In the entertainment sub-forum, we were talking about favorite movies, and I had mentioned that one of my favorites was the movie "Titanic". I loved seeing the absolute grandeur of the ship, and watched in distress as she sank after hitting the ice berg. But, apparently, there is a question about whether the original ship that sank WAS actually the titanic. There are some interesting reasons to think that maybe it was her sister ship, the Oympic, instead. The Olympic was made just a year before Titanic, and the ships were almost identical. The Olympic had been in an accident, and was in the dock for repairs for months; but was more heavily damaged than was commonly known. Since the accident was caused by the Olympic, their insurance would not cover repairs. The White Star could easily have switched the names, cleaned up and repainted Olympic, and people would never have guessed that it was not the Titanic. The plan was to hit the iceberg, but to rescue everyone off of the ship. However, the rescue ship did not get the distress signal in time; and many of the passengers perished, and there was not enough life boats for everyone in any case. If this story is true, then the Olympic was sent to a watery grave, White Star collected the insurance, and Titanic carried on for many more years, under the name of the Olympic.
Interesting, I have to say I haven't heard that one before. It makes a good conspiracy, especially since it happened so long ago, before you really hear about conspiracy theories. It makes sense that the company would do something like that, from a purely money point of view, but I would hope that the company wouldn't have knowingly but peoples lives in jeopardy. I guess worse things have been know to happen. At least a little good came from the tragedy - better regulation on lifeboats and safety and a better understanding of how important radio transmissions were.
I never heard of this conspiracy theory before. I have to say although I want to know where the facts come from it does make some sense. The reason I say that is for me I felt like the crew took some unnecessay risk in waters that had icebergs in them. Usually in such water you should proceed with caution not go barrowing through. However, if this were the case that this was planned, why didn't they have enough lifeboats for all to get off, and made certain that the rescue ship was in the right vacinity. To me if this is true that the company took way too many risk all to get insurance money. But this was so many years ago no one knows for sure what really happened here.
I love these conspiracy stories, particularly when they sound so plausible, as this one does. Unfortunately, thousands of workers who built the Titanic would have known if it were switched, so they must have all been bribed to keep quiet about it, and then they all obediently shut up. Likewise with harbor personnel and curious public and journalists who followed the creation of the Titanic with great interest. This is somewhat like the moon landing hoax conspiracy. Too many people are involved. The only way of keeping a secret where more than one person is involved is to shoot the second. This conspiracy was kept way too quiet to be possible. However, it sounds really good and will doubtless make a great movie. Any scriptwriters keen to take on this tantalizing task?
I hope this isn't going off-topic, but a question I've had re: pictures of the Titanic sinking- who took those pictures?
Well, I guess like in the Clairol commercial "only her hairdresser knows for sure" probably only those who were intimately involved in the building and the launching of the ship would know for sure. I mean it is an interesting theory. However, it seems like with any great tragedy of the world, there are immediately conspiracy theories that start circulating. I am just waiting for one to start about Prince. Look at JFK, 9/11, Elvis and others..conspiracy theories abound surrounding all of them.
If you watch the video @ 1:50 (above in post #5), the name titanic was riveted over the name Olympic, which was engraved on the ship's hull. The missing letters reveal the engraved letters underneath.
I suppose they were taken by the rescuers or maybe even some of the victims. I mean they did have photography at that time, so it wasn;t such a stretch to think they were taking pictures. After all, it must have been a site to behold. I saw a Titanic exhibit at the science museum in Baltimore one time that had some artifacts from the ship. I have always thought I would visit the graveyard in Canada,where most of the dead were buried, when I can manage to get my passport renewed.
Good question about that photographer. Well, this is just a calculated guess. The Titanic is a very much celebrated luxury vessel and from what I gathered, that first voyage has many wealthy passengers since a cruise is an expensive trip, much more with a celebrated cruise ship like Titanic. That first voyage is like a movie premiere with the press and photographers around. And some of the press may not be contented with the premiere so they had a boat that followed the Titanic.
I looked and I didn't see any actual pictures of the ship when it was sinking, just recreations of the scene. The closest that I could find were pictures of people being rescued the next morning and they were in rowboats going up to the ship that rescued them. If you have seen pictures of the ship actually sinking, I would very much like you to post them on the thread so we can all look at them, @Janice Martin . Since the Titanic/Olympic sank during the night, even if there were people with a camera (which is unlikely in itself), they would not have been able to get any pictures in the dark, back in those days. I remember my mom's old Kodak from the early 1950's, and it didn't have any kind of a place for a flash attachment; so I am sure they would not have had that back when the Titanic sank. No other ships were anywhere nearby, and the fog was thick (if I remember the story right) , so there could not have been pictures from any other vessel, @Corie Henson . It was hours before the lifeboats were discovered and the survivors were rescued.
I just found this info that it's really the titanic that sank and not the Olympic. http://www.titanicswitch.com/evidence.html#18
If you look at the video that @Joe Riley posted, it explains why the Olympic had the #401 stamped on the propeller, it was transferred from the Titanic to the Olympic before it set sail. Joe's video also talks about the name Titanic coming off, where it was bolted on, and underneath are the "MP" from the original name of Olympic, which was engraved into the hull, and then covered over with the bolted on letters when it was changed to Titanic. There is also evidence of other work done to the ship, which would explain the differences in the Interior of the two ships. If you look for it, there are some excellent videos (much longer ones) that go into the whole operation in detail. I simply posted a short one since most people are not apt to watch the videos when they go over a few minutes long.
Yes but if you read what I posted it debunks most of them. The evidence shown is compelling here too. Guess you have to decide which version you believe. I believe it was the titanic that sank based on the evidence. You don't, that's fine.
@Yvonne, I'll post them when I can find them again. I happened to run into different sites when doing some random web-surfing not long ago. I'm sure people had cameras, but if I were in a life raft the last thing on my mind would be taking pictures. Plus it'd seem unusual the cameras weren't ruined.