction of the facts. Later investigations contradicted Cameroon in many aspects. Robin Gardiner  pointed many facts in his book "Titanic: the Ship that never sank? What happened to this Unsinkable ship? Let us move to the true bottom.

The words'MP' on the sunk Titanic

The three sisters

                White Star line, inorder to dominate the North-Atlantic passenger market, decided to build 3 prodigious ships The Olympic, The Titanic, The Britannic.  Of the three, Titanic and Olympic were almost identical. White star line spared no expense in assuring their luxury. On 14th June 1911, Olympic set its maiden sail from Southampton coast under the captaincy of Edward J. Smith. 

The 3 sisters - Olympic (left), Titanic (middle) and Britannic (right)

The Olympic story

                 Since its voyage, Olympic was known as the unlucky ship with spotty service record. On its debut voyage, it hit a tug in New York. Barely after 3 months, it collided with a UK Naval war ship HMS Hawke. The collision was so massive that it damaged Olympic beyond repair.

                Olympic was fitted with a huge ram under the waterline. The smash drilled holes, both above and below the water line and also popped out thousands of rivets. The heavy and complex steel frames were buckled, the hull plating was gashed and above all, the starboard propeller and crankshaft were distorted. To make the matters worse, the keel was bent giving a permanent damage to the ship. This almost sealed the fate of Olympic.

                Later, UK Navy investigated the crash and found that the mistake was on the side of Olympic. This means that the insurance company would never pay for the White Star line company. Inorder to repair the ship, it would need large sums of money which would surely lead them to bankruptcy as they were in huge losses by then. 

                 The Olympic was sent to the Belfast for some nominal repairs. However, for more permanent repairs, it was sent to New York. To make the ship sea worthy, the ship must be cut to half, a new keel and frame inserted in-between and then it should be stitched back. This was a nigh impossible for the company. So, some repairs were done and it was then returned to Belfast. Supporting its spotty record, it lost a propeller blade during its travel when it hit an underwater object in the sea. 

The Switch Theory

                 On 22nd March, Olympic was returned to the Thomson dry rock alongside with Titanic and this was the point where decision was made to switch them!!!

When Olympic returned to Belfast with Titanic on its side

                 As both Titanic and Olympic were almost identical, it would be easy to switch the game if the name plates are changed. The following are the proofs which support the fact.

The absence of V.VIP's

                  At the last moment of sailing, many of the first class passengers cancelled their voyage, most of them very close friends of JP Morgan, the major shareholder in the company. Interestingly, he himself cancelled his ticket claiming that he was ill. But, after 2 days, he was found in a French resort with his mistress sounding like a nut. Many of his bronze statues which were meant for trade were removed from the ship at the last minute.

                 Florence Ismay, the wife of the chairman of the White star line also rejected the invitation of sailing in the so-called Titanic for the reason of being ill. Instead, she went on a motoring holiday! Why would someone reject such an offer of voyage in Titanic, a proud human achievement, for no reason? 

                 More interestingly, the workers who worked for the Olympic repairs refused to sail in the Titanic despite their immense poverty. Did they know the truth?

The Californian

The SS Californian

                 During early 1920's, there was a severe coal strike which stopped many ships from voyaging. Contrarily, under these drastic conditions, a ship called California was able to get large amounts of coal just for carrying a bunch of woolen rugs and coats leaving a large space to carry men. (It had all the goods that were needed to have a rescue mission). 

                 It sailed to the icy fields of North Atlantic and dead stopped there. Why would a ship of cargo would be anchored in a region of icebergs without any danger occurring to it? Moreover, Captain Stanley Lord (Captain of the Californian) slept fully clothed in his chart room in a 5 and half foot couch. Was he expecting any sort of emergency? Very oddly, Captain Edward J. Smith did the same while sailing in the ice fields. Was the danger precognated?

The Secret Plan

                 It was planned that the Titanic would hit an iceberg, then the alarm signal would be sent to the Californian, life boats would be launched, rescue will be obtained from the Californian, passengers would be saved, the ship will sink and the White star line would claim the insurance money. It is for this reason, just 5 days before the voyage, the insurance has been increased from $5 million to $12.5 million!!!( this would be much more than amount they could gain by selling or scrapping it). Also, as the Californian is meant to save them, there were not enough life boats in the ship. In simple words, Titanic is not a disaster, but a greedy insurance fraud.

The Plan Failed

                 Everything didn't go as per plan. When the Titanic hit the iceberg, they sent alarm signals to the Californian. Here the navigators of Titanic made a terrible mistake. The position of the Californian was wrongly calculated by a 12 miles. Because of this, Californian never received any panic signals from the Titanic. As the expected rescue didn't turn up, the life boats which were half-filled then were later overloaded. But, the action was too late. The ship sank into the ice-cold waters of North Atlantic far beneath the waves killing over 1500 lives.

A picture (imaginary) of how the Titanic sank

Conclusion

                 The turning radius of the ship is 3 quarters of a mile. It is easy for the navigators to spot an iceberg even from a distance of 10 miles. The ship could have avoided the collision easily even if it was turned before a mile. The game of money killed 1517 lives including many women and children. Titanic was never an accident but an incident which was done for the benefit of few fatcats.