I recently discovered a fascinating book, ‘The Titanic and the Indifferent Stranger’, by Dr Paul Lee, a physicist. In it he outlines a compelling argument that the Titanic was not lost in a collision with an iceberg in April 1912, but instead went on to serve as the Olympic, her almost identical twin sister.
The saga began on September 20, 1911, when the Olympic was involved in a collision with the cruiser, HMS Hawke, in the Solent.
The subsequent court of enquiry wrongly ruled that Olympic had been at fault, resulting in the insurers refusing to indemnify the White Star Line, owner of the Olympic. It was at this point, according to Dr Lee, that bankers, J P Morgan, a major shareholder in White Star Lines, determined they would recover their loss by substituting the Olympic for Titanic.
According to Dr Lee, the Olympic had not only suffered quite significant outer hull damage, but more importantly, her aft section of keel had been twisted. This made repairs virtually uneconomic. Lee maintains White Star Lines, in collusion with J P Morgan, determined to substitute the Olympic for the Titanic and then arrange for it to be lost in a collision with an iceberg, somewhere in the North Atlantic ice fields.
Lee goes on to claim White Star had arranged for the Californian, a smaller steamer, to meet with the Titanic just as soon as the collision occurred, thus preventing any loss of life – and avoiding any associated criminal penalties. Tragically, the Californian failed to locate the Titanic due to either a navigation error or an un-notified change of course by Titanic.
I have always believed it was James Cameron who discovered TitanicI have always believed it was James Cameron, in 1995, using a US Navy deep diving submersible, who had originally discovered the Titanic. But it was first ‘officially’ located by oceanographer, Dr Robert Ballard, on September 1, 1985, after he was contracted by the US Navy’s Woods Hole Oceanographic Research Institute, to locate the nuclear submarine, USS Scorpion, lost under mysterious circumstances.
On September 1, 1985, on board a ship called Knorr, a French-American expedition led by Jean Louis-Michel of IFREMER (the French Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea) and Dr Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, trawled a camera package over a nondescript portion of the North Atlantic seabed and saw a massive ship’s boiler. After weeks of searching, first by sonar and then by visual means, they had found probably the greatest ‘lost’ shipwreck in history: the Titanic. They and their jubilant crowd were the first to see the fabled ship since it vanished beneath the waves at 2.20am on April 15, 1912. Or were they?
“One often mentioned, the little researched incident, occurred at precisely the time that the Titanic was found. The London Sunday Observer newspaper had run an article stating that the Titanic had been found.” As Dr Ballard says in his book, ‘The Discovery of the Titanic’:
“[on September 1st], When I called Woods Hole to give them the good news [about the Titanic having been found], I was met with a jolt. The guard who answered the phone informed me that the press had been calling all morning wanting details of our Titanic discovery. Apparently, there’d been a story in the Sunday London Observer. If that was true, then the paper had gone to press at about the time we’d found the ship. Impossible. Or had someone been eavesdropping on our radio conversations between the van [control room] and the bridge?”
And that was it! No word of explanation, and the matter was dropped by Ballard. However, that was not the end of the matter....”
It is the photographs from this expedition that are the most revealing as to the true identity of the ship found at the bottom of the Atlantic. In order to correctly identify the wreck, the bow section was checked for the name. What the researchers discovered was the name had been changed from ‘Olympic’ to ‘Titanic’ after corrosion had caused the letters plated over the name ‘Olympic’ to fall away revealing the letters ‘O’ and ‘P’, which were embossed into the bow plating, not riveted, as were the letters spelling ‘Titanic’.
Olympic had struck a tug in New York harbour and a propeller from Titanic (casting 401) had been removed from the nearly completed Titanic and fitted to Olympic. This propeller was located on the Titanic.
But how did White Star get away with it?
Both Olympic and Titanic were nearly identical, and being brand new, even experienced observers would have some difficulty telling them apart. To further confuse identification, newly completed ships of that period often underwent modification after shakedown cruises revealed shortcomings or owners revised their cabin arrangements to suit prevailing market conditions. Titanic underwent such modification, after returning from her first trips to America. According to Lee, a number of changes were made to the internal layout and fitments of the Olympic making it virtually impossible for anyone not intimately associated with the design of the ships to notice the swap. It’s only been subsequent investigators, armed with detailed ship’s plans – not available until many years later – that exact comparisons could be made. But, why go to all the trouble?
According to eye witnesses at the time the Olympic undertook post collision repair sea trials, the ship had developed a slight list and showed some steering aberrations, which should have resulted in the ship being refused certification. They also remarked the trials were inexplicably shortened and no turning manoeuvres were attempted that might have caused the weakened keel to fail. Why would the Board of Trade allow the certification of such a potentially dangerous ship? The author, Dr Lee, is also a conflict simulations expert, a professional who studies the mechanisms, both political and logistical, of war. He came to the conclusion the builders, Harland and Wolfe, in Belfast, were essential to the British economy and the government dared not accuse them of repairing a ship that should have been scrapped. Even more important was the support of J P Morgan – an international merchant bank commanding huge resources – for funding the coming war, then just over two years away. White Star had also pledged their fleet to the British government in the event of war. While this may have seemed a simple book keeping entry, it is far from the case. Many of the modern liners were completed as ‘Armed Merchant Cruisers’, which meant they were built so, in the event of war, they could be rapidly refitted as warships. This was a costly process, requiring significant changes to a standard ship design. But, the most obvious reason was to recover the insured value of a vessel that was uneconomic to repair. Three weeks after the loss of the Titanic, Lloyds paid over $12 million to White Star Lines. three million dollars more than the construction and outfitting costs of the ship.
According to Dr Lee, the Olympic had not only suffered quite significant outer hull damage, but more importantly, her aft section of keel had been twisted. This made repairs virtually uneconomic.
According to eye witnesses at the time the Olympic undertook post collision repair sea trials, the ship had developed a slight list and showed some steering aberrations, which should have resulted in the ship being refused certification.