Did the Titanic Really Sink? The Olympic Switch Theory Debunked

[Music] in the early hours of April 15 the British passenger liner RMS Titanic owned by the White Star Line collided with an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City at the time some believed the ship to be practically unsinkable because of her system of watertight compartments of which four could be flooded and she would still remain afloat however the iceberg tore a series of holes along the side of the hull flooding six compartments which sealed the ship's fate less than three hours after the collision Titanic lay at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean or did it [Music] there's a rather interesting conspiracy out there that states that Titanic was actually stopped with her sister Olympic and that she was purposely sank as a part of an insurance scam oh yes [Music] hello the Internet it smiles here now as I've previously said no event of any significance takes place in the world without generating a flutter of conspiracy speculation and Titanic one of the most iconic ships ever to sail with this tragedy known worldwide is no exception [Music] some believe that it was sank not by an iceberg but by a torpedo from a German submarine others and this is my favorite by the way believed that a cursed mummy that the Titanic was carrying is responsible for the collision according to folklore the artifact which acquired the popular nickname the unlucky mummy has brought nothing but misfortune to those who come into contact with them however the British Museum say not only is there no truth to this but rather than resting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean the unlucky mummy which actually isn't a mummy at all is currently on display in their Egyptian section but by far the most popular conspiracy out there regarding the Titanic comes from this chap here Robin Gardner and his book Titanic the ship that never sank where he theorizes as I said at the beginning the Titanic was actually swapped with Olympic and that she was purposely sank as an insurance scam to say reading the book is tedious would be a huge understatement it is quite possibly one of the most boring conspiracy books I've ever read now the reason for that is because it is mostly filler only a very small percentage of this book is actually dedicated to the actual conspiracy and I think that's to hide the fact that there isn't hardly any evidence for this conspiracy to show you how boring it is look look at this this entire page dedicated to the provisions on board the Titanic which has nothing to do with the conspiracy cases the book theorizes that a switch took place after olympic was damaged in 1911 when it collided with the HMS Hawke the collision happened as the two ships were sailing parallel to one another when according to the subsequent Royal Navy inquiry the Hawke was pulled towards Olympic due to her large displacement the Hawke's bow which was designed to sink ships by ramming into them punctured Olympic starboard side both above and below the water flooding two of her watertight compartments and twisting her propeller shaft engineers spent two weeks patching her up before she limped back to Belfast for further repairs according to the book this is where it's discovered that the damage to Olympic actually far greater than anyone imagined apparently her keel had been warped giving her a constant list and the repairs necessary to correct this will be totally own economic --all now by this time she'd only made four journeys to and from Southampton to New York so the White Star Line were facing at least according to the book a massive loss here it was at this time that a plan was hatched to not only replace Olympic with a fully working ship but also to claim the insurance of a brand new ship now all they had to do was swap Olympic with her sister ship Titanic staged an accident and sink her and then claim on the insurance genius Olympic and Titanic are almost identical with the majority of objects being standard white star issue the very few items that bore the name of the ship they were on like lifeboats bells and name plates according to the book could easily be removed and swapped with one another once the swap was complete the plan was then to sink Olympic disguised as Titanic on the way from Southampton to New York close to the site chosen to stage the accident was the SS Californian who was tasked with picking up survivors however whilst faking the sinking of Olympic disguised as Titanic apparently they accidentally sank her that's quite a fail really so according to the book and this is where it gets a little bit confusing there was another ship involved so we have Olympic disguises Titanic we have the Californian that has just round the road and then we have a third ship a smaller ship that apparently crashed into the Olympic it wasn't an iceberg it was this third smaller ship now it went off limping away and it fired its distress rockets now the Californian that was tasked with picking up survivors saw these distress roster rockets and was a little confused was like what's going on here and then that's why it didn't come to the help of the Olympic disguises of Titanic this is just a massive mess but apparently that's what happened [Music] don't they see us Naza there was a light flashing but it must have come from their masters this conclusion however didn't make it into the documentary based on the book Titanic the shocking truth I am just burning my money hero nay anyway according to the documentary everything conspiracy wise is the same up until the collision now the documentary says yes indeed it did hit an iceberg but there was some confusion with the Californian who was actually there to pick up survivors it saw another ship that was in distress that it doesn't go into detail what ship it was but apparently this is where all the confusion happened and why the Californian didn't come to rescue people on the Titanic look like a rocket sir yeah I wonder what a ship like that with one estar rocket for technical issues make the documentary almost unwatchable and despite being less than an hour long I really struggle to make it to the end a lot like the book now it's not helped by the fact that and this is gonna sound really mean the narrator Peter Willis looks he's an interesting looking gentleman and to quote my good mate James gurney he thinks he looks like in Alien wearing a human mask Titanic costs 10 million dollars to build and as a brand new ship would have been insurable for that amount and more the Olympic on the other hand damaged beyond economic repair would only have been insurable for a much smaller amount a motive for switching the ships is clear bitchiness aside there's another thing that you might have noticed in that clip I showed you right there the audio has all been dubbed over now presumably they had massive issues with their audio so they had to get Peter Willis back in the studio but those things combined his unusual features and this kind of off audio it has this really uncanny valley kind of esque to it is it just me who thinks I am I just a horrible person for all its failings the documentary was actually a pretty decent job at presenting the evidence put forward by the book the wrists which actually took place now some of this evidence is I'm not gonna lie I'm pretty piss-poor but I've decided to go after what I consider to be the five strongest pieces of evidence and I'm gonna debunk them all so let's start off with number five Olympic and Titanic were practically on identical so according to both the book and the documentary Titanic and Olympic were identical and therefore a switch would have been easy because all you have to do is take a few lifeboats a few plates a few bells and just swap them over in fact you could have done it in I kid you not in a weekend according to the documentary switching the two ships would have been a remarkably simple undertaking there were no members of the press poking around or roving TV crews looking for a story even photography was in its infancy at the time and generally people believed what they were told to be the truth all crockery linen and so on was white star standard-issue interchangeable from ship to ship [Music] letterheads of menus etc were styled to the particular ship but could easily have been changed only the names on the boughs and Stern's of the ships the name plates on the lifeboats and 48 life belts would have to be swapped this could easily have been achieved using a very small crew literally over a weekend and it's highly unlikely that anyone would have noticed a switch when they returned to work on Monday morning at first glance Olympic and Titanic seem identical after all they were constructed from the same set of plans however a number of improvements were made to Titanic june olympics construction and after her maiden voyage many of these differences were structural meaning that any switch would have to be extensive time-consuming and very expensive for example the forward half of a deck on Titanic was enclosed with glass screens whereas Olympics deck was open the two ships also have very different spacing between their windows on B deck which also on Titanic go back further V deck internally was also drastically different on both ships with Olympic having a promenade whereas Titanic had rooms that were flushed to the side of the ship as I said the documentary says that the switch could be done using a handful of men over a couple of days but to give credit where credit is due the book actually acknowledges that major changes will be needed but doesn't go into much detail about these changes or how hard it would be to do or the number of people required to make these changes no it doesn't mention any of that because if it did it would just all fall apart both the documentary in the book mentioned one thing that apparently those that were tasked with swapping the two ships over totally forgot about and that is the number of portholes on each ship on the forward part of c-deck Olympic was built with 16 portholes the Titanic with 14 somewhat mysteriously the Titanic has acquired two extra portals between its launch and its maiden voyage this clearly points to the possibility that the two ships were switched I launched Titanic did indeed only have fourteen portholes on her portside on c-deck however in December 1911 during her fit out she had to added two like crew galleys and a washroom what's interesting is that this time Olympic also only had fourteen portholes and it was not until March 1912 after the Titanic that two additional portholes were added hence why post Titanic sinking images of Olympic also have this sixteen porthole configuration now this part the conspiracy you always confuse me because but I think they've missed a perfect opportunity here to convince people that a switch actually took place I mean for example we know that Titanic had 16 portholes when she set sail from Southampton to New York but just beforehand Olympic only had 14 and it was until after the sinking that you see Olympic with 16 so you should say that hey Titanic had 16 Olympic had 14 but then whoa after the switch suddenly Olympic had 16 that's what you need to do you've missed a brilliant opportunity there documentary and book for keeping the swamp secret so we all know that actors that star in low-budget documentaries are pretty much never gonna win an Oscar anytime soon however there is a scene in Titanic the shocking truth that takes us bad acting and turns it up to 11 it's absolutely fantastic now the scene takes place whilst the documentary is trying to describe how so many people could keep this secret secret and it stars two guys two Irish dog walkers in a when one of them starts talking to the other one about how he knows the two ships have been swapped then suddenly this guy grabs him and it's really it is it's it's just marvelous you have to see it there's a we spam going on here and the buses are in on it they switch those ships two weeks ago and I knew it listen to me puddy any more talk from you about two ships being swapped over and you'll end up at the bottom of the river lagan so remember that when you get back to your wife in your 17 kids you Irish scum do you see what I mean it's just hilarious remember that when you go back to your wife and your 17 kids yet hi ray gum I can imagine them reading the script have been like okay that I I know how am I gonna act this I know completely over the top and ridiculous that's how I'm gonna write it now looking past how ridiculously bad this acting is and how jarring this scene is with the rest of the documentary are we really meant to believe that all the people involved kept this secret to their deathbed are we really meant to believe that because this is what the documentary and what the book is saying now let's not forget to make the changes between the two would take a hell of a lot more than a handful of people and a couple of days you're talking about hundreds if not thousands of people to make the change and let's also not forget that the launch of these two ships Titanic which was because of her weight the biggest ship out there had a lot of press coverage so there are people who from the press who were monitoring all this did we keep them secret what about the people who weren't affiliated with the shipbuilders or the White Star Line who just lived in Belfast and saw that hey why they're making one ship look like the other did we keep them secret as well it's it's lazy conspiracy 101 when people can't explain how so many people must be kept secret on a massive conspiracy they just say they've all been paid off or they've all been threatened it's laziness and quite frankly conspiracy theorists you need to you know eat up your game three Titanic propeller was found at chipwrecked so you're probably thinking what so yeah if Titanic sank you'd expect to find her propeller at the shipwreck well not according to the book in documentary in order to get the Olympic back to sea and earning a profit as soon as possible the starboard propeller stamped with the Titanic's number 401 and not yet fitted to the Titanic was fitted to the Olympic this is a fact of some considerable significance as we shall find out later according to them olympic starboard propeller was badly damaged after the collision with the hawk and needed replacing when she arrived back at belfast all resources were pulled from titanic in order to return her back to service as soon as possible to speed up repairs the decision was made to install propeller on Olympic that originally was going to be for the Titanic when the wreck of the Titanic was discovered in 1985 pictures were taken of her starboard propeller and revealed the Titanic's yard number 401 on the blade this was the same blade given to Olympic after the accident with the Hawke and therefore the ship at the bottom of the ocean is not Titanic examination of the starboard propeller reveals the number oh one is stamped into the metal in fence there was too much corrosion to make out the number four clearly but remember the starboard propeller numbered 401 for the Titanic was put on the Olympic as part of the repairs after the collision with the Hawke in reality the collision with the Hulk damaged Olympics propeller shaft and not her propeller a replacement was taken from Titanic allowing repairs to the Olympic to be finished within six weeks it was a few months after the accident with the Hawke that Olympic damaged one of her propellers which also needed to be replaced however this time they could not simply take Titanic's as the two ships had different pitch propeller blades not that they would need to because Olympic had spares like Titanic in fact Titanic's spare propeller was turned into memorials Titanic on her maiden voyage was listing to port according to the book and documentary after the collision with the Hawke Olympic was listing to port and coincidentally the ship that left Southampton that was meant to be the Titanic on her maiden voyage was also listing to port now this is actually correct and it's mentioned by survivors of the disaster and you can also see in pictures taken of the ship leaving Southampton it's not unusual for ships even today to have a slight list due to improper balancing however Olympic didn't have a list because her keel wasn't walked by the incident with the hope and in fact she operated four months after the incident with the Hawke and before Titanic's maiden voyage conspiracy theorists never talk about this or explain it for the switch conspiracy to work you have to ignore the timing of events and the fact that Olympic was operating for months between her accident and before the damage to her propeller forced her back home to Belfast it is here where the switch apparently took place because up until this point not only was Titanic not complete but previous repairs to Olympic caused her maiden voyage to be delayed so if the accident with the Hawke damaged Olympics keel so badly that she was unseaworthy and the Titanic wouldn't be finished for a few months and wouldn't be seaworthy herself what was making the journey to and from America and England I don't know letters fall off the shipwreck to reveal the name Olympic okay right this one has to be seen to believed watch this and finally a close look at the bow could reveal the most damning evidence of all in 1986 the French National Oceanographic Institute examined the wreck with dr. Robert Ballard one of the things they checked was the name of the ship in keeping with white star tradition both ships had their names engraved into the upper ballots in letters for foot-high examination of the wreck and the name Titanic shows that it is made of iron letters which have been riveted onto the original power plates with the passage of time two of the letters have dropped off and been lost forever in the sediment of the seabed at the place where they once were engraved into the hull other letters M and P [Music] I mean yeah who are they trying to kid who are they trying to kid with this really poor CGI even poor for the late 90s early 2000s I mean they are fabricating evidence they commissioned someone to make this for this documentary I mean I know it's not unusual for conspiracy theorists to fabricate data but bloody hell usually there are a lot more competent at it than this this is well I no I said laughable quite a lot when I want to totally have a go at someone but this is laughable as in I was laughing my bloody arse off watching this thinking come on guys come on you know have you you know have a bit of respect for yourself normally white star line when they insured their ships took on part of the risk themselves and it was at first thought that Lloyds of London would only be liable for seven and a half million dollars not so for just one week before the maiden voyage of the Titanic which we now know was in fact the Olympic white star line upped their insurance on the vessel dramatically and incredibly just five days after the sinking Lloyd's paid out twelve and a half million dollars final nail on the coffin for this conspiracy is that the ship that sets sail that day and sank on the way to New York was underinsured by 2.5 million u.s. dollars Titanic cost approximately 7.5 million dollars to build yet was only insured for a value of 5 million this resulted in heavy losses for the company and I'm not sure how anyone could look at these facts and come to the conclusion that the Titanic was an insurance scam it's easy to forget when talking about the Titanic that it was an actual disaster where over 1,500 people were so long and I think a lot of people do forget that for example I went to the actual Titanic Museum in Belfast last year and they had adverts for a Titanic themed wedding that you could have there in the museum so first of all that's kind of on the disrespectful one weird side second of all that's a bad omen if I've ever heard of one now like so many conspiracy theories that are based on historical events we shouldn't allow these peoples history to be rewritten or distorted and every time something like this pops up we should whack it down with facts and evidence now according to the book and the documentary it was the Olympic that sank that night back in 1912 I don't think it is at least not with the evidence that you've put forward in these - right so I'm gonna go goodbye Internet so you are at the end of the video and it's gonna say thank you to watching it to the end and a big thank you to all the people who've been supporting me on patreon because of you guys I'm able to afford crap like this book in DVD that was the entire basis of this video so thank you very much I remember if you're a top-tier preacher on or whatever you call them I send you crap in the post so I hopefully you guys have been enjoying that over the last few months and yet right I'm gonna go so I'll see you guys when I see next goodbye Internet

Channel: Myles Power

Views: 807,925

Rating: 4.6143956 out of 5

Keywords: Titanic, Olympic, insurance scam, Belfast, Peter Willis, Titanic: The Shocking Truth, Titanic: The Ship That Never Sank, Robin Gardiner, conspiracy, HMS Hawke, Identical, Propeller, Listing, Shipwreck

Id: _mpLRCqQ620

Length: 22min 35sec (1355 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 26 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/tsdguy]

What a waste of electrons.

[u/[deleted]]

Why the fuck would anyone do this?

The Titanic was the second of the three Olympic class ships, it wasn’t any more noteworthy than the Olympic until after it sank.

[u/[deleted]]

Did you really crash your car? What if someone swapped it with another one of the same make and model?