Titanic The Shocking Truth

TITANIC THE SHOCKING TRUTH!

The true story of the greatest insurance fraud ever.  Most do not know that The Titanic had a sister ship The Olympic built which was in a catastrophic collision during its sea trials.  Insurance refused to payout and the Owners The  White Star  Line were looking at financial ruin. 

We demonstrate that with the help of the British government, a rescue plan was put into effect to save White Star.  The Olympic become the Titanic and  we beleive the ship was scuttled. 

The evidence in this podcast taken from our film  "Titanic The Shocking Truth" provides overwhelming evidence 

Transcript

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, 1,500 lives were lost. The tragedy has been well documented in books and on films. 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.

The Titanic and The Olympic were built for The White Star Line by Belfast Ship builders, Harland and Wolff, whose Chairman was Lord Pirrie.  Harland and Wolff built almost exclusively for the White Star which was acquired in 1903 by American Financier J. Pierpoint 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 Ismay.  It was in fact Lord Pirrie who was responsible for bringing together Morgan’s money and British Engineering excellence, over dinner at Pirrie’s London residence in 1907, Lord Pirrie and White Star Line, Bruce Ismay conceived the idea for building three luxurious super liners. First the Olympic, then the Titanic and finally The Britannic.

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 Wolff shipyard as well as holding a large financial stake in Harland and Wolff, Lord Pirrie 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 conditions; many were know 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 June 1911, The Olympic made her maiden voyage under the command of Captain Edward J Smith, Commodore of the White Star Line, then just under a week later, still under the command of Edward J Smith. The Olympic was involved in a stern collision with the Tag OL Hollenbeck back in New York and accident that nearly caused the tug to sink. Barely three months later on the 20thSeptember 1911, the Olympic still under the command of Captain Smith was involved in yet another collision, this time with the British Warship HMS Hawke 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 of the Olympic’s great propellers, the Hawke is irresistibly drawn towards the larger vessel and the two ships collide, the Hawke underwater ram and bowls strike and penetrate the starboard side of the Olympic causing a triangular hole several meters high and even a 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 eye witness account suggested otherwise. As a consequence of this ruling the White Stars Insurers decline to pay out on the claim. The damage done to The Olympic was severe.  Besides being hold both above and below the water line, she sustained numerous other injuries, including steel frames buckled, thousands of rib bits popped, steel plating dislodged over four decks and distortion to the starboard propeller and crank shaft. To make matters worth, the keel was bent giving the ship a pronounce list of port. Interestingly enough, when 6 months later, when the ship which came to be known as The Titanic made her Maiden Voyage out of Southampton, Second Class Passenger, Laurence Beasley, a Science Teacher, noted that the ship seem to have a slight but permanent list of port on the first part of the Voyage. A fact noted by several other surviving passengers. The great hole was patched up in Southampton by riveting steel plates below the water line and reinforcing with wooden beams above. This works 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 Harland & Wolff 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 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! 

Chapter 2

At Harland and Wolff Ship yard 1911.

“The starboard propeller is going to have to be replaced and the crankshaft is damaged, there is a crack between the arm and the shaft, but worse the keel is bent, this is going to give her a permanently list of port and there’s no way they can correct that. You going to have to cut the ship in half, insert a new frame and then put her all together again, it’s all going to take months and frankly it’s going to cost and I think it’s simply a waste of time.”

Lord Pirrie

“Can you not just patch her up, till Titanic is ready@

Mr Ismay

“Well we could put a B.....? To strengthen her up but to be honest Sir, she will never pass another Board of Trade Inspection”

Narrator

In Belfast, the Titanic was nearing completion but all work on her had stopped so that every effort could be put in 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 originally thought.

Now look at this! (showing video of ship in B&W) This is the film of the Olympic backing out of the dock in New York, You can see where she has 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 see 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 should find out later. The Olympic’s troubles, however was only just beginning. After leaving New York Harbour on the 24 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 weaken liner, she limped back to Southampton on only one engine arriving there on the 28th February. By the 2nd March she was once again in the Thompson’s 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 March.

In Belfast the Olympic and The Titanic were often birth side by side and were regularly often moved in and out of the Thompson dry dock, especially during repairs to the Olympic. On close examination of contemporary archived photographs, it is possible to see the minor differences in design that tell the two ships apart. On the forward part of C Deck, Olympic was built with 16 portholes, The Titanic with 14. Somehow mysteriously, the Titanic acquired two extra portholes 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 discernable as being evenly spaced, yet at the time of her maiden voyage; they’ve taken on a distinctly uneven appearance and whereas the Olympic could be open to the Public for inspection in Belfast and Liverpool, The Titanic were not. That first week in March 1912 was the last time that the Olympic and The Titanic were together in Belfast. The twin ships side by side on the River Lagan and that when the decision to switch them could have been made.

Lord Pirrie and Mr Ismail talking

Lord Pirrie’s Belfast Home March 1912(playing pool)

“You can’t be serious”

“Olympic and Titanic are exactly the same. No one will know we switched them, when they get back to work on Monday morning, we’ll just swapped the names, everything else is standard White Star issue, I’ll have some boys at the yard who would do the job for a couple of hundred pounds each and say nothing. ”

“We’ll never get away with it, if word of this gets out”

“It’s either that Ismay, or we both go down, White Star Line and its yard@

“It’s gotta be another way”

“There isn’t, we have no choice”

“Right, that’s it then”

Narrator

Switching the two ships would have been a, remarkably simple undertaking, there were no members of the Press lurking around or roving TV crews looking for a story even photography was at its infancy at the time and generally people believed what they were told to be the truth. All crockery, linen etc, were White Star standard issue interchangeable from ship to ship. Letterheads and menus etc were styled to a particular ship but could have easily been changed. Only the name from the bowls and sterns 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 the switch when they return to work on Monday morning. 

White Star often use photographs both exterior and interior of the Olympic as the Titanic in their advertisement and some press releases, Both ships had tile and linoleum flooring, yet just days before the Titanic Maiden Voyage, Ismay, Chairman of the White Star Line ordered her floors to be carpeted. Was this to cover Olympic’s worn Linoleum floors? The Harlington Wolff Yard was a vast labyrinth buildings and workshops as well as machinery and ships in various stages of completion, any unusual activity would hardly go unnoticed. The social order of the day was such that the majority of their workers would never have thought to question their betters. They live in a time where 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 man into telling a company lie, as we shall see when the survival crew members return to Britain.

There was no social security safety net for the unemployed and companies had the power to dismiss the whole families of workers if one of them did not do as he was told.

In the Pub. Two workers talking, Belfast 1912.

“There is a wee scandal going on here and the bosses are in on it. They switched those ships two weeks ago and I know it”

Someone grabs his face

“You listen to me, Paddy, anymore talks from you about two ships being swopped over and you’ll end up at the bottom of the River Lagan, so remember that when you get back to your wife and 17 kids.....You Irish scum!”

The Olympic’s original sea trials conducted by the Board of Trade lasted two full days while the ship was put through its spaces, strangely, the Titanic’s sea trial was a non eventual affair, no strenuous manoeuvres were carried out and inspection was over in time for lunch and of course, the switch had taken place.  The collision between the Olympic and HMS Hawke was by no mean 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 like 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 this 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 right off. If so it would have been a meeting with the very gravest consequences.

Ismay’s office and The Commodore – White Star Line, Liverpool April 1912

“Well come now E.J 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 E J! The Republic, The Germanic. The Cockpit and when that fire broke out in the Majestic and those crew men were killed!

“Yes.....but”

“Yes I know you deny it ever happened! We did know. We gave you command of the Olympic, look what a disaster that 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 am sorry 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’ve a good man lined up for the job, Lord, Captain Stanley Lord. Ever come across him? Well he has 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 land a hand and I’ll be there of course along for the ride.”

“All right then, but I want to choose my own officers”

“Yes! Of course EJ, man you can trust eh!”

Narrator

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 coal strike? With so many thousands laid off? What did they know? Shortly before Titanic sailed, Chief Officer Wild, who was to lose his life three nights later wrote a letter to his sister in which he said, “I still don’t like this ship”.  Strange thing for a man to say who just set foot on board the day before unless of course he realised he was on his old ship Olympic. It’s strange to think now the Olympic, now renamed the Titanic was preparing to make its second Maiden Voyage. The ship that started out life as the Titanic and was now called the Olympic had to enter her working life with no fanfare at all, The Olympic’s 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 coal strike when passengers were queuing up to get to America.  First class passengers on other White Star ships were only offered second class birth on the Titanic, even though we know that First Class cabin 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 actually talking about the ship that started out its life as the Olympic 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 cargos destined for the new world were stuck in Europe. Yet the Leyland liner, Californian under the command of Captain Stanley Lord left the Port Of London on the 5th April 1912, just five days before Titanic’s departure from Southampton, not only fully coaled but apart from her own crew empty of passengers, with more than enough coal to get her to the United States, she headed off in the middle of the Atlantic at full speed empty. Apart from a cargo of woollen 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 eleventh hour despite having the best suite on the ship claiming illness.  Two days after the sinking, An American reporter found him in perfect health at the French resort of Aix Les Bains 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 only four days before the disaster? Florence Ismay, wife of J Bruce Ismay, also turned down the opportunity of taking the maiden voyage on the world’s most luxurious liner, preferring to take their children on a motoring holiday after first claiming ill health. Now there’s one things that sailors fear above all else and is fire at sea and yet when Titanic cast off from Southampton there was a fire smouldering in No. 10 coal bunker instead of putting out the fire the bunker was actually topped up with four hundred tons of coal, Captain Smith knew it and the Chief Officers and the engineers knew it as to those who worked half heartedly to put it out. The fire that had been smouldering in coal bunker No. 10 had been smouldering for a week but it was kept from the Board of Trade Inspector Maurice Harvey Clarke, who at the British enquiry denied all knowledge of it. Could the fire in coal bunker No. 10 had been plan B? If all else fails, tell the passengers there is a fire then fill 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 extensively bound for Boston. Then on the evening of the 14th 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 chart 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 iceberg, the other three were from the Californian more concerned on 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. Captain Smith had delayed turning the corner on the outward southern track, he ordered the turn to the west 10 miles further south from the normal turning point. This was certainly not as an evasive measure to avoid the iceberg but one design to take him directly into it, He must have known this. Tragically, Captain Lord failed to keep his radio operator awake. Even so, the Californian last message to the Titanic never got there. The Titanic radio operators were too busy with passengers’ messages. It was standard practice of the day for Captains to run their ship at full speed through the ice field; any object large enough to damage an iron steam would be seen in plenty of time to void 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? Has she reached her destination and was she now waiting? Sometime before 11pm, Lookout Fred Fleet and Reginald Glee came on watch and climbed to the Crow’s nest. Captain Smith retired for the night but coincidently like Stanley Lord he also chose to rest fully clothed not in his own cabin but in the chart 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 turn to port and inexplicably engines full a stern! By reversing the engine, Murdoch was actually increasing the risk of collision, something he must have known! Maybe Murdoch handpicked by Captain Smith was deciding to give the iceberg a nudge anyway. Given at the turning circle of the Titanic 1280 yards and the stopping distance of 850 yards. Titanic should have been able to avoid the iceberg with the greatest of ease, even allowing for a slight delay whilst orders were given and the wheel turned the ship to port. So why didn’t it? 

Second Officer Linehart told the enquiry that before going off duty for the night he would have been easily to see an iceberg from a mile and a half probably 2 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 rammed the iceberg had on it would have stayed afloat. Although up to 250 crewmen would have been killed while they slept in their bunks in the bow. Apart from those on the bridge and of course, those in the forward boiler rooms, the glancing blow from the iceberg would have passed virtually unnoticed. The vibration felt by some of the passengers was most certainly that caused by the reversed of the engines and by the time anyone had 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 Linehart awaken 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 second walk to his cabin and the Officers Quarters and he should have gone straight there in the first instant of trouble. So why didn’t he? A few passengers came out of their cabin 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 Room 5 and 6 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 twenty five minutes before the first one was launched. Only six crew members were on watch at the time Titanic struck the iceberg. 1st 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. Helmsmen Robert Hitchings was hastily transferred to a job as Harbour Master in Cape Town, which leave Lookout Frederick Fleets and Reginald Lee. At the British enquiry as a witness, Frederick Fleet was clearly defensive, edgy; obviously he didn’t trust his questioners and the time was downright surly but then he was under the watchful gaze of J Bruce Ismail, the Chairman of the White Star Line and the lawyers.

British Enquiry

Frederick Lee

“I’m not a judge of distances of ice spaces”

Lawyer

“What was it? A mile away or how faraway was it?”

Frederick Lee

“I cannot say”

Lawyer

“Can you not give any instrument? Was it half a mile”

Lee

“I cannot say, it was impossible to tell”

Lawyers

“Was it far away as the boat’s length?”

Lee

“I could not say”

Lawyer

“Can you not say anything about it?”

Lee

“No. Sir”

Judge

“You really do not understand that gentleman is not trying to get round you at all”

Lee

“Sorry about that milord, is there anymore that would like to have a go at me?”

Broohaha in court

When Titanic came to a rest, Captain Smith asks the 4th Officer Joseph Groves Boxhall to work out a position. It is clear from the records, the Titanic’s navigator worked out 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 of his calculations because of the actual location of the wreck. The position that Boxhall 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 5 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 Californian. Several survivors mentioned the sighting of a ship about 5 or 6 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 has been sent to Captain Smith from the Californian stating exactly where she is waiting. Captain Smith can see a stationery ship on the horizon and having received inaccurate information from 4th Officer Boxhall as to his position, He assumes it’s the Californian and everything is going to plan. At about midnight Titanic started sending up the distress rockets red, white and blue, rockets could also be seen from the bridge of the Californian. This was duly reported to Captain Lord. Captain Lord asks what colour the rockets were, in fact over the next two hours, Lord repeatedly asked his officers about the colour 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 can be seen, h therefore, rightly, assumed 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’s sky bursting from an ear splitting report. The rockets from the ship who was visible to the Californian only went as high as the top of her mast and even 4-5 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 flows at the time. The white rocket she was firing to mast tide only was 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 illegal activities. The Californian’s Apprentice Gibson later testified that he saw only eight rockets fired from the ship and all white. The Titanic had fired at least eighteen possibly as many as twenty two 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 that they were letting life boats 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 coloured rockets. At around 1 am, it must have finally have dawned on Captain Smith that the rescue upon which the survival upon which of so many are depended was not going to materialise. Now boats were being let go full and passengers are beginning to panic. As the Senior Surviving Officer, much credence and publicity was given to the evidence to the 2nd Officer Lightoller.

Enquiry

Lightoller

“I did not leave the Titanic Sir, The Titanic left me”

(Laughter)

He was evasive in response to pertinent question at the American and British enquiries, out to protect first and foremost his own reputation and then that of the White Star Line. At the British enquiry, he claimed:

Lightoller

“The Titanic began her turn to port before the lookout came down from crows nest”

How would he have known this, he said he was in his cabin at the time. Lightoller also said at the American enquiry:

Lightoller

“There was no mist 10 minutes before the ship strucked 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.

Lightoller

“I do not remember any ice warnings being posted on the bridge”

Lightoller along with second radio operator Harold Bryde and ship’s baker Charles Guffin all claimed after getting off the Titanic, they stayed in the water for up to an hour.

Lightoller

“I was in the water for between ½ hour to an hour before I climbed aboard the upturn collapsible. 20 of us spent most of the rest of that night balancing on the upturn 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 2 and 3 degrees below freezing, average life expectancy at that temperature between 3 or 4 minutes. This testimony would simply not stand up today. It is quite clearly fabrication.

Just before 5.30 on that fatal 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, was picking up survivors. Notable amongst these was J Bruce Ismay who had slipped into a life boat 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, Ismay 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 New York Office urging them to hold the Cedric in New York harbour so that the Titanic surviving crew members could be taken straight back to Southampton. Hastily organised, the American enquiry failed to ask the right questions. Titanic surviving officers stonewalled as did Ismay himself. Several experience 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 5 or 6miles at a 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 hurled for nearly 24 hours before made to sign pieces of paper. A lot of them were under the impression they were signing the official secrets act. Was someone trying to suppress something here, some vital piece of information?

Plymouth April 29 1912

“Remember what it is you put your names to, if there is 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.”

Ismay, Lightoller and the other surviving officers all came back to England on the steamship Adriatic. There could be little doubt as to the main subject of conversation on their voyage; they were all to be star witnesses on the forthcoming British enquiry. 

Paperboy shouting

“Read the news, read the news, read all about it, Titanic sank, read all about it!”

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 should see later as we look at the enquiry. In fact it makes perfect sense for the Government of the day under Prime Minister Lord Asquith to have colluded in a cover up. 

London April 15 1912

“You never believe what they’d just done” 

A private conversation taken place between The Prime Minister and another Minister

“How many?”

“I am 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 Hull and the Harland and Wolff  in Belfast would be placed in a very precarious position perhaps be forced to closed down, Now that means that 20,000 men would 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 would most certainly lose seats in Belfast. The Finnians, The Republicans will cease the opportunity and with our majority gone, we will undoubtedly lose the next election, Prime Minister”

Prime Minister

“There is a chance of a blend of air of unprecedented proportion”

Government Heavy

“We will have to go along with this Prime Minister”

Prime Minister

“I will not see a stain put upon the British Government not for the White Star Line nor for Holland and Wolff not for the Irish and certainly not for the interest of JP Morgan”

Government Heavy

“I would also remind you Prime Minister that it is part of the arrangement for an American company to acquire The White Star Line, JP Morgan agreed 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 cease his assets and we would lose all those ships, Prime Minister”

Prime Minister

“It is a sad day for England when the policies of the British Government are dictated by greedy and ruthless businessmen and if it ever became public...hmm...doubtless you have someone in mind to run the show”

Government Heavy

 “I thought we could bring Mersey out of retirement, he is reliable, he knows how the system works, he’s discreet and he would do what needs to be done”

Prime Minister

“My son is called to the bar; I would be more comfortable, if he were there to keep an eye on things”

Government Heavy

 “Of course Prime Minister, we will find employment for him in the Attorney General’s office”

Prime Minister

“Very well then! But neither I nor the Administration know anything about it!”

Government Heavy

Very low “Bye Prime Minister”

So the Board of the Trade Enquiry was to be conducted by Lord Mersey, 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 an outdated Board of Trade Regulations regarding the number of life boats to be carried by ships and the safety of ships at sea and generally, it was hardly likely that the enquiry was going to be too concerned with uncovering the truth. The Board of 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 the spectators in the Public Galleries found it very difficult to hear everything that was said. Lord Mersey had complained about unfortunate choice of venue, but then again it had been booked by his son. Harold Sanderson representing Harland and Wolff repeatedly made the mistake of referring to The Titanic as the Olympic. As for Lord Mersey himself, he simply didn’t ask or allow 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 J Bruce Ismay. Other expert Naval Officers told Lord Mersey, even on a moonless night, there would be no difficulties spotting an iceberg for as far away as 6 or even 10 miles. Remember the full turning circle of the Titanic at top speed was only ¾ of a mile. The whole British enquiry was a white wash. Captain Smith would not be blamed because he was no longer alive and couldn’t defend himself. The Lookouts were not to blame. The design and the constructions of the Titanic were 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 enquiry that he didn’t like, he simply ignored it.

Testimony of Californian’s Officers

“She looked like a small tramp steamer about 5 miles away, then firing rockets just after midnight, altogether she fired eight 8 rockets and all white and rose  no further than the mast head”.

“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 Chart room, he asked me again if I was sure there was no colour in the rockets, so I said no, and 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 a mystery ship that they’ve seen on the horizon as often as not Lord Mersey would interject with “You mean The Californian”, there was barely an attempt to cross examination and as does often so happens, Captain Lord declined to defend himself. Perhaps out of fear that he might reveal his part in the conspiracy. Furthermore when the enquiry heard from passengers who’ve been aboard the Mount Temple that they naturally seen the Titanic on the horizon and were even close enough to hear the last two reports of her rockets. Lord Mersey repeatedly interrupted them.

“You do not give me the answers that please me”

Of course, if Lord Mersey was a party to the cover up, he would have know about Captain Lord’s secret mission and how the rescue plan failed largely because of circumstances outside of Captain Lord’s control and yet Lord Mersey repeatedly interrupted the testimony of Californian’s Officers and instead accepted evidence against Captain Lord, they would have been laughed out of court under normal circumstances. Was Captain Lord being made a scapegoat because he had failed to do what he had been engaged to do on the night of the disaster? Of course by highlighting Lord and The Californian, Lord Mersey was drawing attention away from rather more sensitive issues. Titanic’s bulk heads should have gone one deck higher. It was The Board of Trade own regulations that allowed Titanic to go to sea with two to three lifeboats and The Board of Trade Inspectors who would have been so ready to sign the ship off as fit to go to sea in the first place. Titanic costs $10m 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 risks themselves and it was at first thought that Lloyds of London would only be liable for $7.5m. 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 up their insurance on the vessel dramatically and incredibly just five days after the sinking, Lloyds paid out $12.5m.  Although three quarters of a century ago, 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 grey 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 01 stamped into the metal; in fact there is too much corrosion to make up the No. 4 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. 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 bulk heads that were a feature of both the Titanic and the Olympic. There is a longitude bulkhead in the stern section where there was none on the original plans for either vessel. This 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 Hawke and finally, a close look at the bowl 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 on the upper bowl plates in letters 4 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 bowl plates, with the passage of time two of the letters have dropped off and been lost forever in the sediment of the seabed and at the place where they once were, engraved into the whole are the letters M and P.

The Titanic was the first ship to in living memory to sink as a result of a collision with an iceberg. Before his death in 1962, Captain Lord tried in several occasion to re-open the British Inquiry into the loss of the Titanic to clear his name ...he was unsuccessful.

In 1940 Lord Mersey was appointed Chairman of the inquiry into the sinking of the Lusitania –also a British Government cover up ...

Second Officer Lightoller continued with the White Star Line but was never given a command. In Word War 2, his private yacht was one of the first vessels to assist in the evacuation of Dunkirk.....

Lookout Fred Fleet committed suicide in 1965 .....

J Brice Ismay left the White Star Line just 12months after the Titanic disaster. Those around him were forbidden ever to mention the Titanic ....

The ship known as The Titanic continued successfully as the Olympic for another 25years. In World War1 the Olympic was requisitioned as a troop transport by a grateful British Government.