Titanic: the unswitchable ship
Conspiracy theories can be a doozy. Almost every major event in history has had some sort of crazy theory about what happened, and that the government is lying to us and all. The sinking of the Titanic is no exception.
As we all know, the ill-fated ocean liner struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912. She sunk just two hours later, taking 1500 souls with her. One of which didn’t have to die—trust me when I tell you there was room on that board for both Jack and Rose.
When that ship slipped beneath the waves, the Titanic became immortalized in history forever as the lost ship she was discovered by scientists 82 years later. They were amazed to find the water in Titanic’s swimming pool was remarkably still full!
But, as the tinfoil hat guy may suggest, not everything is what it seems: What if the Titanic was not the actual Titanic? Rather, instead, an identical ship part of a huge insurance scam by White Star Line. I apologize in advance for the brain cells you may possibly lose as I dive into it further.
The theory goes like this: Titanic had two sister ships, Olympic and Britannic. All three ships looked almost identical to one another. The Olympic was the first ship to be launched and had successful voyages, however, on one voyage she collided with a warship and busted her hull wide open.
Deemed damaged beyond repair, the people at White Star Line had a great idea! Fix Olympic to their best ability, then take everything in the Olympic and put in Titanic, was still under construction at the time. Take everything for the Titanic and put it in Olympic.
To ensure it seems like nothing happened, they switched the names too. They then deliberately sank the Olympic going under the alias “Titanic” to collect the insurance benefits. These benefits would help the company stay afloat (haha) during their financial crisis at the time.
The fact somebody took the effort and thought to think this detailed conspiracy theory is enough to give me a migraine. As a Titanic-conspiracy-theory enthusiast, I’d like to disprove the awful attempt in this enticing story.
Firstly, Titanic was nowhere near completion when the Olympic had its accident and the manpower required to switch everything would set the ship’s maiden voyage back about a year. The men working would have had only seven months to switch everything before the first voyage.
Secondly, the Olympic’s damage was bad but not unrepairable: It only took three weeks to fix the ship and get it sailing again. And, finally, if you were to go down to the wreck of the Titanic today, you would see the windows are narrow and unevenly spaced… the Olympic had wide and even spaced windows.
All this evidence hits the nail in the coffin for the switching ships theory. If anyone out there still thinks it’s still somewhat plausible, remember that the Titanic was named the “Unsinkable Ship.”