On the 10th April, 1912, RMS Titanic set out
on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. On the night of 14th April, the ship
struck an iceberg in the Atlantic ocean. Two and a half hours later, the world’s newest
and greatest ocean liner sank below the waves. Over 1,500 people died in the freezing waters. Since the day of the disaster, legend has
overtaken fact and there are many questions surrounding the sinking. Was the voyage doomed
from the start? Could the accident have been avoided? Who benefited financially? Was it
even the Titanic that actually sank? Theories have encircled this tragedy for over a century,
and we’re about to set the record straight. I’m Stu and this is Debunked, where we sort
the truths from the myths and the facts from the misconceptions! It’s a classic case of dramatic irony. Movies
and novels love to point out that the owners of the Titanic boasted that it was “unsinkable”.
But was this ever said? Well, yes and no. White Star Line, the company
that owned Titanic sold the ocean liner on its luxury rather than its indestructibility.
And luxury is what the passengers were interested in. After all, if you spent the equivalent
of $50,000 in today’s money on a top-class Titanic ticket, you’d be more interested
in the swimming pool, the walk-in wardrobes and the 10-course dinners than the height
of the bulkheads. Still, Titanic was the most advanced ship ever built at the time, and
a brochure published in 1910 does say... “...AS FAR AS IT IS POSSIBLE TO DO SO, [THIS]
WONDERFUL VESSEL [IS] DESIGNED TO BE UNSINKABLE.” However, the moment that popularised the “unsinkable”
boast didn’t happen until after the Titanic hit the iceberg. In New York, a man called
Philip Franklin was in charge of White Star Line’s office on the night of April 15th,
1912. When the first news came through over the radio that Titanic was in distress, he
tried to reassure the passengers’ worried relatives and reporters by telling them... “THERE IS NO DANGER THAT TITANIC WILL SINK.
THE BOAT IS UNSINKABLE, AND NOTHING BUT INCONVENIENCE WILL BE SUFFERED BY THE PASSENGERS.” After this, the words “Titanic” and “unsinkable”
became inseparable - but only ironically. Franklin would go on to grace the cover of
TIME magazine in 1926 for his business success as a shipping executive. Legend has it that Catholic workers in Titanic’s
shipyard refused to work because its hull number, 390904, written backwards spells “NO
POPE”. For one thing, the number 390904 was never
assigned to Titanic in any way. On the other hand, it’s true that Catholic
yard workers didn’t work on Titanic - because they weren’t hired to. The company that
built Titanic, Harland & Wolff, prided itself on the fact that it only hired Protestants. However, another story purportedly proves
Titanic was doomed. As you know, whether you’re going to sea or outer space, it’s tradition
to christen a ship by breaking a bottle of champagne over its bow. But when it came to
christening the Titanic, the bottle refused to break. Although it’s true that no champagne
bottle ever smashed against Titanic, this is because it’s a purely optional tradition
that White Star Line didn’t follow. Instead, they kept all 12,000 bottles of wine intact
for the passengers to drink. Most of those bottles are still with the shipwreck - and
might be drinkable even today. “BOTTLES KEPT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA ARE
BETTER KEPT THAN IN THE FINEST WINE CELLARS.” Another myth says Titanic suffered the curse
of an Egyptian mummy in its hold. Unfortunately for fans of horror/disaster
movie mashups, the cargo manifests prove there was no mummy on board Titanic. This story
almost certainly comes from The Washington Post. Less than a month after Titanic sank, the
Post ran an article about WILLIAM T. STEAD, a journalist who drowned when Titanic went
down. Hebelieved strongly in the curse of a mummy that was brought to the British Museum
in 1889. Except, it’s not really a mummy - it’s
just the painted lid of a wooden coffin. In fact, the whole curse was invented by Stead
himself just for fun, and he told it to his fellow passengers on board Titanic. When survivors
recounted this, The Washington Post put the disaster and the mummy together. Presto - curse
concocted. Weirdly, in 1886 William Stead wrote a short
story about a steam ship that sinks and doesn’t have enough lifeboats aboard, resulting in
unnecessarily high casualties. Which brings us onto the next common misconception about
Titanic. One of the most tragic facts about the Titanic
is that there weren’t enough lifeboats for all the people on board. This is often attributed
to corporate greed and a callous disregard for human life - at least, for humans who
hadn’t bought a first class ticket. The idea that class prejudice led to many
unnecessary deaths is often backed up by the claim that third class passengers were locked
below decks while the ship sank. It’s absolutely true that there were lockable gates on Titanic’s
lower decks, because U.S. immigration control required it - and these gates were locked
at night. But as soon as the order to lower the lifeboats was given, the gates were opened
too. The bigger problem third class passengers faced was the sheer distance between their
quarters and the lifeboats on the top deck. It’s not a huge surprise that 60% of first
class passengers survived compared to just 25% of third class passengers, when poorer
passengers had farther to go to reach the limited spaces on the lifeboats. But while it is true that Titanic didn’t
have enough lifeboats to save everyone, the shipbuilders actually provided more lifeboats
than were required by law. Regulations were based on the size of a ship
and not on the number of people on board. In 1912, the Board of Trade required British
vessels that weighed over 10,000 tons to carry 16 lifeboats with capacity for just 50% of
passengers and crew. Titanic had 20 lifeboats, enough for 52% of the people on board. So
in fact, Titanic exceeded requirements of the time. 118 STICK FIGURES SPREAD OUT FROM THE TITANIC.
71 OF THEM GET UNEVENLY DISTRIBUTED ONTO LIFEBOATS. THE MOST FULL LIFE BOAT HAS 8 IN (TEXT: 88%
CAPACITY) AND THE LEAST FULL LIFEBOAT HAS 3 IN (TEXT: 33% CAPACITY) *THE REST CAN BE
DISTRIBUTED BETWEEN 3 AND 8 PEOPLE PER LIFEBOAT. THE REMAINING 47 STICK FIGURES SLOWLY FADE
AWAY IN THE SEA. Sadly the tragedy was exacerbated by the fact
that the lifeboats were not used to their full capacity. The boats could carry 1,176
people, but in the end only 706 people were saved. Records show that the most loaded lifeboat
was at 88% capacity. The least full lifeboat held only a third of the people it was designed
to carry. This may partly be a result of the famous
order to evacuate women and children first - a command that really was given by Captain
Edward Smith. This gave rise to a story that one man snuck onto a lifeboat by disguising
himself in women’s clothing. VThis is false. For one thing, four different
men were accused of being the cowardly cross-dresser. The extensive inquiries into the sinking prove
that all four of these men got on lifeboats in perfectly permissible, pantalooned or bepanted
fashion. In the case of William T. Sloper, the accusation came from a reporter who was
annoyed that he was refusing to talk to the press. And J. Bruce Ismay fell afoul of the
rumour because he was the chairman of White Star Line, and many people felt he should
have gone down with his ship. Only one male survivor was encountered wearing
an item of women's clothing - third-class passenger Daniel Buckley. He was already in
a lifeboat when a female passenger threw her shawl over him to hide him from crewmembers
who were forcing men out of their lifeboat. He kept the shawl on when the lifeboat set
out onto the cold waters of the Atlantic. This is the only case of a man escaping Titanic
thanks to women’s clothing. But his story didn’t emerge until after newspapers had
already made the claim about other men. However, even the order to evacuate women
and children first wasn’t strictly obeyed by First Officer William McMaster Murdoch.
He was happy to let men on the boats when he couldn’t find any women and children
to put on. You may remember Murdoch from the James Cameron
movie. He’s the Scottish officer who shoots himself after shooting some male passengers
trying to force their way onto a lifeboat. This never happened. As I said, Murdoch did
let men onto his lifeboats, and there are no reported incidents of crewmembers killing
passengers. It’s a commonly held belief that Captain
Smith and his crew were trying to set the transAtlantic speed record and win the Blue
Riband accolade, and as such ignored multiple warnings about dangerous ice on the route. It is true that Titanic was going at full
speed when it hit the iceberg, but it wasn’t because Captain Smith was trying to set records.
Titanic was built for comfort, not speed - it was about 5 knots [5.7 miles, 9 kilometres]
slower than the fastest liners of the day. Besides that, the route Smith followed was
200 miles longer than the fastest shipping lane across the Atlantic. Ironically, he chose
this route to avoid dangerous ice further north… In reality, the story that Smith was trying
to set a speed record comes from American newspapers. In particular, from the newspapers
owned by WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST. Hearst was angry with J. Bruce Ismay for not
cooperating with the press. So, in addition to printing the rumours about Ismay dressing
as a woman to survive Titanic, Hearst made up a story that Ismay ordered Captain Smith
to make the crossing in record time, regardless of passenger safety. However, it is true that on the day it sank,
Titanic received six warnings of dangerous ice ahead. At least three of these were reported
directly to Captain Smith. The official U.S. Senate inquiry concluded that... “NO [OFFICERS’] CONFERENCE WAS CALLED
TO CONSIDER THESE WARNINGS; NO HEED WAS GIVEN TO THEM.” So the U.S. government clearly felt Captain
Smith acted badly. But remember, Smith was never able to speak in his defence, and the
same Senate report didn’t trust witness statements that the ship broke in two - which
we now know is exactly what happened. So why was Smith travelling at full speed
through icy waters? Well, the answer may lie in a fire in one of Titanic’s coal bunkers.
Coal frequently caught fire on steamships thanks to spontaneous combustion, and this
happened on Titanic. In 2004, engineer ROBERT ESSENHIGH FROM OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY pointed
out that a common method of controlling fires like these was to shovel the burning coal
into the boiler. Obviously, this meant the boiler was constantly generating steam, which
means the ship would have to keep cruising at high speed. Although, Essenhigh admitted
he was just speculating. Another myth surrounding Captain Smith is
that he was drunk when Titanic hit the iceberg. In truth, he was in his cabin, getting his
normal night’s rest after attending a first-class dinner party. So he probably wasn’t in the
best frame of mind to steer the ship clear of icebergs - but he didn’t have to. Instead,
Smith had put First Officer Murdoch in charge, and it was he who had to make the urgent decisions
when the lookouts in the crow’s nest spotted the iceberg. Witnesses said that Murdoch ordered the engines
to reverse and the helm to steer hard astarboard - away from the iceberg. This was part of
a standard maneuver to sail around obstacles in the water. It might have worked except
that the crew lookouts didn’t see the iceberg until it was too late. This is partly because
the binoculars in the crow’s nest were in a locked case, and no-one had the key. In
fact, SECOND OFFICER CHARLES LIGHTOLLER had promised to buy new binoculars for the lookouts
once the ship arrived in New York. Unlike Captain Smith and First Officer Murdoch, Lightoller
survived. However, Charles Lightoller’s granddaughter,
Louise Patten says Lightoller told her that Murdoch’s order to turn hard a starboard
was misunderstood by the helmsman. This is because the helmsman was trained to steer
modern steamships, which issued orders based on the direction of the bow and rudder. In
contrast, officers like Murdoch trained to use the old-fashioned orders for sailing ships,
which were based on the direction of the tiller rudder, which is always opposite to the direction
you want the bow to go. So when Murdoch ordered the helmsman to turn
hard a starboard - or right - he actually wanted the helmsman to put the tiller as far
right as possible to starboard and turn the bow to the left. Instead, the helmsman turned
the wheel right, as he had learned in training. Interestingly Lightoller’s granddaughter
revealed this to promote a book she wrote in 2010; Lightoller himself never said a word
of this to the authorities investigating the tragedy. Supposedly he wanted to protect the
reputation of the crew and the company, White Star Line. But were these allegations to be
true, then the Second Watch Officer who supervised the Helmsman's actions would have also missed
the error, meaning all 3 experienced crew members would have got it wrong. That’s right, there’s a theory about insurance
fraud that meant the Titanic ship itself never sank! Instead, some believe its sister ship,
the RMS Olympic, was the boat that sank on that fateful night. Originally put forward by theorist Robin Gardiner
in 1998, the theory goes like this. In 1911, the Olympic collided with a Royal Navy warship.
The accident damaged its hull and central turbines. But the ship’s insurers refused
to pay the $800,000 for repairs. Since the Olympic was being fixed in the same dockyard
that the Titanic was being built in, and since Titanic followed the same design as Olympic,
the owners decided to swap the ships, sink the “Titanic” and collect the insurance
to pay for repairs. The “Olympic” would continue to sail the seas until it was retired
in 1935 - but in reality, it was Titanic. The tragic loss of life occurred because the
plan to rescue everyone was completely botched. According to Gardiner, the swap would have
been relatively easy to achieve, because the ship’s name was only put on removable objects
like lifeboats and the ship’s bell. Even though photographs clearly show that
the ships’ names were put on their bows, this theory seems quite plausible. Until you
really think about it. Maritime author Mark Chirnside pointed out
that it cost $7.5 million to build Titanic, but White Star Line insured it for just $5
million. This means the loss they made on Titanic was greater than the cost of repairs
on the Olympic. Furthermore, the shipwreck has the number 401 stamped all over it - this
was Titanic’s hull number, not Olympics. Nevertheless, some people still believe it
was a scam - and that the scam was the brainchild of the owner of White Star Line, J. P. Morgan. The theories involving J.P. Morgan don’t
stop there either. He was one of the most powerful bankers of the time, and if the financier
didn’t sink Titanic as part of an insurance fraud, he orchestrated it to kill his rivals
who opposed the creation of the Federal Reserve. But the titanic weight of evidence against
this theory being true might explain why there’s another version of it floating on the Internet,
that says the Rothschilds planned it. But there’s even less proof for this than the
Morgan theory. So I’m afraid for all the conspiracy enthusiasts
out there, the story of Titanic is simply a tragic example of a maritime disaster.
