The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 has sparked numerous conspiracy theories, including those that it was orchestrated by American financier J.P. Morgan to kill off rival millionaires Jacob Astor, Isidor Straus, and Benjamin Guggenheim. These theories have caused immense public intrigue and debate over the truth behind the sinking.
One of the most popular theories is that the Titanic was switched with its sister ship, the Olympic, before its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912, and deliberately sunk five days later to collect an insurance payout. Another theory suggests that a coal fire may have accelerated the sinking, and supporting photographs presented in a 2017 documentary may have been covered up for this purpose.
The Titanic’s sinking has caused immense public intrigue, with conspiracy theories surrounding the wreckage and the connection between the Titanic and its sister ship, the Olympic. Some believe that the Titanic never actually sank, while others believe that the wreck was an inside job to collect insurance money. Conspiracy theorist Robin Gardiner has an unusual idea that the Titanic did not sink but was switched with its sister ship, the Olympic.
In conclusion, the sinking of the Titanic has led to numerous conspiracy theories, some of which are baseless and unfounded. It is essential to understand the context surrounding the sinking and the potential truth behind these theories to fully appreciate the tragic events that occurred on the Titanic.
📹 Titanic Conspiracy: The Full Truth | Part One
In the 1990s a new and explosive theory emerged, championed by an author and enthusiast from England. Robin Gardiner …
📹 Was The Titanic Sunk On Purpose?
Join us as we “dive” into the theory that Titanic wasn’t an accident but instead sunk deliberately. Credits: …
Aside from weekend and summer boating while growing up in the PNW, I haven’t been super interested in ships, their designs, or even the history of the industry…until your website randomly popped up in my recommended articles just over a year ago. I’ve learned more than I ever knew I wanted to and cant click fast enough! That’s the sign of a great content creator!
Awesome article… can’t wait for the 2nd part. Always enjoy Mr. Brady’s articles. I found this one of particular interest because when I was in college I actually did a persuasive speach in my class on this very subject. Using Gardner’s book I was able to convince the class that the whole sinking of the Titanic was an insurance scam that had gone terribly wrong. Then, during the question and answer portion of the assignment, my instructor asked me if I really believed it was a insurance scam. I then spent the next 5-6 minutes refuting my entire speech… using some of the facts Mr. Brady presented here. This article brings back fond memories. Keep the great articles coming sir!
Y’know I think this theory only gains traction because the majority of people don’t understand that ships are not like cars. If your car is in a collision and gets more than very minor damage it’s totaled. If a steamship took damage they hauled it back to dry dock, patched it up, and sent it right back out again. The MV Stockholm, the ship that collided with and caused the sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1956, was repaired after the collision is still around today (although maybe not for much longer, she is 76 years old). The idea that Olympic would be impossible to repair after a relatively minor collision is pretty laughable.
I vaguely remember hearing about this crazy theory on a podcast or another YouTube article, can’t remember exactly but I thought it seemed like a wild idea. The information given in this article makes it seem like such a silly idea. Looking forward to part 2! I’ve only found your website a couple days ago but I’m really enjoying the content!
Sounds like the Royal Navy lied in their “investigation results” saying the RMS Olympic was at fault. The Olympic was going straight ahead while the HMS Hawke turned to port. The Hawke had two shafts and two engines so obviously either the port propulsion system suffered a slowdown or the starboard system suffered a runaway acceleration. Thus any “cover up” was done by the Royal Navy.
“Oh no, our very expensive and time-consuming-to-build ship suffered totally repairable damage according to the standards of the time! What are I we gonna do?!?!? I KNOW, we’ll take the absolutely massive ship that is the pride of the city and visible from all directions at all times of day and SWAP IT OUT for the next one with perfect teamwork and secrecy of many thousands of proud workers, then we’ll sail it NEARLY all the way across the ocean (proving that the repair was pretty much an entire success) before forcing it to sink in an EXTREMELY rare and difficult to achieve collision, which will make a HUGE international splash when it kills off tons of extremely wealthy people with resources or their family members and get LOADS of media attention and an extensive investigation that’s so impactful that it changes safety regulations forever. We’ll do ALL of that instead of properly repairing the repairable damage.”
Thank you Mike for treating the people who are misinformed about the theory with patience and respect! It’s not easy to see things through the eyes of the general public when you’re highly educated in a particular topic, and so so many “experts” forget this. I hope others are able and willing to follow your example!
Happy Easter to all the Oceanliner Designs crew! Also, I have to express my amusement at a point that the conspiracy theory tries to make – The Olympic was supposedly so badly damaged that even if she were repaired, she would still fail any inspections to determine her seaworthiness… but let’s pretend she’s a brand new Titanic (that has yet to undergo her own sea trials and other inspections) so we can sink her on purpose and collect the insurance money! Brilliant logic there… 🙄
Unbelieveable. The switch theory was rubbish from the beginning for anyone who’s a student of the Titanic, the White Star Line, maritime history and oceanliner construction. But some people just aren’t happy unless there’s a “bogeyman in the closet” or a “monster under the bed,” if you get my meaning. The only theory I’ve had doubts about is the “suction” theory of the mass of Olympic pulling HMS Hawke into her side. I forget which Titanic book I read this in (I’ve got a shelf full) but years later it was revealed Hawke had a steering gear failure which put her into Olympic’s side. The RN didn’t want to admit it at the time. And as we’ve found out recently there’s nothing unusual about steering gear failures. Great article as always Mike! Looking forward to Part Two!
That rumor was put to bed when Robert Ballard was examining the wreck in 1986. As he was examining the stern section, he took this picture of the propeller. If you look closely, you can just make out the number 401 on the blade. Titanic’s construction number was 401, meaning that this particular propeller was fitted specifically to the Titanic. Since no two ships are alike, even if they’re built to the same design, each propeller would have been unique to the specific ship it was mounted on – it would have been balanced and aligned to work properly only for the ship it was mounted on.
I read Gardiner’s second book which came out around 1999ish, and a lot of the first-hand quotes he provided were pretty convincing. Except… If you went back to the original sources of those quotes, you’d find that he had selectively removed huge chunks in order to deliberately deceive the reader. I’ll put in just a couple of examples I noted from the chapter where he tried to prove that the layout of B-deck was that of Olympic’s rather than Titanic’s. As he discusses the lowering of boat 12, he makes this extraordinary statement: “As the boat was lowering, a French man jumped in from B deck, which goes to show how determined this individual was; B deck was supposedly enclosed at that point.” To back up this story of the jumping Frenchman, he references page 153 of Col. Gracie’s book. Here, Gracie paraphrases Able Bodied seaman F. Clench’s testimony from the American Inquiry: “There was only one male passenger in our boat, a Frenchman who jumped in and we could not find him. He got under the thwart, mixed up with the women, just as we dropped into the water before the boat was lowered and without our knowledge.” Clench’s full testimony about this incident appears on Page 637 of the American Inquiry, and reads as follows: Mr. CLENCH. There was only one male passenger in our boat, and that was a Frenchman who jumped in, and we could not find him, sir. Senator BOURNE. Where was he? Mr. CLENCH. Under the thwart, mixed with the women. In fact, of course, we could not look for him just as we dropped into the water.
The whole thing doesn’t even pass the smell test for so many reasons. The reputational damage was greater than the insurance payout. End of conspiracy right there. But if a ship had to sink, it could have been done during sea trials with only crew on board, or after Cherbourg. But I guess it makes more sense to sink her in an ice field they didn’t know existed?
Just commenting to say, I appreciate you starting this article with saying the theory is convincing, letting those fooled to feel better and less defensive. Those assuming the Titanic was switched are coming from a place of misunderstanding that such a switch of insurance fraud would actually be MORE trouble than just fixing the ship. These are ocean liners build in an age where pieces were riveted together by hand, heated and hammered on site….you do not defraud insurance and scuttle a vessel which takes that much to build.
I still dont understand…no matter how damaged Olympic might have been… In what WORLD would it ever make sense to INTENTIONALLY sink Your OWN brand new ocean liner?! and with all the time and money spent, the enormous loss of life, damage to the company’s reputation that would entail? Like what?! Im sorry, you had me at that…why on earth would anyone believe something so outlandish?
…Honestly, if they wanted an insurance payout and were willing to sink the Olympic to do it and fake the repairs enough to convince people it was a new ship, then wouldn’t it be easier to just not switch? Claim the ship was just unlucky. She goes out, does a voyage or two, sinks, hey insurance. Swapping the ships seems like a needlessly complex addition to a risky plan, even if nothing else about the plan was impossible.
This is BY FAR the most frustrating conspiracy I have ever heard about the Titanic. It seems to me that every “average Joe” knows this theory and thinks it’s true, it’s insane! I can’t even put into words how mad it makes me! I’ve reported so many articles for false information because of this. All it takes is the smallest amount of research to find out that it’s complete malarkey. Thank you Mike for fighting the good fight and spreading the truth!
The guy who came up with consipiracy must think that ships are build like cars, where the outer shell or body is part of the overall load bearing structure of the ship. Ships are built more like 4x4s and trucks, where the frame carries the structure and the body shell is just a body shell, and also like a truck ships can be extended by adding a section to and reinforcing the frame.
Thank you for being gentle with the people that were fooled by this theory. They deserve to have the truth be explained to them how the official story of Titanic was true, and there was no switch theory, without being insulted and hurt, called names for their false belief. Everybody gets fooled every now and then.
Every time some newbie brings this up in one of the online discussion groups I frequent, I always ask the same question: Ignoring everything that “our friend Mike Brady” has already debunked in this article, why was it necessary to sail 3 days west from Ireland and stage a sinking in the middle of the night? The insurance policy required that the ship be “lost or damaged beyond reasonable economic repair” … a condition that could have been much more easily brought about while the ship was moored in Southampton with a few cans of petrol and a box of matches. Thus far, I’ve never had a “switch theory” supporter be able to come up with an reasonable answer to this question…
Another Naval Architect here with a half century of ship building and repair experience. I have been involved in several jumbo midbody and broken hull repairs, of course “Olympic” was repaired. Perhaps in part II you note that another hole in the “theory” is that there would have not been enough time in the schedule to complete the switch, “Titanic” was not yet so near to completion in the fall of 1911. Also, why no contemporaneous evidence from the 15,000 shipyard workers? It would have been impossible to hide such a deception. The whole idea of swapping the two is laughable. Thanks for taking on this debunk!
Leving aside all the practical reasons here. Would White Star REALLY be ok with further destroying their poor public reputation after MULTIPLE major accidents in the preceeding twenty years? The Naronic had just straight up VANISHED in 1893. The Suevik had run aground and had to be evacuated by lifeboats in 1907, and the Republic had sank in a collision in 1909, just 3 years ago. Loosing another ship so soon, especially your company’s flagship, on its HIGHLY publicised maiden voyage would have crippled White Star’s business even without the mass loss of life.
I’m amazed how they managed to silence the fifteen thousand or so Yard-Men who worked in the shipyard, perhaps it was all free Guinness and Bushmills in the many pubs and clubs along east Belfast’s Newtownards Road. Although when I visited the same pubs and clubs in the seventies their descendants were anything but quiet so maybe they used more coercive methods. Perhaps they employed a similar strategy as NASA to convince the “Sheeple” that a spaceship with men aboard landed on the moon.
I used to believe this theory until I did extensive research, something that others are unwilling to do but they hear the story and assume it true because it kinda makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is that if this was all planned like WWE, all the Titanic passengers would have been saved that night. Making the builders look like heroes saving everyone on board but this never happened. If you’re going to sink your own ship, you will make sure a ship nearby will come on as a saviour.
The thing that should prove this theory to be inconceivable is that when the Olympic was built she took about 7 months from her launching to be made ready for her maiden voyage. By the time that the ship got into the shipyard for repairs she was already less about a month short of this from when the titanic made her maiden voyage, so the ship would have had to have been delayed by about a month from what happened historically for the swap to have been accomplished. This is because even the ship’s interior fittings were specific to the particular vessel they were on so all of the fittings from Olympic would have had to be removed and placed on titanic.
YES! Finally another article shoving this garbage theory into the ground where it belongs! This is going to be a great 2 part documentary. There is also another article that I think you all would like titled “The TikTok Titanic Theory: A Measured Response” made by Kyle Hudak (the modeler on the Titanic: Honor and Glory team). Share these articles to anyone who believes this awful theory!
Thank you for making this article, and looking forward to the next part! You explained it very eloquently and concisely, and unfortunately, in this world where sensational conspiracies are contesting with historical fact, the truth is muddled to almost a farcical degree. Their line of paranoid thinking is insulting to the survivors, the victims and their relatives living and dead, and you’re doing a good thing by making sure there’s accurate information out there somewhere. Also, I like to think that if these people were sent back in time and met Charles Lightoller, he’d let them have it. The guy didn’t suffer fools and ignoramuses lightly!
I used the Café Parisien to debunk this many times. As mentioned on this website, Olympic didn’t have the Café Parisien installed till 1913 and Titanic had it from the start. Their is documentation from outside the White Star Line that confirms all of this. The Lack of the Café was an on going compliant for the Olympic at the time.
I don’t get this conspiracy at all… If you would have tried to swap the ships, you still would have to repair Olympic so that she would look like a new, feshly build ship and so that she convincingly could survive her shake down cruise and maiden voyage till the point of the staged sinking. So they would have to repair the outer hull to look like it was newly build. They would have to repair the drive shaft and machinery so she could reach her maximum speed in trials. They would have to fix the keel insofar that she shows convincing stability on the trial and maiden voyage. And if you do all of that, wouldn’t she be more or less fully repaired? Where would be a large enough money saving point? If she really was damaged beyond repair, how would it be possible to ready her to roleplay as Titanic? As I said, I really don’t get it…
I guess 9/11 was done by the owners of the Twin Towers because it was too costly to repair a few windows too? Nothing about this conspiracy theory makes sense. Sending (somehow) their (or what appears to be) brand new ship to the bottom of the ocean is catastrophic for the White Star Line. The loss of life, the loss of money, the scandal and the bad press. All because it was too expensive to repair the Olympic? Come on. Also, and I’m very interested in the next article, it takes less than a second for someone to differentiate Olympic from Titanic. Fixing up Titanic’s B deck to pass it off for the Olympic alone would be ten times more costly than repairing the Olympic in the first place. Conspiracy theories are people with an active imagination (or low IQ) trying to find meaning in things that don’t make sense. Sometimes accidents happen. Sometimes ships hit icebergs and thousands of people die. And most of the time, there’s no evil mastermind with a cigar behind it. Just life.
Here’s the part that infuriates me about this theory as well as most conspiracy theories; the people who are absolutely convinced of them will NEVER have their minds changed because they don’t want to have their minds changed. For some reason, a world where murder and corruption and schemes are the norm is preferable to a world where, if one will pardon my language, bad shit just happens sometimes. Furthermore, they’ll ignore any and all evidence that runs counter to their claims while somehow touting their fabrications as truth. Oh you have photos proving that Titanic and Olympic weren’t switched? Well clearly THOSE pictures are fake! You have documents of where, when, and who worked on Olympic’s repairs? THOSE are fake too! You have documents proving that there was no sudden change in the insurance policies on either ship? Yep, FAKE. There are absolutely ZERO records of any kind of switch occurred? Well clearly THOSE are real but they’ve all been hidden! Duh!!! It’s absolutely maddening, and just proves Mark Twain right; “Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”
Quality show friend. Easily one of the best content providers you’ll find on the topic. So well researched and presented. Excellent job. We here in Ireland have heard all the stories, it was built only 1 hour from me. Had family in Belfast back then. Its such a cherished part of our folklore, people couldn’t handle the truth now. James Cameron destroyed people’s reality of the event. There’s no mention of the federal reserve in that movie!
Ever since I quit smoking pot, my “conspiracy theory” interests have changed drastically… I used to watch a lot of History website, put it that way. Ancient Aliens and docos about Austrian painters have been swapped out for more of this type of content. Chips and ice cream aren’t as delicious either.
A great and detailed rebuttal of this theory with plenty of photos and confirmation from highly qualified engineers. I have had discussions with conspiracy theorists before, their belief is pretty unshakeable and often highly “researched”, but rarely do they give a satisfactory answer to this simple question “how many people would have to know about the proposed conspiracy for it to work?” If it”s more than 20 or so then the chances of it never being revealed is vanishingly small. Many of the workers at Harland & Wolff were Catholics and the idea of any of them taking a secret that cost so many lives to their grave with them is simply not credible.
The whole beggining of this theory doesn’t make any sense. Why would WSL need a whole insurance fraud? If Olympic was damaged beyond repair, WSL would have just collected the insurance money from Hawke’s insurance company. The Hawke ran into the Olympic after all. Glad to see this being covered in such detail, great article Mike!
Conspiracy theorists: “A 7000 ton warship would absolutely wreck a 50,000 ocean liner, Olympic must have been swapped with Titanic” Also conspiracy theorists: “There’s no possible way a bridge would collapse after being struck by a 150,000 container ship, it must have been a controlled demolition” It’s telling how basic physics change from argument to argument. Almost like conspiracy theorists are way less concerned with facts and evidence than whatever narrative they’d prefer to believe.
Also I feel that someone should point out that even though these events unfolded long before this ridiculous theory was spewed up, it could well have caused unnecessary grief to the families of those involved.SHAME ON YOU ROBIN GARDINER!!!!!! Other conspiracy theorists please take note. You help no-one, and cause untold anguish to those involved.
I hope you’re ready for all the theorists to come into here and claim you’re wrong, due to their “independent research” being “vastly superior” than yours. I can guarantee you’ve spent years getting proof against this theory, as it’s basically a requirement for getting into Titanic and nautical history. Hopefully though, some listen to the truth, and learn to accept their mistakes.
I dont really care about damage I’m more concerned why JP invited wealthy familys to join him on maiden voyage of titanic but with a bogus excuse didn’t make departure time. And it just so happens those mega rich familys opposed the creation of fed reserve and world bank and were fixing to end them. The fact you didn’t mention the Astor family in the beginning means I have no desire to watch part 2. I know people with mega mil jets and none of them said they’re jet would ever leave if they missed the boarding time. No thanks my theory of greed and corruption blowing a hole in the ship is gonna stick. Many passengers testified of hearing the explosion and a piece of ice will jolt you and make a scratching on chalk board sound but not an explosion. The olympia didn’t hit the wink wink ice berg head on. That ice theory is like saying planes demolished 2 towers on they’re footprint cleanly and dropped building 7 on its own foot print also. If you know anything about engineering such building topple, not cleanly drop in on own foot print. Less repair talk more facts of why and who was murdered and why were they murdered and how could you not mention the Astor family? One of the richest at the time. Stay blind folks and do what your told and mask up and get in line like good little sheep
Thank you for another excellent article. I look forward to part two. An example of how people don’t like facts to get in the way of a good tale! I find it amazing, if perhaps unsurprising, that the Admiralty found against the Olympic for the collision. Of course I’m no expert but I find it telling that Cpt Smith not only kept his job but went on to be master for the Titanic’s maiden voyage – White Star obviously retained confidence in him.
Another good example of repaired ships is the USS Wisconsin, which was in a collision that pretty badly damaged the bow in around 1950. The US Navy cut the bow off the incomplete USS Kentucky and graphed it onto Wisconsin. This event actually is where Wisconsin gets her nickname Big Wisky (the abbreviation for the state of Wisconsin is Wis, and for the state of Kentucky is Ky).
Mr. Brady is fighting the tide in this series. Conspiracy theories are so much more fun (and profitable) than facts. On a more sober note, I very much doubt that even the evil, money grubbing tycoons like J.P. Morgan and the others who would have had to have been involved would come up with a scheme to deliberately sink a ship with the loss of over 1500 lives. Just keeping the shipyard workers quiet would be impossible.
so on one hand we’re supposed to believe that the Olympic was fatally damaged beyond any use, and on the other that she was still capable of hauling her cookies across the Atlantic at 20+ knots….even at a basic logical level the math ain’t mathing, but nice to have it broken down in detail why its nonsense – looking forward to part 2!
Many Great lakes Freighters have been lengthened. The Arthur M Anderson had 120 feet added to her She was the boat that was behind The Edmond Fitzgearld on November 10, 1975 The day the Fitz sank. It also seems The Fitz was due to be lengthened as well. The SS Arthur B Homer Her Sister ship was. And at least 1 Great lakes Freighter was shortened. The SS Alpena. Built in 1942 and still in service hauling Cement 82 years later. I saw her 2 or 3 days ago in the St Clair river. Great content as always Mike.
Thank you for this. I bought the Conspiracy book when it first came out. It was fascinating, well written, and a good read. However a very short time of contemplation was sufficient to dispel any conspiracy. My great uncle worked at Harland and Wolff, and I’m pretty sure he would have noticed had the ship he worked on (for example) on Monday been different on Tuesday. Titanic was well on at that point – due to sail a couple of months later. Imagine you are car-enter working on a piece of panelling – next day you come in and it’s all finished? It’s a nonsense. There were so many workers there, they weren’t stupid, they would have noticed any switch, and the word would have got out. It’s a great story, but a total nonsense!
I have seen this theory before. What removed all credibility for me was the probable number of times the name “Titanic” or “Olympic” would be etched into the massive vessels, every cabin, toilet, bathroom and part of the ship. The name probably would have occurred thousands of times on the ships. Miss changing ONE and the cat would be out of the bag.
This theory completely falls apart under the pretense that the Olympic wouldn’t have been able to pass the seaworthiness inspection after the repairs. If that were the case, at this point in history what would have made more sense, arrange a sinking that would hugely impact the business to get insurance money, or grease the palms of the inspectors and have all your ships making money?
Thaks the article. I had heard about the theory but seeing the details was interesting. I note Gardner doesn’t give any prime sources for his rather outlandish theory and I would have thought that far too many people would have known about it for them all to keep stum and, bearing in mind what an event a lauch was the exchange wouldn’t have been easy. As you said other ships were repaired, eg USS Yorktown quite quickly after bomb damage and then went to war. For that matter wasn’t Queen Mary repaired after sinking Curacao? And, anyway, wasn’t the real problem the fire in the bunker?
Conspiracy theories forget one thing that the Titanic’s and Olympic’s owners were well aware of: badwill after any kind of accident the press would write about and the public discuss after reading about it. A company’s goodwill is an asset that is hard to put a specific value on, nor is it shown in any balance sheet at the end of the fiscal year. Titanic’s sinking probably cost her owners and awful lot of badwill and many were probably hesitant to cross the Atlantic for some time, however, such things are usually forgotten after some time and by assurances that it is not likely to happen again.
GREAT article, watch both parts please! To anyone who puts any stock in this conspiracy theory, it is patently false. Titanic and Olympic were not identical ships- Yes, they were similar- Thomas Andrews even saw them as different vessels. These ships had different yard numbers (Olympic #400, Titanic #401) and different forward A deck promenade designs. Many windows and portholes were different in size and placement. On B deck, Titanic also had the Starboard B-51-53-55 and Port side B-52,54,56 Parlour Suites. This, including plenty of other evidence, shows each and every time that it is the RMS Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic.
All we need to do is look at the old battleships that were devested in the Pearl Harbor attack and most were repaired then went into far more perilous situations than an ocean liner would. Some even received more war damage and didn’t just fall apart. The switch theory made for good fiction which probably made the author and publisher a good sum of money.
There was a period when I was a kid, when I believed this theory. So I have a bit of a soft spot for it. Liked the O letter Easter egg hidden in THG Demo 3 for example. It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone break down this theory so it will be interesting to see your take. My personal go to argument against switch is the difference in Titanic and Olympics Deckplans. I like studying Titanic’s Deckplans so it makes sense to me and I can back it up. The insurance stuff I’m less familiar with as it’s not generally something you think about outside of a theory like this.
I live in Belfast. My Father worked in the woodworking shop working on wood paneling on all three sisters . The two ships were not identical. The covered deck and cafe on Titanic. I did the Titanic tour with a local boat company which showed tye various places associated with Titanic. If anything had been changed half of Belfast would have seen it. The workers who did the repair said that work stopped on Titanic to do the repair. With the visual differences A lot of work that could have been done would have been seen easily which did not happen also there was not of enough time to do any charges to the visual look of the ships. I have discussed this many years ago with my father’s workmates They said doing a change was impossible.
Well presented Mike. For many years I have laughed at those that claim the switch theory is true, as they have absolutely no idea that WSL lost huge amounts of money in the sinking, the damage to the Olympic was estimated at £125,000, not to mention the huge loss in reputation they would face in intentionally sinking. But people believe this stuff..
It’s fascinating to note that the Olympic carried on without Titanic for years after and almost made it into the Second World War. Feel like due to the unstable environment of the 1920s and 1930s economy and competition amongst the Cunard and WSL as well as the financial costs related to keeping the transit service competitive and profitable the ship was not at the same level as the more modern ships from Germany, Italy, or France. The introduction of the Queen Mary was also a coming-of-age moment to reinvigorate the ocean passage of the North Atlantic and bring back pride to the British especially with the Blue Ribbon and one-upmanship going on at the time.
Thank you for yet another riveting article! 😊 I had to, couldn’t let that pun escape. To make your point about how much plating needed to be replaced, at 13:30 there’s an image of a man standing next to one of the holes. Around the hole looks like a chalkoutline that for most of the hole follows the edge of the plates. Am I crazy, or aren’t those marks outlining the plates that need to be replaced? Sure as hell not 89m of bad plate. The theory is jus t rubbish. Thanks for digging into this! Can’t wait for part 2
Hilarious! The You Tube censors, human or automated, took one look at the title and Mike is immediately awarded “The Blue Banner”. Our betters are on the verge of making the very word ‘conspiracy’ illegal. Thank you, Mr. Brady, for another informative article and glad that you seem to be in better health than a week ago.
Just watched this for the second time and found it excellent. By coincidence I came across a recounting of this fraud which the author John Hamer claimed to be true just today on another YouTube website. This chap is presenting his theories as the truth but the fact that he has swallowed the Titantic/Olympic switch theory, gives me pause. I very much look forward to the next instalment. Great work.
USS West Virginia says to HMS Belfast “hold my beer!” The West Virginia took 6 torpedo hits at Pearl Harbor and the battleship was almost cut in two from the damage yet she was patched up and sailed back to the west coast of the US and not only repaired but fully modernized. I think her damage far exceeded what was inflicted on Olympic by HMS Hawke.
Read the books on the subject, and they make interesting points as regards oddities of the disaster itself, and just how EASY the swap itself could have been. But it would have also required perfect secrecy to successfully pull off and, in the entire history of human underhandedness, would be quite the trick in itself. Barratry – gross misconduct by a crew leading to the damage or sinking of their ship. By Admiralty law, one of the worst crimes a mariner could be accused of. Just how and why would Titanic’s senior officers be on board with this?
One of the things I have always said about it is in 1912 the newspapers were paying big money for any stories about the Titanic but not one of the hundreds of men working for Harland and Wolff came forward and said ” I’ve got a great story to tell you” or are we supposed to believe that J Bruce Ismay and Thomas Andrews crept into the yard one night and swapped the two ships around without anyone else noticing.
One of the main things I always poke to when I see people thing this is labeling and manufacturing. Most things meant for a destination or object, have codes and labels listed for that destination on them. IE. My old job, a pizza place in Landstowne, had benches written with numbers and “Landstowne”. Likewise, vessels have the same proccessing. Many pieces of furniture taken and seen from the wreck of the Titanic, are labeled “Titanic”. There’s no reason to swap ALL of that furniture over and parts. You’d have to take it off of one ship, set it aside, do the same with the other vessel, and then put the opposing items into each ship. That is a lot of machinery, wood, gear, and tools to swap.
I will admit. I was one of those people who believed this theory. And I was wrong for being so gullible. I was about 8 back then. I was an avid Titanic reader. At such an age I was gullible too, and when I saw a article about the swap theory, I believed it. I believed it so much that I even came up with my whole theory the reason why Titanic split into 2 was because the damage was not well repaired (go on Titanic nerds, laugh) I no longer believe this theory, but it was also this theory that turned me away from ever wanting to be interested in Titanic for quite some time. I remember encountering countless of YouTube websites who let their passion for the Titanic get in the heads, and made rude remarks about people who believed such theories. This turned me off as I was hurt as a kid. I lost all interest in the Titanic and just left. I must say that you are one of the nicest, if not the nicest, Titanic/Oceanliner designs out there. Your words “if you believed in this theory, it is alright” was very comforting to me. It is nice that even being a professional, you are welcoming to newbies and the general public wishing to learn more about the Titanic. I have seen other YouTubers talk about how the Titanic split as though it is common sense and if you can get the angle of the sinking right, you are stupid. And for those out there who are passionate about the Titanic? That is great. But please remember that what may be common sense or stupid to you, may not be to the general public. Don’t let your passion get in the way of your senses.
Hey, former conspiracy enthusiast here. I ll give you another simple point. How did they know that the fake or real Titanic would sink in advance. It took a pretty twisted series of not predictable events for the ship not only to spot the iceberg in the dark but to steer it in a most precise manner causing the deflection hit at the most vulnerable spot we all know. It is well attested that if the collision was head on she wouldn’t have sunk. .The captain had to have an underwater camera to even calculate, more less achieve the matching points of both the ship’s hull and the iceberg’s surfaces that came in touch.
Now just a note for the Titanic study group out there. Looking at the pictures Harlan Wolfe had it appears that maybe the rivets had done pretty well. At 13:24 the image is especially clear that while the plate was wadded up the rivet’s remained in place. Titanic would have had its rivets made by the same people and installed by the same people as those of Olympic. Oh, and I am not speaking of the brittle metal problem, this collision was on the 20th of September near england which would assure that the water was substantially warmer than an ice field in the North Atlantic.
Gardiner likes to make lots of bold assumptions based off of very little evidence backing them up. Do a little digging and you’re going to find it’s just unfeasible. Unfortunately, that requires a little work and too few people are willing to do that and they rather just take what they see as true, even if evidene contradicts it. Thank you for shedding some light on this topic, Mike! Hope you had a great easter, and keep up the great work Oceanliner Designs crew!
Timing is everything: 1911-09-20 Accident with Hawke 1911-10-04 Patched up, sails from Southhampton to Belfast (2 weeks after Southhampton). 1911-11-20 Fixed at Belfast, back in service (6 weeks) 1912-02-24 Problem with prop. Returns to Belfast to get a spare taken from Titanic 1912-03-20 Original first sailing of Titanic 1912-04-10 Actual first sailing of Titanic 1912-04-14 Olympic is saing eat to London at time Titanic sinks Considering the timeline, and considering Titanic’s state of completion on November 20th, it makes more sense that Olympic was fixed in 2 weeks, comprared to compressing the last 5 months of work left on Titanic into only 2 weeks. (including modifying Titanic’s interior to loo like that of Olympic. Was Titanic faster than Olympic? is there evidence that the ship that actually sank had travelled faster from Queenstown to Newfoundland than Olympic could have done? Or were both ships capable of that speed so either ship could have done that trip in that time? Since both ships were crossing Atlantic at same time on that night, it MUST mean that the Olympic had been fixed to return to regular service (with whatever name on its bow). As such White Star would have paid H&W to do the full fix. If you have 2 fully functional ships able to cross Atlantic in luxury, it does not make sense to purposefully sink one to get insurance.
The switch nonsense is an insult to my heritage. I debunked it 24 years ago in Belfast when I mentioned all of the differences in both ships and also the blatant obvious fact that the Olympic’s hull was painted white for her launch and traces of her original coat of white paint were still visible when the Olympic was scrapped. I recall the only thing that would convince the switchers was for someone to go down to the Titanic wreck and inspect the paint on her bow, because her bow is significantly buried in the mud and her paint is most certainly preserved under the mud, so all they would need to do is dig some of that mud away and her hull paint would be clearly visible, then scrub some of it away and they would see there is NO white launch paint underneath. Only then would these fools stop insulting the men of the yard. kind regards, The real Aaron1912
This is a small little detail as well that has to do with the integrity of the hull of the ships… I remember hearing from another documentary that the bolts used on “Titanic” were that of iron and not steel (or the other way around, I can’t remember) and that depending on those bolts, they played quite a significant role in the hull damage… Just thought I’d share this little detail.
Imo, Gardiner is clueless about ship design, construction, and operation. The biggest hole in his “theory” is the statement about Olympic limping along on one engine. That statement shows how he does not understand how these ships operated. The turbine cuts in when the reciprocating engines got to 50 rpm and higher. I don’t know what rpm the port reciprocating engine would have to turn to get the Olympic up to ten knots, but i’d bet it’s less than 50 rpm. As far as the keel is concerned, it simply is too far away from the damage zone to have been affected. I don’t think that the starboard propeller damage would have seriously affected the starboard reciprocating engine, the shaft thrust block would possibly have absorbed/dampened the impact.
I was perusal one of these teories that said the Titanic hit a small ship instead the iceberg, and I was like: OMG! Didn’t know that in the 1910’s they had already a big ice machine and made the ice in the deck so the passegers could play with it, as we have a large amount of testimonials indicating that a lot of people played with the ice moments later the collision.
Is there information on which 2 compartments were flooded in Olympic, and what would this have disabled? electrical generators? central turbine? Wikipedia says ship was able to travel to Southhampton under he own power, (where enough duct tape applied to let her travel to Belfast for permanent repairs). Do we know which propellor shaft was twisted? the starboard one? central one?
I read that book when it came out. Long before the wreck was found, and found it problematic for a specific reason. Having done a good deal of research on Morgan, and understood a good sense of J P Morgan Sr’s personal philosophy of integrity. I found the story problematic. As Morgan went out of his way to stop people from doing that very thing. He was so well respected, that at the time of the 1907 panic, President Theodore Roosevelt put much of the restoration of the nation’s economy in J.P. Morgan’s hands. He was a man known for his personal integrity above all others. Of course he was in business to make money, but never went below the belt to make a profit.
Belfast was adding additional sections to ships up to the 80’s and a lot of serious damage to other ships. Those who worked on this damage were still alive when that book came out and the author never bothered getting in touch. I have seen work drawings of the repair work in private hands and as you state not as serious as stated.
I keep hearing this story over and over and do all I can to debunk it. I explain how the ships looked different, how the yard number was found on prop at the wreck site, how the name was engraved on the ship’s plates, how the bridge wings which overhung the edge on Titanic, how the ship had the Cafe Parsian and other differences. Oy, the list goes on and on. Then I follow up with the logic of how in spite of top of “losing” all this money, White Star was going to spend even MORE money making the switch to make one ship look like the other and yet no one, and I mean no one, from front office to ONE yard worker said “hey, what the what what?”. Yet the reasonable items put forth, none, and I mean none of it, sways the opinions of many of these folks as they cling to the glint of a spark of supposed “facts” as they ‘know it’. I’ve studied this ship for 50 years and am NOT an expert by any measure. They get their info from Twitter and run with it as if it is from God. My god, these Titanic conspiracy theorists are at bad at the Lordites.
This conspiracy would also have to have probably at least a dozen high ranking people committing murder of potentially 2200 people. This crime, if detected would surely have meant death for the conspirators and the total dismantling of Harland and Wolf. The lawsuits alone would have completely bankrupted the company. This would not have been even criminal negligence, but premeditated murder. The whole thing is preposterous.
I await the next part. I need to know how they are going to make Olympic repairs, then switch names without anyone being the wiser.switch names and no one be the wiser. Too many people involved and too many people involved get drunk and are blabber mouths. No way in hell to keep actions like that a secret.
The thing that pokes the biggest hole (pun intended) in Gardner’s theory is a simple one; people. If that had been a cut-and-shut job at Harland and Wolff to swap Titanic and Olympic it would have required hundreds of workers to complete the task. Everything from dockyard workers, porters, ship board staff and crew. White Star Line would have either had to buy each and everyone of them off to keep quiet, making a nice dent in the finances of individuals or the company which would’ve been difficult to hide, or leave the company vulnerable to someone deciding to make a quick buck by selling a juicy but of industrial espionage to the newspapers or a rival company or individual. The only other option would’ve been to suddenly exclude most workers except for a select few who had been bought, which given Olympic needed to be repaired asap, would have again looked suspicious and got tongues wagging, rumours growing and a journalist getting wind of it. And given how much branded items were on each ship, it is almost impossible that something; a plate, a brochure or some other minor item wouldn’t have been missed. The theory is a quintessential Armchair Historian one; sound from the desk in an Oxford house, but utterly absurd in the realities of a fully-staffed dockyard and tabloids after a scoop. I’ve always thought this theory is a Titanic-romanticism; Titanic’s name and story is everyday general knowledge, but the names of her two sisters is often forgotten and so this smacks of someone wanting the tragic Titanic to have actually survived and had a long and glorious career and the ‘faceless’ Olympic to be the ship that sunk and so just conjectured and theorised until things fit.
Um, many ships that were torpedoed and sank in Pearl Harbor, which suffered massive damage, were raised, repaired, and returned to service in some cases less than a year. This is what drives me crazy about people who believe these things. If you have mich critical thinking skills they break down rather quickly. If you’re a dolt, well you are a dolt.
So….if you were going to pull this stunt, you’d naturally choose the highest profile voyage – i.e. the maiden one. Not the return leg, not one a month hence. The big one. Always good to have all eyes on you when you’re pulling a fast one. Also, if the theory is correct, the White Star Line lost a ton of money anyway, because after Oly/tanic’s sinking, the other ship was holed up in Belfast for months for refitting in light of the disaster. The number of people who’d have to be in on the conspiracy would be enormous – OK, a lot of them died, but in the event they hadn’t, that’s a lost of trust (or a lot of money) in terms of keeping them schtum. Lastly, and I don’t mean to be rude, he was a plasterer from the Midlands of England with a Titanic fixation.
The idea might sound plausible if you assume that the two ships were absolutely identical except for having different names painted on them. They weren’t, and crew and passengers who sailed on both noticed and commented on the differences. Also, you’d have to ignore the fact that Titanic was under-insured.
Hey, my friend Mike Brady! Didn’t Titanic have to be removed from Dry-Dock to allow Olympic to get these emergency repairs, greatly slowing down Titanics maiden voyage? Seen from this perspective, Olympic WAS INDEED, at least indirectly involved in Titanics demise! That Captain Smith was in command in both incidents suggests his retirement could have been pushed through a year earlier and drastically changed White Star Lines fortunes drastically!
This is one of my favorite conspiracy theories because on its face it seems plausible and its a juicy theory with all the drama and intriguing. But what’s the Ben Franklin quote, three can keep a secret if two are dead. Yeah too many people would have to be in on the conspiracy for this to be pulled off. And we all know loose lips sinks ships.
This exceeds the threshold of being able to keep the conspiracy a secret. Imagine shipyard workers getting the orders to repaint Olympic s name as Titanic your saying that none of the workers blabbed about this while drunk at a pub? Also is the fact workers at the drydocks would get suspicious imagine you are working on a ship second in its class and its older sister arrives after a collision in b dock. the next day you are told that “alright lads the night crew made unbelievable progress last night an moved the ship to b dock” . You think someone would have talked to the press about this.
This whole theory to me makes no sense. Me living on the Great Lakes have heard stories of damage ships that what Olympic was get full repaired. One famous example is the SS William C Moreland, a bulk freighter that basically got tore in 2 on a corral reef. It sat on the reef for a year and during that year the bow half sank. The stern got towed down to a dry dock and got attached to a new Bow and was back out on the lakes working when it was done. To me this sounds like a far worse and harder situation then what the Olympic went through and this would been around the same time since the Moreland hitting the reef was 1910 and the repairs weren’t done till 1911. So this theory that Olympic was damaged beyond repair when I heard stories like this on the Great Lakes just makes me dumbfounded.
Another well presented well researched piece. Shame the consiracy theory is so flimsy. If they wanted to do an insurance job on an unrepairable sgip, it would have been easier to lash up a fix on Olympic, then send it off as Olympic, and if the repair failed and it sank…claim the insurance. Then there would be grounds for conspiracy. Instead, there was simply grounds for an author to make money selling books to people who don’t have better sources of information. Like that gained from talking to an experienced maritime designer of large passenger carrying vessels. Mike…you really should release your Titanic myth debunking stuff as a book. It would doubtless be a good read, should make a few well deserved $$$ and I’d certainly grab a copy!
yhh first of all the fact that they would have needed to make some big changes to the olympic like the promenade windows. cafe parisien etc so how in blue hell they could have done that without anyone noticing anything…. and ofc they have needed to make altercations to titanic as well to pass her as olympic and again without anyone noticing anything…. pure impossibility