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RMS Titanic alternative theories


The loss of the Titanic in 1912, with about 1500 lives, attracted so much controversy that several alternative theories about its sinking have gained support.

One version suggests that the sunken ship was actually the Olympic, near-identical sister-ship of the Titanic, which was the subject of a large insurance claim, and that the two vessels were secretly switched before the voyage. Another was that the Titanic’s owner, J.P. Morgan, wanted to eliminate several prominent bankers who were opposing his plan for the creation of a U.S. central bank.

During her maiden voyage, the famous ocean liner struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm on 14 April 1912, buckling the hull plates allowing water to enter the ship's first five watertight compartments (one more than the Titanic was designed to survive), which resulted in her sinking early the next morning.

One of the most controversial and complex theories was put forward by Robin Gardiner in his book, Titanic: The Ship That Never Sank?. In it, Gardiner draws on several events and coincidences that occurred in the months, days, and hours leading up to the sinking of the Titanic, and concludes that the ship that sank was in fact Titanic's sister ship Olympic, disguised as Titanic, as an insurance scam by her owners, the International Mercantile Marine Group, controlled by American financier J.P. Morgan that had acquired the White Star Line in 1902.

Olympic was the slightly older sister of Titanic, built alongside the more famous vessel but launched in October 1910. Her exterior profile was nearly identical to Titanic, save for minor details such as the number of portholes on the forward C decks of the ships, the spacing of the windows on the B decks, and the forward section of the A deck promenade on Titanic that had been enclosed only a few weeks before she set sail on her ill-fated maiden voyage. Both ships were built with linoleum floors, but shortly before she was due to set sail J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, inexplicably ordered the floors aboard Titanic carpeted over.


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