One conspiracy theory goes that the Titanic never sank at all
Like all titanic historical events, the sinking of the Titanic is awash with conspiracy theories. Among the least believable are those claiming that Titanic was transporting a cursed pharaoh (you can see where that one is going) or that Titanic was torpedoed by a German U-Boat (some passengers reported hearing a loud explosion prior to the engines being cut). Then there are some slightly more believable ones; especially that claiming that, from before she left port, a coal fire was raging in Titanic‘s coal bunker boiler rooms, structurally weakening her hull and making her more susceptible to the iceberg.
However, the theory that’s gained the most traction comes from Robin Gardiner and hypothesizes what would be the greatest (if not most hopelessly organized) insurance scam in history. It’s well known that the Titanic had two aesthetically identical sister ships, the Olympic and the Britannic. Unfortunately for White Star Line, as well as sharing the same appearance, they also shared the same luck. Just months after the Olympic‘s maiden voyage, the Olympic had a serious collision with the HMS Hawke, causing serious damage and breaching her hull below the waterline. This had serious financial implications: repairs would cost White Star Line—a company with already precariously balanced finances—millions of pounds.
What I’ve outlined so far is fact. What follows comes from the murky world of guesswork and conspiracy theories. The idea goes that JP Morgan came up with a scam in which the Olympic would be lightly touched up, given a superficial spit and shine and would then take the place of Titanic. She would then be sunk out at sea in a staged accident, allowing White Star Line to claim her back on the insurance. Most people are highly skeptical of Gardiner’s theory (after all, how could JP Morgan be capable of such a thing!) But there are some signs that support it.
Photographs of the Titanic when she was in dry dock and at the time of her maiden voyage show disparities in the number of portholes. It seems initially she had 14, but when she left port in April 1912 she had 16, like the Olympic. There were also rumors among workers that the ships had been swapped, explaining why—despite strikes leading to a shortage of work—there was a reluctance to work aboard Titanic. Some passengers reported a two-degree list to port during the Titanic‘s voyage: something inexplicable on a new, state-of-the-art ship but totally explicable if the two had been swapped.
Several high-profile passengers canceled at the last minute and for no reason, including JP Morgan, and historians have struggled to explain the curious maneuvers of the nearby ship Californian around the time of the sinking. But evidence against the theory is just as strong. Not only were there important structural differences between the two—the Titanic having booked suites that didn’t exist on the Olympic—but the potential loss of White Star Line’s reputation, the incredible planning (or rather lack thereof) that would go into sinking the world’s largest ship in the middle of the Atlantic all point to Gardiner’s theory being just that: a theory.