Evidence The Titanic Was Sunk on Purpose

everyone knows the story of the titanic how the largest moving object ever fashioned by the hand of man hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank in the middle of the north atlantic one thousand five hundred lives were lost the tragedy has been well documented in books and on film no matter how often the story is told it never fails to capture our imagination yet it is a story that has left many questions unanswered now for the first time we take a fresh look at some of the mysteries surrounding the titanic and reveal evidence that leads to a compelling and shocking hypothesis that the ship that plummeted two miles to the bottom of the sea was not the titanic but its sister ship the olympic so the titanic and the olympic were built for the white star line by belfast shipbuilders harland and wolff whose chairman was lord perry harland and wolfe built ships almost exclusively for the white star line which was acquired in 1903 by american financier j pierpont morgan's international mercantile marine this was part of a drive to create a monopoly on the lucrative north atlantic passenger trade chairman of the white star line was j bruce ismae it was in fact lord piri who was responsible for bringing together morgan's money and british engineering excellence over dinner at piri's london residence in 1907 lord piri and white star line's bruce ismey conceived the idea of building three luxurious super liners first the first of the new ships olympic and titanic were to be virtually identical this represented the white star line survival strategy in the highly competitive north atlantic passenger market while also ensuring a bright future for the harland and wolf shipyard as well as holding a large financial stake in harland and wolf lord perry was a shareholder in the white star line and the international mercantile marine almost all passenger liners on the north atlantic route in the early part of the 20th century were immigrant ships in poor condition many were known as coffin ships and their owners blatantly overloaded and over insured their vessels in fact it was an industry noted at the time for fraud on the 14th of june 1911 the olympic made her maiden voyage under the command of captain edward j smith commodore of the white star line then just a week later still under the command of edward smith the olympic was involved in a stern collision with the tug o el hallenbeck in new york an accident that nearly caused the tug to sink barely three months later on the 20th of september 1911 the olympics still under the command of captain smith was involved in yet another collision this time with the british warship hms hawk in the brambles channel in southampton water it was a serious collision which was to seal the fate of the olympic pulled in by the suction from the olympics great propellers the hawk is irresistibly drawn towards the larger vessel and the two ships collide the hawks underwater ram and boughs strike and penetrate the starboard side of the olympic causing a triangular hole several meters high and an even larger hole below the water line any accident involving a royal naval ship was investigated by the admiralty who not surprisingly in this case found that the olympic was at fault even though the evidence including eyewitness accounts suggested otherwise as a consequence of this ruling the white star's insurers declined to pay out on the claim the damage done to the olympic was severe besides being held both above and below the water line she sustained numerous other injuries including steel frames buckled thousands of rivets popped steel plating dislodged over four decks and distortion to the starboard propeller and crankshaft to make matters worse the keel was bent giving the ship a pronounced list to port interestingly enough when six months later the ship which came to be known as the titanic made her maiden voyage out of southampton second-class passenger lawrence beasley a science teacher noted that the ship seemed to have a slight but permanent list to port on the first part of the voyage a fact noted by several other surviving passengers the great hull was patched up in southampton by riveting steel plates below the water line and reinforcing with wooden beams above this work took over two weeks suggesting just how serious the damage was in october 1911 with these temporary repair works in place the olympic then limped back to the harlem wolf shipyard in belfast for more permanent repairs to be done in fact some of those temporary repairs failed during the voyage to belfast by the way remember that although this is a model of the olympic the two ships were virtually identical it's this fact which made a conspiracy feasible a conspiracy of monumental proportions the starboard propeller is going to have to be replaced and the crankshaft is damaged there's a crack between the arm and the shaft but worse the keel is bent that's going to give her a permanent lift to port and there's no way we can correct that you're going to have to cut the ship in half insert a new frame and then put it all back together again the job is going to take months and frankly for what it's going to cost i think it's simply a waste of time can you not just patch her up until titanic is ready well we could put in a bulkhead to strengthen her but to be honest sir she will never pass another board of trade inspection in belfast the titanic was nearing completion but all work on her stopped so that every other could be put into the repair of the olympic this work took seven weeks instead of the two weeks originally planned and involved replacing steel plates along fully one third of the starboard side of the ship another indication that the damage was far worse than was originally thought now look at this this is a film of the olympic backing out of the dock in new york you can see where she's been patched up on her starboard side it's a huge area and that's just the damage above the water line 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 the olympics troubles however were only just beginning after leaving new york harbor on the 24th of february 1912 she ran over a sunken wreck off the ground banks and threw a propeller blade again on this starboard side the loss of the propeller blade shock loaded the engine and driveshaft and placed enormous stresses on the already weakened liner she limped back to southampton on only one engine arriving there on the 28th of february by the 2nd of march she was once again in the thompson dry dock in belfast having her propeller blade replaced this should have taken only a few hours but the olympic was there in belfast until the 7th of march in belfast the titanic and the olympic were most often birthed side by side and were regularly moved in and out of the thompson drydock especially during repairs to the olympic on close examination of contemporary archive photographs it is possible to see the minor differences in design that till the two ships apart 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 at the time of titanic's launch the windows on b deck are clearly discernible as being evenly spaced yet at the time of her maiden voyage they have taken on a distinctly uneven appearance and whereas the olympic had been open to the public for inspection in belfast and liverpool titanic was not that first week in march 1912 was the last time that the olympic and titanic were together in belfast the twin ships side by side on the river lagoon and that was when the decision to switch them could have been made you can't be serious olympic and titanic are exactly the same no one will know we've switched them when they get back to work on monday morning they'll just swap the names everything else is standard white star issue i have some boys at the yard who'll do the job for a couple of hundred pounds each say nothing we'll never get away with it if word of this gets out it's either that is me we both go down white star line and this yard there's got to be another way there isn't we have no choice right that's it then 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 letterheads and menus etc were styled to the particular ship but could easily have been changed only the names on the bows and sterns of the ships the nameplates 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 white star often used photographs both exterior and interior of the olympic as the titanic in their advertisements and press releases both ships had tiled and linoleum flooring yet just days before titanic's maiden voyage ismay chairman of the white star line ordered her floors to be carpeted was this to cover olympics worn linoleum floors the harland wolf yard was a vast labyrinth of buildings and workshops as well as machinery and ships in various stages of completion any unusual activity would hardly be noticed the social order of the day was such that the majority of the workers would never have thought to question their betters they lived in a time when the majority of the population were told what to think where to go what to do and when to do it it was also a lot easier in the early years of the century to bribe or even bully men into towing the company line as we shall see when the surviving crew members returned to britain there was no social security safety net for the unemployed and companies had the power to dismiss whole families of workers if one of them did not do as he was told there's a wii scan going on here and the buses are in on it they switched those ships two weeks ago and i know it listen to me paddy any more talk from you about two ships being swapped over and you'll end up at the bottom of the river legend so remember that when you get back to your wife and your 17 kids you irish scum the olympics original sea trials conducted by the border trade lasted two full days while the ship was put through its paces strangely the titanic sea trials were a most peremptory affair no strenuous maneuvers were carried out and the inspection was over in time for lunch of course by now the switch had taken place the collision between the olympic and hms hawk was by no means captain smith's first incident at sea in fact he had one of the worst professional records of his day the commodore of the white star line was a show-off who liked to drive his ships as though they were giant speed boats and he damaged a few in his time the three incidents involving the olympic which probably damaged her permanently must have put him in a very serious position in the eyes of his employers could he perhaps have been summoned by j bruce ismay chairman of the white star line once it became obvious that the olympic was a write-off if so it would have been a meeting with the very gravest of consequences oh come now ej we've always been good to you kept you in brandy and cigars besides it's not going to be that difficult you've broken a few of our ships ej the republic the germanic the coptic and when that fire broke out in the majestic and those crewmen were killed yes i know you denied it had ever happened but we did know we gave you command of the olympic and look what a disaster that's turned out to be and we always paid you well ej look it's not for me it's for the company we are in a desperate situation financially especially after what happened to the olympic so i'm sorry to have to put it to you like this but you do owe us we've arranged for a small steamer from the leyland line to be in a position to take the passengers off i have a good man lined up for the job lord captain stanley lord ever come across him well he's done this sort of thing before well he did the job so well he received a commendation for it so there it is he'll be there to lend a hand and i'll be there of course along for the ride all right then i want to choose my own offices yes of course ej man you can trust it at the time of titanic's maiden voyage britain was in the grip of a coal strike fuel was in short supply and ships and men were laid up in southampton and yet white star line had difficulty finding firemen and greasers to work below decks on the titanic after steaming from belfast to southampton all but two of the firemen aboard the ill-fated liner refused to sign up again in southampton for the voyage across the atlantic preferring to wait for employment on another ship all these men in the middle of a cold strike with so many thousands laid off what did they know shortly before titanic sailed chief officer wilde who was to lose his light three nights later wrote a letter to his sister in which he said i still don't like this strange thing for a man to say who had just set foot on board the day before unless of course he realized he was actually on his old ship olympic it's strange to think that as the olympic now renamed the titanic was preparing to make her second maiden voyage the ship that started art life as the titanic and was now called the olympic had to enter her working life with no fanfare at all the olympics original maiden voyage was fully subscribed whereas her second this time as the titanic was only about half full and that in the middle of a cold strike when passengers were queuing up to get to america first class passengers on other white star ships were only offered second-class berths on titanic even though we know that first-class cabins were available it's almost as though white star line didn't want that many people on board by the way when i refer to the titanic from this time on i want you to remember that i'm actually talking about the ship that started out its life as the olympic but which we believe by this stage had been switched and taken on the identity of the titanic the coal strike is important for another possibly more sinister reason most other ships were desperate for coal and passengers and cargo destined for the new world was stuck in europe yet the layland liner californian under the command of captain stanley lord left the port of london on the 5th of april 1912 just five days before titanic's departure from southampton not only fully cold but apart from her own crew empty of passengers with more than enough coal to get her to the united states she headed off into the middle of the atlantic at full speed empty apart from a cargo of woolen sweaters over 50 mostly first-class passengers cancelled their passages on the titanic at the last minute many of them close friends and business associates of jp morgan morgan himself cancelled his passage at the 11th hour despite having the best sweet on the ship claiming illness two days after the sinking an american reporter found him in perfect health at the french resort of ex-lay bear with his mistress morgan also had several valuable bronze statues which he was planning to import to the united states taken off the titanic an hour before she sailed could morgan have known the fate of the titanic fully four days before the disaster florence ismay wife of j bruce's may also turned down the opportunity of taking the maiden voyage on the world's most luxurious lineup instead to take their children on a motoring holiday after first claiming ill health now there is one thing that sailors fear above all else and that is fire at sea and yet when titanic cast off from southampton there was a fire smoldering in number 10 coal bunker instead of putting out the fire the bunker was actually topped up with 400 tons of coal captain smith knew it the ship's officers and chief engineer knew it as did those who worked half-heartedly to put it out the fire that had been smoldering in coal bunker number 10 had been smoldering for a week and yet it was kept from the board of trade inspector maurice harvey clark who had the british inquiry denied all knowledge of it could the fire in coal bunker number 10 have been plan b if all else fails tell the passengers there's a fire then the smoke through the ship and get them off that way captain stanley lord and the californian had left the port of london in a great hurry ostensibly bound for boston then on the evening of the 14th of april the ship came to a dead stop in the middle of the ice field strangely captain lord six foot tall elected to sleep that night fully clothed on a five and a half foot couch in the chat room rather than in his cabin he also ordered her boilers to be kept fired up and her engines on standby why was he expecting some sort of emergency that might mean a last-minute dash into the night that evening the titanic received six radio messages the first three were from other ships giving the location of icebergs the other three were from the californian more concerned with giving her own position stopped for the night those three were personally addressed to captain smith it's almost as if captain lord was letting smith know that the californian was ready and waiting smith had delayed turning the corner on the outward southern track he ordered the turn to the west 10 miles further south than the normal turning point this was certainly not as an evasive measure to avoid the ice field but one designed to take him directly into it he must have known this tragically captain lord failed to keep his radio operator awake even so the californians last message to the titanic never got there the titanic's radio operators were too busy with passengers messages it was standard practice of the day for captains to run their ships at full speed through the ice field any object large enough to damage an iron steamship would be seen in plenty of time to avoid it other ships in the vicinity cruised on at full speed on that night so in that respect captain smith was by no means unique so why then was the californian stopped had she reached her destination and was she now waiting sometime before 11 pm lookouts fred fleet and reginald lee came on watch and climbed to the crow's nest captain smith retired for the night but coincidentally like stanley lord he also chose to rest fully clothed not in his own cabin but in the chat room behind the bridge almost as if he expected to be called back to the bridge at any moment it was very cold outside and few if any passengers would have been on deck first officer murdoch was standing on the open part of the starboard side of the bridge when he saw the iceberg about 800 yards ahead he ordered the ship turned to port and inexplicably engines full of stern by reversing the engines murdock was actually increasing the risk of collision something he must have known maybe murdoch and picked by captain smith was deciding to give the iceberg a nudge anyway given that the turning circle of the titanic was 1280 yards and the stopping distance 850 yards titanic should have been able to avoid the iceberg with the greatest of ease even allowing for a slight delay while orders were given and the wheel turned the ship to port so why didn't it second officer lightholler told the inquiry that before going off duty for the night he would have been easily able to see an iceberg from a mile and a half more probably two miles away he also said that the iceberg would have been just as visible from the bridge as from the crow's nest plenty of time to turn and avoid it then in an emergency such as this it was never a good idea to turn your broadside to danger even if titanic had ran the iceberg head-on it would have stayed afloat although up to 250 crewmen would have been killed while they slipped in their bunks apart from those on the bridge and of course those in the forward boiler rooms the glancing blow with the iceberg would have passed virtually unnoticed the vibration felt by some of the passengers was almost certainly that caused by the reversing of the engines and by the time anyone noticed what had happened the iceberg had slipped away into the night captain smith was on the bridge in a matter of seconds but instead of a general call to stations his officers acted as though there were no emergency at all second officer light hollow awakened by the sound of steam letting off claims to have stayed in his cabin until another officer came to get him his evidence later to the effect that he had stayed there because he was off duty and thought he should stay where he would expect to be found simply does not ring true the bridge was only a few seconds walk from his cabin in the office's quarters and he should have gone straight there at the first hint of trouble so why didn't he a few passengers came out of their cabins to see why the engines had stopped but for the first 40 minutes after the collision there was really no sense of danger at all one can understand this frame of mind on the part of the passengers even on the part of the crew except for those who were dousing the fires in boiler rooms five and six after all they thought they were on an unsinkable ship but for the captain and the officers who were in full possession of the facts there is really no excuse they dithered because they expected to be rescued it was 35 minutes before the first distress signal was sent 35 minutes before the first radio emergency cqd was sent 45 minutes before starting the pumps 45 minutes before starting to prepare the lifeboats and a full hour and 25 minutes before the first one was launched only six crew members were on watch at the time titanic struck the iceberg first officer murdoch and sixth officer moody were later drowned of the surviving crew members quartermaster alfred oliver was after the bridge at the time and saw nothing helmsman robert hitchens was hastily transferred to a job as harbour master in cape town which leaves lookouts frederick fleet and reginald lee at the british inquiry as a witness frederick fleet was clearly defensive edgy obviously didn't trust his questioners and at times was downright surly but then he was under the watchful gaze of j bruce ismay the chairman of the white star line and the lawyers i'm no judge of distances or spaces was it a mile away or how far away it wasn't i cannot say can you not give any estimates no was it half a mile i cannot say it was impossible to tell was it as far away as the boat's length i could not say can you not say anything about it no sir you really do not understand that gentleman is not trying to get around you at all some of them are though is there any more like me when titanic came to a rest captain smith asked the fourth officer joseph grove's boxer to work out a position it is clear from the records the titanic's navigator worked out a position that was 12 miles away from where they actually were this was to prove a fatal mistake we know he was 12 miles out in his calculations because of the actual location of the wreck the position that vauxhall gave would have put the titanic within sight of the californian was that where he thought he should have been for some reason captain smith ordered the titanic to move half speed ahead for another five minutes before stopping the engines again for the last time maybe he was heading towards the ship whose lights could just be made out on the horizon expecting it to be the california several survivors mentioned the sighting of a ship about five or six miles from the titanic the titanic could easily have steamed there yet smith was content to assume the ship would sail over to him because he believed it was the californian at this point let's examine what's happened so far a stricken ocean liner is dead in the water a rescue ship the californian is standing by messages have been sent to captain smith from the californian stating exactly where she is waiting captain smith can see a stationary ship on the horizon and having received inaccurate information from fourth officer boxer as to his position he assumes it's the californian and everything's going according to plan at about midnight titanic started sending up her distress rockets red white and blue rockets could also be seen from the bridge of the californian and this was duly reported to captain lord captain lord asked what color the rockets were in fact over the next two hours lord repeatedly asked his officers about the color of the rockets was he expecting to see red or blue signals very likely but whether he was or not the answer from the bridge was always the same only white rockets could be seen he therefore rightly assumed that the rockets were not coming from the titanic survivors reported that the rockets launched from the bridge of the titanic soared up several hundred feet into the night sky bursting with an ear splitting report the rockets from the ship that was visible from the californian only went as high as the top of her mast and even at four to five miles distant the officers would have quite reasonably expected to hear a report but they heard nothing it seems most likely that the ship seen from the californian was a wooden sailing bark called the samson conducting illegal seal fishing activities on the ice floes at the time the white rockets she was firing to mast height only were intended to recall her small rowing boats a few months after the disaster the captain of the samson said that he had also seen a large liner firing rockets and that he had not gone to investigate because of his own illegal activities the californians apprentice gibson later testified that he saw only eight rockets fired from the ship and all white the titanic had fired at least 18 possibly as many as 22 and had included red and blue titanic survivor miss edith russell said the officers told them all don't worry the californian will pick everybody up if you don't come back for breakfast how could they possibly have known it was the californian it's hard to believe in such an emergency but they were letting lifeboats go half full they knew the ship was sinking nobody could be that stupid but they expected the ship on the horizon to come steaming over but it was the wrong ship the californian was 19 miles away where captain stanley lord waited for colored rockets at around 1am it must finally have dawned on captain smith that the rescue upon which the survival of so many depended was not going to materialize now boats are being let go full and passengers are beginning to panic as the senior surviving officer much credence and publicity was given to the evidence of second officer light holler i did not leave the titanic sir the titanic left me he was evasive in response to pertinent question at the american and british inquiries out to protect first and foremost his own reputation and then that of the white star line at the british inquiry he claimed the titanic began her turn to port before the lookout dragged down from the crow's nest how would he have known this he said he was in his cabin at the time lightholer also said at the american inquiry there was no mist ten minutes before the ship struck berg flatly contradicting the evidence of the two lookouts and how would he have known this if he was in his cabin he also lied about the number of ice warnings received on the bridge as if to suggest that the iceberg came as a surprise i do not remember any ice warnings being posted on the bridge lightholder along with second radio operator harold bride and ships baker charles joffin all claimed that after getting off the titanic they stayed in the water for up to an hour i was in the water for between half an hour and an hour before i climbed aboard the upturned collapsible twenty of us spent most of the rest of that night balancing on the upturned boat while i gave the orders lean left lean right this is quite clearly not possible we know that the sea temperature that night was between two and three degrees below freezing average life expectancy at that temperature between three and four minutes this testimony would simply not stand up today it is quite clearly fabrication just before 5 30 on that fateful morning captain stanley lord woke his radio operator only to discover that the titanic had already sunk he set off at full steam for the wreck site but of course he was too late the carpathia had already arrived and was picking up survivors notable amongst these was jay bruce ismay who had slipped into a lifeboat at the last minute for this he was to pay the price in public shame for the rest of his life as the carpathia steamed towards new york ismae was supposedly taken to the doctor's cabin and put under sedation even so he managed to find time to send three separate telegrams to the white star's new york office urging them to hold the cedric in new york harbor so that the titanic surviving crew members could be taken straight back to southampton hastily organized the american inquiry failed to ask the right questions titanic surviving officers stonewalled as did is may himself several experienced sea captains were called to give evidence regarding the wisdom of steaming at full speed through an ice field but they all said the same thing maintaining full speed in the vicinity of ice was perfectly normal and on the night in question the icebergs could be seen at between five and six miles distant it never occurred to anyone to ask the simple question in that case why did the titanic hit an iceberg when the surviving crew got back to england they naturally expected to go straight home to their loved ones instead they were all herded into a railway shed and held for nearly 24 hours before being made to sign pieces of paper a lot of them were under the impression that they were signing the official secrets act was someone trying to suppress something here some vital piece of information remember what it is you've put your names to if there's any talk of the ship being swapped in belfast or any stories of insurance fraud going on then there will be 20 years of his majesty's pleasure awaiting you and no job to come out to when it's over so think on this when you see your wives and sweethearts isme lighthole and the other surviving officers all came back to england on the steamship adriatic there can be little doubt as to the main subject of conversation on their voyage they were all to be star witnesses in the forthcoming british inquiry now it is unlikely that a fraud of such immense proportions could have been undertaken without the collusion of the authorities notably the british government as we shall see later when we look at the inquiry in fact it makes perfect sense for the government of the day under prime minister lord askwith to have colluded in a cover-up you'll never believe what they've just done how many i'm told 1500. the position is simply this prime minister the white star line is on the verge of bankruptcy now if white star were forced to go into liquidation the holland and gulf yard in belfast will also be placed in a very precarious position perhaps even forced to close down now that means that 20 000 men will be laid off not to mention the effect on all the subsidiary and dependent industries quite frankly it is a political situation we cannot afford prime minister alienate the irish and we will most certainly lose seats in belfast the fenians the republicans will seize the opportunity and with our majority gone we will undoubtedly lose the next election prime minister there is the chance of a blundy here of unprecedented proportions we are going to have to go along with this prime minister i will not see a stain put upon the british government not for the white star line not for holland and wolf not for the irish and certainly not for the interests of jp morgan i would also remind you prime minister that as part of the arrangement for an american company to acquire the white star line jp morgan agreed that this government could requisition his ships as royal naval reserves should the need arise i would also remind you prime minister that the situation in europe is becoming ever more doubtful if the white star line were to go into liquidation the major creditor would be jp morgan himself now as both owner and banker he would certainly exercise his rights to seize his assets and we would lose all those ships prime minister it's a sad day for england when the policies of a british government are dictated by greedy and ruthless businessmen and if it ever became public doubtless you have someone in mind to run the show yes i thought we could bring mercy out of retirement he's reliable he knows how the system works he's discreet and he will do what needs to be done my son is called to the bar would be more comfortable if he were there to keep an eye on things of course prime minister will find employment for him in the attorney general's office but neither i nor the administration know anything about it so the board of trade inquiry was to be conducted by lord mercy president of the board of trade and no stranger to the art of cover-up since the enormous loss of life was in part due to outdated board of trade regulations regarding the number of lifeboats to be carried by ships and the safety of ships at sea generally it was hardly likely that the inquiry was going to be too concerned with uncovering the truth the border trade being both plaintiff and defendant in the case the hearings were held at the scottish drill hall in london where the acoustics were so bad that spectators in the public galleries found it difficult to hear everything that was said lord mercy had complained about the unfortunate choice of venue but then again it had been booked by his son harold sanderson representing harland and wolfe repeatedly made the mistake of referring to the titanic as the olympic as for lord mercy himself he simply didn't ask or allowed to be asked the right questions the press who were there throughout the hearings and could have done something about it were more interested in the scandal surrounding the lucky escape of jay bruce is may other expert naval officers told lord mercy that even on a moonless night there'd be no difficulty spotting an iceberg from as far away as six or even ten miles remember the full turning circle of the titanic at top speed was only three quarters of a mile the whole british inquiry was a whitewash captain smith would not be blamed because he was no longer alive and could not defend himself the lookouts were not to blame the design and construction of the titanic was not to blame neither were her officers or her owners in fact no one was to blame except captain lord captain lord stood alone if lord mersey heard anything at the inquiry that he didn't like he simply ignored it she looked like a small steamer about five miles away they were firing ruckus just after midnight altogether she fired eight rockets and all white and rose no further than the masthead i think we are all of the opinion that the distress signals which was seen from the deck of the californian were in fact the distress signals from the titanic i went down below to captain lord who was sleeping in the chatroom he asked me again if i was sure there was no color in the rockets so i said no they were all white i think the onus of proof in this matter is upon the californian that it will be for the californian to satisfy us that they were not the signals of the titanic whenever a titanic survivor referred to the mystery ship that they'd seen on the horizon as often as not lord mercy would interject with you mean the californian there was barely an attempt at cross-examination and as happened so often captain lord declined to defend himself perhaps out of fear that he might reveal his part in the conspiracy furthermore when the inquiry heard from passengers who'd been aboard the mount temple that they'd actually seen the titanic on the horizon and were even close enough to hear the last two reports of her rockets lord mercy repeatedly interrupted them you do not give me the answers that please me of course if lord mercy was a party to the cover-up he would have known about captain lord's secret mission and of how the rescue plan failed largely because of circumstances outside captain lord's control and yet lord mercy repeatedly interrupted the testimony of californians officers and instead accepted evidence against captain lord that would have been laughed out of court under normal circumstances captain lord being made a scapegoat because he had failed to do what he'd been engaged to do on the night of the disaster of course by highlighting lord in the californian lord mercy was drawing attention away from rather more sensitive issues titanic's bulkheads should have gone one deck higher it was the board of trades own regulations that allowed titanic to go to sea with too few lifeboats and the board of trades inspectors who had been so ready to sign the ship off as fit to go to sea in the first place titanic cost 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 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 although three-quarters of a century at the bottom of the atlantic ocean did not exactly preserve titanic in museum-like condition there is enough left of the wreck to give us more than just an idea of what really happened corrosion has done its relentless work but where the original black paint of the hull has flaked away it is still possible to see spots of gray paint which formed the undercoat except that grey paint was only used as an undercoat on the olympic and not on the titanic examination of the starboard propeller reveals the number o1 stamped into the metal in fence there is 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 hawk remote cameras under the control of the discoverer of the titanic wreck dr robert ballard have examined the stern section of the ship they show that in addition to the lateral bulkheads that were a feature of both the titanic and the olympic there is a longitudinal bulkhead in the stern section where there was none on the original plans for either vessel the position of this bulkhead suggests a temporary repair has been carried out to strengthen the keel a keel perhaps damaged by the collision with hms hawk 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 bow plates in letters four 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 bow plates with the passage of time two of the letters have dropped off and been lost forever in the sediment of the sea bed at the place where they once were engraved into the hull are the letters m and p you

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Length: 51min 55sec (3115 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 31 2013