On the night of April 14-15, 1912, the Titanic crashed on its maiden voyage. The sinking of the ship, which was considered unsinkable, became the most famous disaster at sea in the history of mankind. Although it was believed from the start that the ship sank as a result of a collision with an iceberg, not everyone agreed with this. There are several alternative versions of the death of the luxury liner, which are explained by other reasons.
"Titanic" changed
A very popular version explains the death of the ship as a result of a malicious conspiracy of the company's owners. For the first time this version was put forward by the researcher Robert Gardiner, over time it gained a considerable number of supporters.
As you know, "Titanic" was one of three ships created according to the same project. The first to be built was the Olympic, then the Titanic, and finally the Britannic. However, the Olympic was unlucky from the start. On the first voyage, he collided with a harbor tug, although he was not seriously injured. And already three months after the start of operation - with the cruiser Hawk. Both ships were damaged. This case turned into a loud and noisy scandal between the White Star Line and the British Admiralty - the owner of the Hawk.
In the dispute between big business and the government, the state turned out to be stronger. The captain of the Olympic was declared guilty of the collision, and the owners of White Star Line did not receive insurance and had to pay for the repairs out of their own pockets. In addition, due to repair work, the launch of the Titanic was once again postponed. The downtime of two ships at once threatened with serious financial losses.
Then the idea was born to give out one ship after another and organize its wreck in order to receive significant insurance payments. Moreover, it was almost impossible to distinguish them by their appearance. The ship was hastily patched up, secretly renamed, the inventory from the still unfinished Titanic was transferred on board, after which the launch of the new ship was announced.
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Of the ship's crew, only a group of officers (but not the ship's captain) was initiated into the conspiracy. It was planned to arrange an explosion in the hold, but the weather favored the conspirators, the ship ended up in the iceberg zone (and with stubborn obstinacy ignored warnings from other ships about the danger). This simplified the task.
At the time of the collision, the captain was not on the bridge, the first mate Murdoch and the sixth mate Moody were on watch. Sometimes you can also find a slightly different version of this version, that the collision did not happen with an iceberg, but with another ship, which was specially waiting in predetermined coordinates. And this supposedly was exactly the ship that many witnesses saw and that did not respond to signals from the ship in distress.
One way or another, the damage was more serious than planned. The conspirators hoped that the ship would sink slowly and help would come during this time, which would avoid a significant number of victims. However, the holes turned out to be too serious, the ship sank before help arrived.
This version was seriously questioned after researchers gained access to the ship's skeleton. The ship's side numbers corresponded to the registered numbers of the Titanic, not the Olympic.
Conspiracy of financiers
Not so long ago, another exotic version of the conspiracy appeared, according to which the sinking of the Titanic was caused by disputes over the creation of the US Federal Reserve Bank.
Businessman John P. Morgan.
The highly influential businessman John P. Morgan, who owned the White Star Line, was one of the most active lobbyists for the creation of the US Federal Reserve Bank. However, many big business figures opposed the emergence of a new regulator. A group of very large businessmen was present on board the ship, the most prominent of whom was John Astor IV, a multimillionaire from the most influential Astor clan (the Astors at the beginning of the century were one of the three richest clans in the United States). He is allegedly one of the main opponents of the idea of creating a new regulator, it was impossible to convince him.
Also among the passengers on the ship was Benjamin Guggenheim of the very wealthy and influential Guggenheim clan.
Morgan, having learned that several of his influential opponents will be on the ship, allegedly ordered to organize the wreck of the ship. He himself at the last moment abandoned the trip, canceling the reservation of the cabin reserved for him. A year after the sinking of the ship, the Federal Reserve Bank was created.
German submarine
According to this version, the Titanic was torpedoed by a German submarine. Since Britain and Germany at that time were in peaceful relations, the motive is usually put forward the intention of the Germans to test the destruction of large targets using submarines in case of an impending war. As a variation of this version, an explosion on board the ship is sometimes indicated, which was allegedly arranged by one of the mechanics who served on the ship, who was recruited by the German special services from among the activists of the IRA (the Irish Republican Army is an organization that advocated the independence of Northern Ireland and periodically resorted to terrorist methods of struggle).
Versions come in two flavors. According to the first, the agent had to detonate an explosive device and then transmit a signal. If necessary (if the power of the explosion did not damage the ship sufficiently), it was insured by a submarine, which was to deliver a torpedo strike.
According to the second version, the agent was on board only for communication and transmission of the ship's coordinates, and all the work related to the submarine.
The motivation of the Germans looks unconvincing, they would hardly risk organizing such a complex and risky operation in peacetime, and even against a civilian ship.
In addition, it should be noted that the submarines of that time were very slow-moving, it was extremely difficult for them to intercept and torpedo a very fast ship. In addition, it was almost impossible to accurately predict the route of the ship, especially since Captain Smith changed the route and took the ship southward than planned.
The only argument in favor of this version is the testimony of one of the surviving passengers, who stated that she saw "two pillars moving parallel to the ship" immediately after the collision. According to the supporters of this version, the "two pillars" could have been a submarine's cabin and bow weapon.
Coal fire
One of the most recent versions of the shipwreck, put forward just a few years ago. She does not deny the death of the Titanic from a collision with an iceberg, but suggests that a fire in a coal hold led to the death of the ship.
The fire began a few days before the ship left the port and continued throughout the voyage. This is evidenced by the fact that traces of soot are visible in the photographs of the ship in the port, moreover, it is on the side on which the iceberg hit.
The combustion of coal on ships at that time was quite common. The most popular way to combat this was to throw the already ember coal into the furnace.
Precisely because smoldering coal was constantly thrown into the furnace, the Titanic allegedly accelerated to a speed that did not allow it to quickly maneuver in a dangerous area for navigation.
In addition, due to the fire and heating for many days, the strength of the case has deteriorated, it has become especially vulnerable to external influences. These circumstances led to the fact that the collision with the iceberg became fatal for the ship. Under different conditions, the collision might not have led to such serious consequences.
Curse of the mummy
They tried to explain the death of the Titanic and mystical reasons. In the 1920s, a version appeared in the American tabloid press explaining the death of the ship as a mysterious curse.
Allegedly, there was a sarcophagus with an Egyptian mummy on board the ship, which brought misfortune to the owners. The mummy seemed to belong to a certain collector who bought himself and the mummy a place in the boat for a lot of money and managed to escape from the sinking ship. But, noticing that after buying the mummy he was constantly haunted by failures, he sold it to a European collector.
On the way, the mummy brought trouble again. The ship "Empress of Ireland" carrying her sank in 1914. The sarcophagus was saved again. There were no more buyers for the cursed mummy, and the owner decided to return it to Egypt. The sarcophagus was transported on the ship "Lusitania", which in 1915 was sunk by a German submarine. This time, the mummy allegedly went to the bottom along with the ship.
There is no evidence to support this legend. Most likely, this is just an invention of journalists eager for a sensation.
Author: Evgeniy Antonyuk
