Olympic Titanic Belfast

Did the Titanic Really Sink, or Was it The Olympic?

Everyone is familiar with the sinking of the RMS Titanic, one of the greatest disasters in maritime history. But what if what we know about the sinking wasn’t really true?

There are a great many conspiracies surrounding the Titanic, but one of the most captivating is the theory that the Titanic never in fact sank, but that before its maiden voyage it was switched with its sister ship, the RMS Olympic.

How could such a colossal deception be pulled off with the eyes of the world watching? And why?

What We Know

The RMS Olympic was the first to be built of three “Olympic” class ocean liners, the second was the RMS Titanic and the third was RMS Britannic. Don’t get confused – “Olympic” class was a class of ship the White Star Line created to classify these three – the largest ships & most luxurious in the White Star Line’s fleet. AND it was the name of the first ship in the line.

The Olympic was ordered in 1907 by White Star Lines to be built by Harland and Wolff. It cost 7.5 million dollars to build, a huge investment.

Within a few short months of its maiden voyage the Olympic was involved in two collisions. The more severe came about on September 20, 1911 , when it collided with the HMS Hawke. Even with the damage done to the Olympic, it was still able to sail back port to be repaired. This gives a whole new meaning to the “Titanic’s” “unsinkable ship” tag line!

Hawke_RMS_Olympic_Collision_Popular_Mechanics_1911_source_wikipedia
Photos from the Collision of the RMS Olympic & the RMS Hawke from Popular_Mechanics 1911 Source: Wikipedia

The theory goes:

Rather than fix the Olympic and incur the financial loss of fixing the ship’s keel and steel beams, they switched the sister ships and staged an accident all in hopes of claiming the insurance and fixing the financial disaster that they were going through and save their Olympic line. Then the Titanic, now posing as the Olympic, would go on in service.

The sister ships were virtually identical, with a few minor aesthetic differences. The evidence that was gathered to support this theory started with the fact that the Titanic was said to be transporting some of the most wealthy and most important people of that time, such as JP Morgan, the American financier of the project.

Titanic investor JP Morgan

Titanic investor JP Morgan

He was said to have cancelled his trip due to illness just a few days before the voyage, but was later found that he was in fact in perfect health seen in town the day that Titanic sunk. So people have speculated that he canceled his trip knowing that the disaster was staged to happen.

Morgan also was said to have had seven bronze statues removed from the ship just an hour before it sailed.

Another piece of evidence was that when the wreckage was found in 1985 by Robert Ballard that the number 401- the id number used for Titanic was stamped on the propeller. One would think that is evidence that the wreckage was in fact the Titanic, but it had been said that the Olympic was actually fitted with the Titanic’s propeller, while trying to fix some of the damage from the collision with the Hawke.

The other more important piece of evidence was the rumors about the sinking taking place amongst crew members. During that time there was a massive coal strike, leaving thousands without work but still the Titanic had to struggle to find people to work even when told they would be paid any price. Rumors amongst the workers at Harland and Wolff about the insurance scam taking place was said to have deterred any men from wanting to work.

After looking at all of the evidence gathered, what do you think? Could the White Star line have pulled off this huge insurance scam?

Stay tuned and we will be further discussing the evidence that has been gathered trying to debunk this conspiracy surrounding the RMS Titanic and the RMS Olympic switch.

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