Did the Titanic Really Sink?

Who knew the Titanic would be such a rich vein to mine in videos? As well as a couple of other videos, there’s also one on this channel about various weird coincidences related to the doomed vessel and now here’s another! Thanks to everyone who suggested this topic, it made a change not having to visit Cryptid Town.

On the face of it, you may be like “what? Of course the Titanic sank! That’s what everyone knows happened to the Titanic, its whole claim to fame is that it sank!” But then why, you may then ask yourself, is there so much discussion on this very subject?

Maybe there is something weird going on? Shall I listen to what’s going to be said and maybe have my mind blown ever so slightly? No guarantees on the mindblowing part, but there is enough meat on the bones of this particular conspiracy theory to satisfy any viewer of this channel, or at least provide a little snack. This whole story is quite interesting as it starts off as one fairly benign thing, then sort of branches off into slightly murkier realms.

The basic headline of this conspiracy theory is that it wasn’t the Titanic that sank, but rather its sister ship, the Olympic. What? Why? How?

Who cares? All these questions will be answered and more information than you ever thought possible on the subject will be covered. Researching this topic was one of those annoying instances where I had to keep going off on little tangents to find out more about every conceivable aspect of this plot but go off on little tangents I did so I hope you appreciate all my efforts. I think we got so many requests for this because of a recent tiktok about the Titanic being swapped out so we’ll also go into that version a bit.

So here we go. Think you know about the Titanic? Think again! Or maybe just think what you originally thought as there’s a reason why this is just a fringe conspiracy theory and not a factual part of Titanic lore. Oopsie, guess that was a bit of a spoiler but hey, we try to get to the bottom of stuff around here or at least a couple of layers under the surface. Let’s go!

The Pitch: The Ship that Sank in April 1912 Was Not The Titanic, it was The Olympic

We all know that a huge ocean liner struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank, causing over 1500 deaths. We also know that this ship was “Titanic”, the jewel in the crown of the White Star Line, the largest ship and largest moving man-made object around. But was it? White Star Line had another ship that looked almost identical to the Titanic, and that was the Olympic.

But why is there this conspiracy theory that it was the Olympic that went down? What purpose would it serve to send one ship out pretending it was the other? Well, my good friends, that would be because of the money. We’ll get to the explanations later…if there are any.

OK. The Olympic’s maiden voyage was about a year before the Titanic’s and after only a couple of months, captained by Edward Smith, it got into a serious accident with HMS Hawke. Hawke was a warship with a battering ram attached to it and the Olympic decided to swerve in front of it, causing the Hawke to ram two holes into the side of the much larger liner.

The Olympic sustained quite a bit of damage as there was a hole under the waterline as well as above but the HMS Hawke was also very badly damaged with its whole bow crushed and according to a paper at the time “the ram has been mashed flat”. Here’s where our conspiracy theory begins.

The damage to the Olympic was quite substantial and while it made it back to port in one piece, it then had to undergo a series of very expensive repairs which dragged on for several weeks. Prior to the Titanic being launched, the Olympic was the world’s largest ocean liner so White Star Line and its parent company were losing a lot of money, one: on the cost of the repairs and two: the loss of revenue due to the ship being out of commission for so long. In the end, to try and minimize losses and also to get some money back through an insurance claim, a cunning plan was hatched.

The Titanic and the Olympic were almost identical from the outside so after a little time was taken to swap a few things over, it was actually the Olympic bearing the Titanic’s name that set sail once again in April 1912 while the Titanic stayed in the docks, ostensibly as the Olympic still being repaired. The plan wasn’t to take the ship down taking half the passengers and crew with it, the plan was to deliberately sink the ship somewhere out in the middle of nowhere but the thought was that it would take ages for the boat to sink and there would be a handy ship nearby, maybe the SS Californian or the Carpathian, that could then come and rescue the passengers and crew. The damaged Olympic would then be off the White Star Line’s hands, but everyone would think it was the Titanic, which had a recently increased insurance policy on it so White Star Line would be quids in and still have a nice, seaworthy ship to work with - the pseudo Olympic which was really the actual Titanic.

Nobody would be dead, it would have been an accident, no harm no foul. And then we all know what happened next. If this seems a bit thin, let’s look at some interesting points.

The Ships

As we said before, the Olympic and the Titanic looked practically identical from the outside and the Titanic was even captained by Edward Smith who had previously captained the Olympic. While it had a slightly greater internal volume, the Titanic was only about 3 inches or 7.6 cm larger than the Olympic, a difference that wouldn’t be noticeable to the naked eye. Some of the things such as the nameplate and anything with the ship’s name on could easily have been switched over.

Advertising brochures for the Titanic actually used illustrations of the interior of the Olympic so anyone who’d seen them would not have realized they were on the wrong ship. After repair work was carried out on the Olympic following the collision with HMS Hawke and also after it had lost part of its propeller on another crossing to New York, parts were cannibalized from the almost complete Titanic anyway, delaying the latter’s launch date to prop up the only current cash cow in the White Star Line’s hugely expensive suite of luxury ocean liners.

Another pointer that it was the Olympic that is now at the bottom of the Atlantic and not actually the Titanic is that while the ship was going at full steam when it hit the iceberg, it was still below its actual top speed. At full steam it should have been going at 23 knots but was instead only doing about 21 knots. This is consistent with what the damaged Olympic would have been able to achieve in the same circumstances. It’s also been stated that where the ship broke in half after the impact with the iceberg was an area matching where the Olympic had previously been damaged by the HMS Hawke.

There were some more obvious tell-tale differences between the two, though, namely the portholes and windows. The B-deck of the Titanic had evenly spaced windows, but the Olympic had a noticeably different configuration of window spacing. Enhanced photographs of the undersea wreck of the Titanic clearly show the windows to be narrower and more irregularly spaced, just as the Olympic’s were.

There is also a discrepancy in the number of portholes between the sister ships. Early photographs of the Titanic show it as having 14 portholes on its port side bow, however when it left Southampton on its ill-fated maiden voyage, there were 16 portholes, just like the Olympic had. Surviving passengers on the Titanic also reported that the ship had consistently listed to port, or tilted to the left.

The Olympic also had a permanent list to port after hull damage following its crash with HMS Hawke.

Another string to the “swap” theory bow is that during the building phases, each ship was given an identification number which was also put on many of its parts, fixtures and fittings. Originally, the real Olympic was number 400 and the real Titanic was 401. When parts from the supposed retired Olympic were sold and put on display in various places, they should be showing the number 400, right?

So why are there some that apparently say 401? Adding to this confusion is the fact that the original Olympic had lost a propeller blade at some point and had to be fitted with a spare from the Titanic. This confirms how the number 401 seen on underwater wreck footage could mean that the wreck is still that of the previously damaged Olympic, just with its replacement part from the Titanic.

The Insurance

Did you know that a handful of days before it was to set sail, the insurance on the Titanic was more than doubled? This meant that when the fake Titanic sank, White Star Lines would receive $12.5 million for the actually already damaged Olympic, leaving them with much more money than they could have got for scrapping it or selling it, and also having a 100% fully functioning Titanic to then come in as the Olympic. Would it be suspicious to Lloyds of London when this huge increase was put to them?

The Titanic did have an extremely valuable cargo manifest so maybe that would explain the sudden hike. And maybe it wasn’t so outlandish when you consider that just the hull by itself was insured for one million pounds in 1912 money, coming in at an almost unbelievable 146 million pounds today but I guess that’s how inflation works. Whatever the case, insurance companies seemed to be a lot better in those days as according to lloyds.com: “Despite the high levels of claims arising from the tragedy, insurers paid out in full within 30 days.”

Wow.

The Passengers

Some well-known people lost their lives on the Titanic, including John Jacob Astor, the richest man on board with a fortune worth over 2 billion dollars in today’s money. Isidor Straus, the co-owner of Macy’s at the time, and his wife Ida died after giving up spots in a lifeboat, and another huge financial hitter, Benjamin Guggenheim also died and, according to survivors, put a rose in his buttonhole and said “We’ve dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.”

Other extremely wealthy people who went down with the ship were steel magnate George Dennick Wick, railroad executives John Thayer and Charles Melville Hays, Broadway producer Henry B. Harris, mystery writer Jacques Futrelle, businessman George Dunton Widener, Army officer and presidential aide Archibald Butt and artist Francis Davis Millet. But who wasn’t on the ship?

Interestingly, J.P. Morgan, you know, of J.P. Morgan fame, was scheduled to be on the Titanic’s maiden voyage but dropped out at the last minute due to ill health.

He actually controlled the parent company of White Star Line, meaning he would have known all about their financial situation. His unexpected dropout has led people to believe that he was either in on the scheme to sink the ship, he was warned not to board, or there was another motive altogether, more of which later. Morgan was seen in public and seemingly in fine health just two days after the Titanic sank.

He had also had some valuable bronze statues taken off the ship as late as an hour before it was supposed to depart. Some 50 other first class passengers who all had connections with Morgan also canceled their tickets at the last minute.

The Rescue Ships

When the Titanic (or Olympic) sank, it took a while for any other ships to get to the scene. Eventually, a large passenger steamship, the RMS Carpathia, arrived and picked up the survivors and took them back to safety. Could this have been a pre-arranged set-up? The Carpathia had room on board for an extra 2,200 people when it came to the rescue. How many people were on board the Titanic that night? 2240. I’m sure they could have squeezed in the extra 40 somewhere or the other.

Another ship that was in close proximity to the doomed White Star liner that night was the steamship SS Californian. This ship was on its way from Liverpool to Boston Massachusetts and had no passengers on board. It did, however, have a large number of blankets and woolly jumpers. There had also been a major coal strike in England, heavily affecting ships leaving or arriving at English ports.

Why would the SS Californian have made an allegedly strange rushed exit from Liverpool when fuel was scarce and therefore extremely expensive? It was also apparently hanging about with its boilers all fired up, the wireless room closed and Captain Lord asleep fully clothed on a couch in the chart room. It has been speculated that it was actually on its way to rendezvous with the Titanic slash Olympic just after the “accident” had been staged.

The Californian and its captain, Stanley Lord, were absolutely shredded in the aftermath of the tragedy when it came out that despite having seen the crippled liner shooting off distress flares, the Californian actually ended up not doing anything at all when it could have potentially saved many lives. In our conspiracy version of events, it was not an iceberg that ultimately did for the Titanic or pseudo Titanic, it was a prearranged smaller boat with its lights off. The flares that the Californian ignored were actually pretend distress flares from this other vessel.

As Captain Lord was in on the scam, he knew this was just part of the act. When the sinking did not happen the way everyone thought it would, it was much too dangerous for the smaller Californian to get anywhere close, due to the fear of being pulled under too.

A Larger Conspiracy Theory

If all those little nuggets weren’t enough, there is also a spin-off theory relating back to J.P. Morgan, the American investment banker who would have been worth well over $2 billion in today’s money. If you recall, he financed a trust called the International Navigation Company which later became the International Mercantile Marine Company. Under this umbrella, a few shipping lines including the White Star Line tried to monopolize the transatlantic shipping trade but it never really had the success they were after and the trust later underwent mergers and sales and had petered out by the early 1940s.

Anyway, remember that J.P. Morgan himself was supposed to be on board the Titanic for its maiden voyage as the biggest and most luxurious thing on the seas? He pulled out at the last minute citing bad health but was there really another, more sinister reason for his late cancellation, especially when you consider that three business rivals of Morgan’s; Isidor Straus, John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim all met their ends on that fateful night?

Again, this is all to do with money. This theory purports that J.P. Morgan was trying to form the Federal Reserve System, to help pump money into the US economy to stabilize the system during financial panics, which had been happening quite frequently in the early twentieth century.

Morgan wanted this centralized banking system put in place as it would give his business dealings valuable government protection so managed to arrange for three of his most wealthy rivals to be on the already damaged Olympic when it went out masquerading as the Titanic. The Federal Reserve System was eventually created in December 1913, just over a year and a half after the Titanic sank and also after the death of J.P. Morgan himself who had already passed away in March of that year.

On the face of it, this whole Olympic Titanic thing seems completely odd but it has been attracting attention for some years and periodically pops up again due to annoying people like QAnon bringing it up and random fast-speaking women on TikTok sharing their vast wealth of knowledge about the situation with us because obviously they know more about the shipbuilding industry in the early twentieth century than anyone else because they’ve watched James Cameron’s Titanic movie a few times. Oh, and in case you were wondering what happened to the actual Titanic when the Olympic sank, well, it just served out its days as the Olympic, sailing all over the place and finally being retired in 1935.

Get to the Decoding Already

While I initially thought this theory was totally insane, it actually got quite interesting poking about in all the supposed evidence for switching the ships. As people who take deep dives into conspiracy theories know well, it’s very easy to get sucked in until sometimes you’re really not sure which way is up anymore. Thankfully, even for a total dunce like me, this one is quite easy to pull out of and get a clear look at from above.

The main point we can make to quickly void this “extremely complicated switch and sink for insurance purposes” theory is: why? Why on earth would the White Star Line go to the considerable trouble of swapping things on two ships over then arranging some sort of collision in the middle of nowhere with so much valuable cargo on board, never mind over 2000 people, when they probably could have set the Olympic on fire in Southampton if it was such a millstone around their necks.

But what about all the other stuff you’ve just told us about? Surely there are a few suspicious things in there somewhere! QAnon can’t have lied to me! TikTok woman called herself “a Titanic kid”, that must mean they’re onto something, right? Well guess what? It’s happened time and time again just on this channel, never mind in the history of the human race but all this strange conspiracy theory nonsense can be traced back to a book written by two men!

In 1995, Robin Gardiner and Dan Van Der Vat published a book called “The Riddle of the Titanic” with - amazingly - no subtitle. Within the 300 or so pages of the book, you will find practically all of the “pro switch” theories covered here plus other examples that I couldn’t be bothered to add in and it seems to be the genesis for this entire odd idea. What won’t you find in this book though? Erm, any evidence or proof that this did in fact happen.

But let’s go through it anyway in case you’re not already convinced that it’s the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean and not the Olympic.

The Ships - decoded

We already know that the Titanic and sister ship the Olympic looked very similar as they were part of the same line. The fact that the advertising for the Titanic used illustrations and sometimes photographs of the Olympic so nobody realized a switch had occurred is adding 2 plus 2 and coming up with 5. The Titanic hadn’t even been properly finished when advertising started so there weren’t any good interior photos to take, if they indeed even used much photography in advertising brochures at the time.

Most of the ads I’ve seen have been illustrations and as the ships were supposed to be similar internally as well as externally, a drawing of the inside of the Olympic was going to be pretty similar to what you were going to find on board the Titanic anyway. So no, this was not a cover up, it was just using pictures of one already finished ship to advertise another ship in the same line that was going to be comparably extravagant.

Now, as for changing a few bits and bobs around on the ships to make one think one was on the Titanic when one was, in fact, on the Olympic is just totally farcical. It’s not like you could unscrew a plaque with the name of the ship on it, swap it around and Bob’s your uncle. There would be so much stuff that had the name of the ship on it or was unique to each ship that you would basically be stripping out both interiors and moving the whole thing over without anyone noticing what was going on. And yes, while a second ago I said the ships were practically identical, they did have several differences in some internal and external structures that people would probably notice.

The website “titanic switch.com” lists 30 key differences between the two ships, making it highly unlikely that they could be convincingly switched. This includes things like the promenades on Olympics’s B-deck that instead were private verandas and suites on the Titanic’s B-deck. Titanic’s A-deck promenade had a glass covering but was open on the Olympic.

As if these differences weren’t enough, the site ends the section by saying: “Not to mention the difficulty in changing the shell-plating at the bow and stern which bore the ships’ names - the names were not just painted on the plates, they were cut into the plates in letters four feet high and one-half inch deep that were then filled in with paint.” So yeah, just swapping a nameplate and a few bits of furniture definitely wouldn’t cut it if this scheme was really carried out.

And there were a lot of people around, finishing the Titanic and making repairs or just general maintenance on the Olympic. Unless every single person on the docks was in on the great switcheroo, it is not possible that this could have happened. There also isn’t really a convenient time period when it could have taken place.

The Olympic, despite the accident it had had, was still a working, successful liner, constantly going on long distance voyages. The last time the two ships were at the same dock was on the 7th of March 1912, a month before Titanic’s maiden and final voyage. Was this switch supposed to have taken place across the five days of the 2nd and 7th of March when the ships were last at the same place at the same time?

The amount of work needed would have been immense and not possible to be carried out in 5 days in secret. There are photos of the ships together during this period and at no point do you see any of the interiors being moved between them.

But were parts of the Titanic on the Olympic, adding to confusion as to which of the ships lies at the bottom of the Atlantic? Yes, some parts from an incomplete Titanic were used to repair the Olympic in a hurry but these were not significant or large pieces. We said that the Olympic lost a propeller blade which was replaced by one from the Titanic, explaining why the Titanic’s yard number of 401 was on the wreck, but that was, surprisingly, not true.

The Olympic did have a propeller shaft from the Titanic but that was about it. In reality, the blades of both ships’ propellers were different, meaning they were not interchangeable and also why they therefore had their own identification numbers. So if you see a propeller with the number 401 on it, it’s the Titanic, not the Olympic with a spare part attached.

The ship that sank did not break in half at the spot that was damaged when the Hawke rammed the Olympic either, that was also made up. And while we’ve mentioned this accident several times, it wasn’t really that bad. After being hit by the HMS Hawke, the Olympic still had work to do so after it was eventually patched up, it was still seaworthy and safe and continued with its schedule of transatlantic crossings for many years. The damage was hardly bad enough to need to scrap or retire the Olympic so there was no need for an insurance fraud to be carried out at all.

The viral Tiktok that revived this conspiracy recently was made by someone going by “mia.w22” and one of the main reasons she apparently touts this theory is because, and I quote: “The Olympic was on the water for a while, she was reaching retirement and they knew that.” Er, sorry mate but the Olympic’s maiden voyage was in June 1911, making it a whopping, er, 10 months older than the Titanic. Reaching retirement? I don’t think so. What makes this even more hilarious is that the original video has been taken down, I think, but I found it on LadBible under the headline “Conspiracy theory claiming the Titanic never sank is blowing people’s minds”. Then the very next article directly below it is: “This Bunnings Sausage Sizzle Sauce Robot Is Blowing People’s Minds”. Seems like any old thing will blow people’s minds these days.

The leaning or listing to port that was observed is again, hardly conclusive proof of a different ship being masqueraded out as the Titanic. Ships can lean a little to port or starboard for any number of reasons but apparently, the noticeable list to port was only described by survivors a couple of days into the voyage when at least one coal bunker on the starboard side had been emptied, making the port side heavier, not by observers as the Titanic was sailing out on the 12th of April.

What else? Oh yes, much has been made of the supposed difference in the number of portholes on the Titanic, after its launch but before its official maiden voyage, which led people to believe it must, in fact, have been the Olympic. Well, unfortunately these people are wrong again.

I know zero about how ocean liners are built or were built over a hundred years ago but apparently, according to people who actually do know about this sort of thing, lots can change on a ship, even quite late on in the build. Yes, the number of portholes on the Titanic was changed pre maiden voyage after complaints from crew on the Olympic that it was too dark in a certain area. The Olympic then also changed its number of portholes after the Titanic had sunk, meaning it matched what the Titanic had last looked like.

The arrangement of windows on the B deck was also a point of contention as there is a photo online showing the real wreck of the ship with slightly irregularly spaced windows. It then shows a photo of the Olympic with irregularly spaced windows and a picture of the Titanic with nice, regular ones. Well, the pictures are genuine, but misidentified because guess what? The ship shown with irregularly spaced windows in the photograph is actually…wait for it…The Titanic.

Because of some changes to the B-deck, including changing layouts to include suites and private verandahs, the windows also became narrower in some areas. There are documented photographs of the starboard side of the Titanic just before her maiden voyage which are an exact match to the windows visible on the wreck. So…yeah. That “proof” just went poof.

The Insurance - decoded

Suspiciously, the insurance for the Titanic was doubled just a few days before it set sail. Well, I suppose that might have been a bit suspicious - had it actually happened. While this theory is one of the strongest indicators of a deliberate sinking for insurance fraud, there is no evidence anywhere of an increase in the insurance value.

Independent valuations carried out and verified by different sources agreed that the insurance value of the Titanic was around 7.5 million dollars or 1.5 million pounds at the time, but - and here’s the absolute kicker to boot this theory out of the water - the Titanic was only insured for 5 million dollars or 1 million pounds. Even if it was the damaged Olympic that got deliberately scuttled, they wouldn’t be making back the full value of the ship.

So why was it underinsured then? Apparently it was usual practice for the shipping lines to not fully insure their own ships as they were their own insurers and they then also relied on their captains and crew not to do anything stupid. Before the sinking of the Titanic, captains of the White Star Line were given a document setting out “the Company’s Regulations for the safe and efficient navigation of its vessels” which included calls:

to impress upon you in the most forcible manner the paramount and vital importance of exercising the utmost caution in the navigation of the ships, and that the safety of the passengers and crew weighs with us above and before all other considerations. You are to dismiss all idea of competitive passages with other vessels, and to concentrate your attention upon a cautious, prudent and ever watchful system of navigation which shall lose time or suffer any other temporary inconvenience rather than incur the slightest risk which can be avoided.

Maybe Captain Smith didn’t read that part. The penultimate paragraph also stresses how careful everyone needs to be, as it would be a big financial blow to the company should any damages occur as they were also insuring the ships themselves:

We have alluded, generally, to the subject of safe and watchful navigation, and we desire earnestly to impress on you how deeply these considerations affect not only the well-being, but the very existence of this Company itself, and the injury which it would sustain in the event of any misfortune attending the management of your vessel, first from the blow which would be inflicted to the reputation of the Line, secondly, from the pecuniary loss that would accrue (the Company being their own insurers.), and thirdly, from the interruption of a regular service upon which the success of the present organisation must necessarily depend.

We’ve covered this aspect now but it’s also important to say that the White Star Line was not actually in any financial difficulties at this time. Sure it was expensive and probably annoying to have to patch up the Olympic so soon after launch but they had plenty of money and didn’t need to hatch any sort of scheme to help keep them afloat. The damage to the Olympic was not catastrophic, they had loads of bookings and had pretty successfully positioned themselves as the premier line to sail with.

Basically, as the Titanic was underinsured and the White Star Line was not in the red, the whole switching theory makes no sense.

The Passengers - decoded

While there’s no argument with who died on the ship, we can decode some of the events surrounding J.P. Morgan who canceled his trip at the last minute, even though he was a part owner of the Titanic due to his financing of the White Star Line. Switch theorists, including Mia the tiktoker, make much of his choice to cancel. In her video she says:

So many important people were supposed to get on the Titanic but they canceled their tickets mysteriously right before they got on, right before it set off to sea. One of those important people was J.P. Morgan, yeah, like the banker dude, yeah, mm-hmm, and he was like ‘yeah, I’m not going to get on. Just don’t feel like it.’ Girl, why?

Alright, so I’m assuming Mia had a nice personal chat with J.P. Morgan about this to get such a direct quote from the man but methinks he may have fibbed to her. In reality, J.P. Morgan was not in particularly good health - he died the following year - so maybe he didn’t really want to take a transatlantic crossing at that point.

Heck, who’s going to argue with the big boss if he changes his mind about something. People cancel things all the time and several other supposed “last minute” cancellations of Titanic passengers turned out not to be so last minute at all.

But more to the point, J.P. Morgan doesn’t even appear to have been scheduled for the maiden voyage anyway. According to research carried out by Mark Baber and published on “Encyclopedia Titanica”, Morgan would regularly travel between Europe and the USA but had never left for the USA prior to June of any year from 1904.

So traveling in April would have been totally unusual. Plus the fact that the New York Times published an article in March 1912 stating that Morgan had written a letter confirming he was going to Venice “for the Inauguration of the biennial International Art Exhibition, April 23, and dedicate the new Campanile of St. Mark’s.”

I’m not entirely sure what this means but it definitely means he was planning on being in Venice by the 23rd of April. If he was on the Titanic sailing to America on the 14th, he’d basically have to take a return crossing as soon as he arrived, which sounds unlikely. I can’t find any proof that he did actually go to Venice but it was publicly stated in his calendar prior to the Titanic setting sail.

As he was never supposed to be on board in the first place, I doubt there were also any bronze statues removed from the ship.

The Rescue Ships - decoded

The Carpathia was the first to eventually make it to the Titanic and help pick up survivors. Switch theorists would have it that it conveniently had room for over 2000 people so therefore it was just waiting in the wings to go and pick everyone up after what was supposed to be a very slow sinking. There are so many reasons why this is a ridiculous theory but let’s start with one from a business point of view.

The Carpathia was owned by Cunard, a massive rival of White Star Lines. Why and how would you ask a totally different company and competitor to help you commit insurance fraud? There is literally nothing positive in it for them at all and they weren’t even the closest ship at the time of the accident, being over 50 miles away which wasn’t exactly handy even if the whole thing was supposed to be a slow sinking.

Moving on from that, while the capacity of the Carpathia was for over 2000 passengers, there were at least 1047 passengers and crew already on board it for their own trip across the ocean. This means that there would definitely not have been enough room for all of Titanic’s passengers and crew too, with up to another 700 spaces needed. Apparently there was room in the Carpathia’s lifeboats for 702 people so maybe they could have bobbed about in those but it’s cutting the numbers a bit fine as the Carpathia wouldn’t have known the exact number of people on board. Maybe with the Titanic’s lifeboats added in there would have been enough room for everyone but as we said, the Carpathia was tens of miles away so if anything was pre-planned, which it clearly wasn’t, it all went wrong from the start.

And what about the other ship, the SS Californian that could have helped but didn’t? Er, yes, I think the conclusion from many different reviews of the ship’s actions that night was that they could have helped but didn’t. Were they stocked up with lots of wooly jumpers and blankets on their way to provide aid for the nudge nudge, wink wink “accident”?

No. No they weren’t. There is no mention of blankets or jumpers or anything of that nature being on the Californian.

Why had they steamed off in the middle of a coal strike? Well, they hadn’t, the strike was over by the time they left Liverpool. Why were their engines all fired up as though ready to race to the rescue in the middle of the night?

They were stuck in an ice field and were just getting ready to move when they could. They had even contacted the Titanic and other ships in the area to warn them about the ice but according to an article I saw on the BBC, the Titanic’s wireless operators told the Californian operators to “shut up”.

Captain Lord had shut the wireless office down for the night and didn’t react to the Titanic’s distress flares. It seems strange in hindsight that he didn’t react at all, so was heavily criticized in the aftermath of the disaster but he wasn’t going against company regulations or anything, it just seems that knowing what we know now, he maybe should have taken a bit more interest in what was going on.

The notion that the Californian was supposed to be in on the Titanic’s insurance scam is also totally ridiculous. It was a tiny ship in comparison with room for about 100 people so would have been no help in rescuing the thousands about the liner. And if they were supposed to be accomplices, why didn’t they actually do anything? Worst accomplices ever.

A Larger Conspiracy Theory - decoded

Now we’ve firmly kicked the “switch for insurance” theory in the bum after decoding both the switching and insurance aspects of the story, let’s spare a few seconds to rubbish the “J.P. Morgan deliberately killing off his Federal Reserve rivals by letting them sail off on a doomed ship” theory.

I’m not sure where to even start here but it sort of contradicts the whole insurance part of the main conspiracy theory. The ship was supposed to sink slowly, giving everyone enough time to be rescued. Therefore, his rivals would not have died. So what was the point? Was J.P. Morgan really behind the calculated murders of over 1500 people and the destruction of a new ship just for a few measly million and carte blanche to put his Federal Reserve plan into action? Obviously not.

I’m no banker but the whole US centralized bank thing wasn’t just plonked into place in a few days, the idea had been running for many years. Also, J.P. Morgan wasn’t the lone financier or brains behind the scheme, there were loads of people and institutions involved.

Also again, his three purported rivals on board the Titanic were not his rivals at all, at least in terms of being against the Federal Reserve system. In fact, Isidor Straus had been recorded in the New York Times as being pro Federal Reserve in October 1911, just a few months before the Titanic set sail, with one article headlined “Isidor Straus Urges New Banking Plan”. As for Benjamin Guggenheim and John Jacob Astor, there isn’t any public information about them having ever expressed any opinion on it whatsoever.

It was finally put in place after the deaths of all these men and even of J.P. Morgan, meaning that whatever their personal positions had been, the creation was always going to go ahead.

Conclusion

Do we even need a conclusion here? I think we have solidly proven that the ship that sank on April 14th 1912 was the Titanic. It would have been far too complicated and involved way too many people to switch the identities of the sister ships around without the truth having already come out somewhere. We have also proven that as the Titanic was knowingly underinsured, there wasn’t much scope for an insurance scam.

I had also seen that parts of the retired Olympic that were later sold off had the Titanic’s yard number of 401 on them, which would have been quite convincing proof that the ships were, in fact, swapped. However, I have not found a single picture or confirmation of any such number anywhere on any remaining Olympic parts. The only ones I found were of pieces with the number 400 on them - the Olympic’s correct yard number.

These theories came from the Robin Gardiner and Dan Van der Vat book “The Riddle of the Titanic” which came out in 1995 and was released in the States 2 years later in 1997 as “The Titanic Conspiracy - Cover-ups and Mysteries of the World’s Most Famous Sea Disaster.” Ahh, there’s that subtitle. Do you know what else came out in 1997 that was related to the Titanic? That would be “Titanic” - the James Cameron movie, so yeah, jump on that bandwagon, boys.

While Dan Van Der Vat was brought on as a co-author of the “Riddle of the Titanic” due to him being a naval historian, Robin Gardiner went on to write several more books about this theory by himself even though I think most of it was probably already covered. In their only co-authored book about the switch theory, both Gardiner and Van Der Vat seem to allude to the fact that it obviously isn’t true, with Gardiner acknowledging that he had seen the Titanic’s number of 401 stamped onto a built-in, non-removable part of the bridge.

A paragraph near the end of the book also says: “A conspiracy theory arises after a disaster because many people find it impossible to believe such a tragedy could just happen. Indeed for some a conspiracy theory is a psychological necessity, to help them come to terms with a shocking event.”

So here the authors are basically admitting that this whole theory was just made up but then Gardiner decided to double down and bash out a few more tomes about it so maybe he ended up believing his own hype. So yeah, strange theory, definitely not true, QAnon can suck it and don’t believe everything you see on TikTok.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main conspiracy theory discussed in the article?

The main conspiracy theory discussed is that the ship that sank in April 1912 was not the Titanic, but its sister ship, the Olympic.

Why was the Olympic damaged before the Titanic’s maiden voyage?

The Olympic was damaged after colliding with the HMS Hawke, which caused significant damage to both ships.

What was the supposed plan involving the Olympic and the Titanic?

The supposed plan was to sink the damaged Olympic while pretending it was the Titanic, to collect insurance money and still have a seaworthy ship (the actual Titanic).

What are some of the visual differences between the Titanic and the Olympic?

Some visual differences include the spacing and number of portholes and windows, particularly on the B-deck, and the arrangement of internal structures like promenades and suites.

Why was the insurance on the Titanic increased just before its maiden voyage?

There is no evidence that the insurance on the Titanic was increased. The ship was actually underinsured, with an insurance value of 5 million dollars, despite independent valuations suggesting it was worth around 7.5 million dollars.

Who was J.P. Morgan and why is he mentioned in the conspiracy theory?

J.P. Morgan was a wealthy American investment banker who was supposed to be on the Titanic’s maiden voyage but canceled at the last minute. Some theories suggest he was involved in a larger conspiracy related to the Federal Reserve System.

What role did the Carpathia play in the Titanic disaster?

The Carpathia was the first ship to arrive at the scene of the Titanic’s sinking and helped pick up survivors. Some conspiracy theorists suggest it was pre-arranged to be nearby, but this is debunked as the Carpathia was a rival company and not the closest ship.

What was the role of the SS Californian in the Titanic disaster?

The SS Californian was in close proximity to the Titanic but did not assist in the rescue. Some theories suggest it was involved in the conspiracy, but this is debunked as the ship was too small to help and its actions were criticized but not criminal.

What is the origin of the conspiracy theory about the Titanic and the Olympic?

The conspiracy theory originated from a book titled ‘The Riddle of the Titanic’ written by Robin Gardiner and Dan Van Der Vat, published in 1995.

Why is the conspiracy theory about the Titanic and the Olympic considered debunked?

The theory is considered debunked because it would have been too complicated to switch the ships without detection, the Titanic was underinsured, and there is no evidence to support the claims made in the conspiracy theory.

Sources

• Original Decoding the Unknown video: Did the Titanic Really Sink?
• Hero image source by Brandon Zhang / openverse, cc0.