I'm not 100% on this information but as far as I know HMS Hawk had an old-school battering ram which pierced a large hole in the side of the Olympic. The Olympic had to be dry-docked and fixed and it was rumoured to be a shoddy repair, the hole in place supposidly resembled a similar hole caused by the iceberg- a possibility that on first impact the hole gave away and may have sliced the ship in two like a can of sardines.

The insurance became void after the impact with HMS Hawk because the ship had effectively broken it's back and would never sail again safely.

Sadly there is some very compelling evidence to debunk this myth. Only recently Channel 5 /Sky in the UK screened a very comprehesive doc about the conspiracy and included ex Harland Designers and Marine specialists. The crux comes down to the ammount of material recovered from the wreck bearing the code numbers belonging to the Titanic. Like most big engineering projects and ships especially (when the are built side by side) the parts manufactured are coded to a particular vessel. Given the machining skills taken to build the Titanic most parts were custom made and coded as such. What has been rocovered tends to still carry the Titanics code number - including one of the screws. These could not easily have been switched having been desinged for a specific propshaft configuration and balance

Without being tooo rude about it my dad (who designed and built ships for a living and worked at Harlands) simply convulses with laughter at this theory. The legend tends to be based in part on the word of mouth of some guy called "Paddy" as seamen who surfaced years after the Titanic went down - and whos testimony is very dubious at best.

For those who want to seek the answer there is plenty of primary source material to go at without looking at published works and a visit to Belfast offers some great opportunities to see some of the recovered artifacts first hand as well.

To add the largest portion of the Titanic recovered has pretty much proved conclusively to belong to the ship owing to its configuration of portholes - an extra small port having been cut to accomodate an additional "head" in one of the state rooms - and engineering ammendment totally unique to Titanic and one not shared by any of its sister ships.

I think that the Titanic should be raised above the ocean. Peoples are interested in the Titanic and seeing her above the water will allow peoples imagination sink deeper, and they will imagine what it was like to be aboard the Titanic when she was on her maiden voyage up to the day she sunk with tragic loss.

Titanic was largely covered by White Star's in-house insurance fund, so are we to believe they robbed themselves? White Star never benefited financially from the sinking.

That, combined with Titanic's yard number visible on the wreckage and the enormous impracticalities involved in making the switch (keeping a secret among thousands of shipyard workers?) spell out serious "ouch" for the conspiracy theory.




[edit on 7-1-2009 by nscopheacriaaclters]

What do people make of the fact that all surviving crew were immediately rounded up on their return home by two directors of the White Star Line and a senior government representative?

The RMS Titanic was deliberately brought to the bottom of the north Atlantic principally to get rid of three men: John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim, and Isador Strauss.

Why? Because they were very powerful opposition to the Federal Reserve Act that was "passed" the following year.

A man by the name of Francis Browne, S.J., no less than the Jesuit Provincial for Ireland, "just happened" to get off of the ship at her very last stop. This is after taking photographs of the doomed ship and her passengers. Oh and don't forget the telegraph that he received "GET OFF THAT SHIP - PROVINCIAL"

What really happened is that he briefed Captain Smith and other "Jesuits of the short robe" of exactly what their actions were to be.

White Star Lines = J.P. Morgan
J.P. Morgan in fact made a suite onboard the ship for himself but cancelled his trip at the last minute, citing "illness"... and he's not the only one.

The day she sank is celebrated by the elites yearly as the tax day that would not be possible without ending the lives of those three men.

It goes on and on.

Two of the richest men in the world and the two main opponents for the creation of the new Federal Reserve where JJ Aster and H. Googenheim. They both died on the Titanic. Yes, there was sufficient motive to sink the ship and make it seem accidental. The captain of the ship was Jesuit and the chief Jesuit General for Ireland had departed the Titanic at it's last stop.

Originally posted by ReelView
Two of the richest men in the world and the two main opponents for the creation of the new Federal Reserve where JJ Aster and H. Googenheim. They both died on the Titanic. Yes, there was sufficient motive to sink the ship and make it seem accidental. The captain of the ship was Jesuit and the chief Jesuit General for Ireland had departed the Titanic at it's last stop.

Indeed my friend, indeed.

I could write all day on this subject... But ultimately all efforts would have been in vain.

Originally posted by ancientfuturist
The RMS Titanic was deliberately brought to the bottom of the north Atlantic principally to get rid of three men: John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim, and Isador Strauss.

Why? Because they were very powerful opposition to the Federal Reserve Act that was "passed" the following year.

A man by the name of Francis Browne, S.J., no less than the Jesuit Provincial for Ireland, "just happened" to get off of the ship at her very last stop. This is after taking photographs of the doomed ship and her passengers. Oh and don't forget the telegraph that he received "GET OFF THAT SHIP - PROVINCIAL"

What really happened is that he briefed Captain Smith and other "Jesuits of the short robe" of exactly what their actions were to be.

White Star Lines = J.P. Morgan
J.P. Morgan in fact made a suite onboard the ship for himself but cancelled his trip at the last minute, citing "illness"... and he's not the only one.

The day she sank is celebrated by the elites yearly as the tax day that would not be possible without ending the lives of those three men.

It goes on and on.

Men of that wealth and stature would have surely gotten off the ship. I wonder if they were possibly murdered before the ship went down or locked up somewhere to insure they didn't get off the ship.

Originally posted by MorningtonCrescent

Originally posted by heelstone
Well, if it was a conspiracy to get insurance money, it certainly backfired in a very large manner.

At what point was the Olympic disassembled/sunk, or is it still around (I doubt it)? Surely this conspiracy could be put to rest if the decks in question aboard the Olympic were different than what was supposed to be there.

last I heard of the Olympic, it's empty hull was sitting in a scrap yard in Eastern Europe. this was at some point in the 90s though, so it could be gone by now.

oddly enough, the Olympic was the only ship of the three to live out its full service life. it survived World War I as a hospital ship (unlike the Britannic, which hit a land mine and sunk somewhere in the Mediterranean. there are still a lot of unanswered questions as to what happened with the Britannic, too.), and was making runs across the North Atlantic at least until the 1930s. (I can't remember the actual dates off the top of my head.)

How far was it off course if it hit a LANDmine? you mean a SEAmine by any chance?