Mirages and the PCP Chowder

It's nineteen eighty five, and oceanographer Bob Ballard is scouring the floor of the Atlantic Ocean is on a top secret mission for the U S. Navy searching for two American nuclear submarines that sank in the nineteen sixties Thanks to Bob's underwater imaging system, which he calls the Argo, the team finds the USS sccorpion and the USS Thresher. Thousands of feet below the surface Argo sends black and white footage back up to the crew. They have found a needle in a haystack Bob's hoping to pull it off again the following week For years, he's been looking for a different shipwreck. The Tanic Its exact location has been a mystery ever since it sank seventy three years earlier. in exchange for using the Argo to find the submarines, The Navy has agreed to fund Bob's next search for the Titanic a few days at least, why not? Looking for the shhip of Dreams happens to be a great cover story for their real mission. Bob isn't so sure he'll have as much luck finding the Titanic though. already searched for it before failed. Watching the images roll in from those two sunken submarines sets off a light bulb new way of looking at things. Bob realizes The subs did not settle into one contained area at the bottom of the ocean As lighter parts broke off from the vessels, they drifted outward creating a surprisingly large debris field. With the Argo, it's easier to spot a whole debris field than it is to find one intact object On september first, Bob is awoken by his crew. He throws his uniform over his pajamas and races to the deck there on a screen and make out what looks like Biler covered in decades of ocean muck compparing the object to a photograph from nineteen twelve Bob knows He has finally found it unsinkable ship that now rests nearly two point four miles below the surface Bob announces his discovery to the world reigniting interest in the Titanic The shock of the tragic day in april nineteen twelve that claimed fifteen hundred lives never really wore off Now with details of the disaster back in the news Some began to wonder Is there more to the story? Why? Titanic Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. New episodes come out every Wednesday. We'd love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts or check us out on Instagram at the conspiracy pod. This July, we're taking another look at five fan favorite topics as part of our series we're calling conspiracy theories reewind. todayay We're kicking things off with what may be our most requested story. Over a hundred years after the sinking of the Titanic, public interest has hardly waned. It's probably the most famous accident in history. But there are those who believe this tragedy was plan that it was no accident at all while others believe The ship that sank wasn't even Stay with us All newews Sundays at nine, exclusively on AMC and AMC plus. I am the vampireistart. I'm a rock star now an Rice's Imortal Universe comes what Vulture calls the most momentous event in fictional rock history. Thousands of fans. I want millions It's my de. Fan Rice is the Fampireless Dot. all new Sundays at nine exclusively on AMC and AMC plus stream now. For adults with Crohn's disiseease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Trmphia offers self injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Trymphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self inject trmphia, proper training is required. Trmphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tmphia today. Call one eight hundred five two six seven seven three six to learn more orr visit Tmfireradio. com. Queen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun An army hung on her every word. 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On april tenth, nineteen twelve, the RMS Titanic is finally ready to set sail from its dock in Southampton, England over eight hundred and eighty feet long and seventeen stories tall The luxurious passenger liner has been years in the making advertised to be larger than even the world's tallest building Friends and families of the passengers gather on the docks, bidding their loved ones farewell And they come from all walks of life, rich, poor, white collar, blue collar The ingenuity of the Titanic is in its many levels of accommodation perfect to suit anyone's budget and meet anyone's needs Many passengers hold one way tickets to America They're on the brink of a new life sailing toward a brighter future The excitement in the air is palpable At a few minutes past noon, the Titanic set sail But it isn't exactly a smooth start. Before it even leaves the port, the giant ocean liner comes dangerously close to sid swiping a nearby boat. benefit of hindsight, it seems like a clear oment the sign of what's to come Yet, in the moment Nobody can predict that in just under five days More than two thirds of the twenty two hundred souls on board will lose their lives and the Titanic will rest at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. As far as they know The ship. is unsinkable The unsinkable claims stem from the Titanic's innovative design bottom is surrounded by sixteen watertight compartments. catastrophe occurs and a compartment fills with water, it can be sealed off to keep the flooding contained Reports boast that up to four of them can be compromised and the Titanic will stay afloat. this belief that the improbable is impossible may be one of the many catalysts behind the world famous tragedy to come. Four days later, it's april fourteenth Clear cold, moonless night Jack Phillips and Harold Bride typically man the ship's Marconi room They operate the wireless telegraph and are responsible for sending and receiving messages During the day, their system can reach about three hundred miles across the water. At night, they can communicate even farther It's a convenience offered to everyone on board for price wealthier passengers can have personal messages transmitted as a sort of novelty It's one of the ship's many technological features That leaves Jack and Harold very, very busy. this feature crowded wireless channels That means they sometimes miss important dispatches And there is no rule about leaving a line open for emergencies We know that on this night, vessels crossing the Atlantic send warning messages to the Titanic's Marconi room There are icebergs proceed Fashion And we know that the operators on booard the Titanic relay at least one of these messages to Captain Edward J. Smith. He makes the call to follow a more southerly route keep the ship's current speed It's likely there are additional warnings that never make their way to the wireless operator's ears The fact that the waters are calm on this night might seem like a good thing The stillness can actually make spotting an iceberg more difficult Especially if you are the lookout on the Titanic and somebody has misplaced the binoculars At eleven thirty nine PM. an iceberg is spotted from the crow's nest The lookout rings a bell, alerting First offfficer William Murdoch on the bridge Captain Smith isn't present, so Murdoch signals to cut the engines and orders the helmsmen to steer around the iceberg And I nearly for a moment A few people who know what just occurred think it was a close call And they're safe But several stories below them, a jagged edge of the iceberg has scraped along the starboard side near the bow Most people on board barely feel a thing In twenty twenty five, a national geographic documentary uses scans of the Titanic wreckage, along with computer simulations To get a better understanding of the damage acccording to the experts on Titanic, the Digital Resurrection The impact lasts six point three seconds The iceberg leaves a series of relatively small punctures The first is no more than a couple of feet in length At first sight, it might not seem like any of these holes could bring down the Titanic The NT Geo experts conclude that as the ship turns The iceberg is able to pierce, not just four But six of the water tight compartments two more than it can safely lose You may have heard the theory that the Titanic could have stayed afloat had it not turned and instead hit the iceberg head on This idea was first suggested by Edward Wilding, one of the ship's naval architects The NetGio documentary uses its simulation to test his hypothesis too And while the head on impact would have caused a great deal of damage and would have still resulted in loss of life. The simulation shows only four of the compartments would have flooded Titanic might have stood a chance But now the watertight compartments to fail. as they overflow Frigid ocean water spills from one into the next and the next and so on. The bow grows heavy The weight pulling the front of the ship downward. minutes after the iceberg collision. booiler rooms begin taking on water too Boiler six is completely flooded and five is well on its way. The water moves back through the rest of the boiler rooms in a domino effect Chief Egineer Joseph Bell and his officers retreat to Boiler two and work tirelessly up until the bitter end. He knows now the ship makeake it He Make it. So he sets his mind to keeping electricity running throughout the ship as long as possible if you can keep the lights on He might be able to save a few more lives. At fifteen minutes past midnight Captain Smith orders Jack Phillips to begin sending out a distress signal. Phillips taps out the letters C Q D in Morse code send a short message to anyone in range call to all stations is picked up by the Carpathia Cunard ship just sixty miles away Carpathia immediately changes course But with the hazardous route It will take nearly four hours for it to arrive on the decks rockets are launched believe there may be ships closer than the Carpathia that might see this call for help. But if that is true None of them respond. The first lifeboat is launched at twelve forty five Votoriously, the Titanic is outfitted with a mere twenty boats. Every single one were to be launched at capacity They could still only hold one thousand one hundred and seventy eight people That's about one thousand seats short To that, the first boat takes off with just twenty seven people though it's built for sixty five because the panic hasn't set in yet Passengers take their time leaving their cabins They believe that Titanic unsinkable They've been told over and over that it is By one AM Waves lap at the bottom of the famous grand staircase Getting to safety now means trudging through twenty eight degree water Desperation grows as everyone realizes this is really Chaos breaks out as the entire ship takes on a noticeable downward tilt As another lifeboat is lowered Men try to jump on board despite calls for women and children first An officer fires his gun into the fray by two o'clock. The bow sinks farther into the water and the rear propellers rise up above the water line. The remaining collapsible boats are washed away as those left on board scramble through freezing water to hang on to anything that floats It's all about survival now Captain Smith dismisses the last of his crew. reportedly telling them that it's every man for himself. He's last seen on the bridge. Waiting to go down his ship. A total of seven hundred and five people make it out alive in lifeboats. That's less than one third of the passengers and crew on board. Those who left early are now far enough away that they have a clear view as the Titanic stern lifts higher and higher off the water then Around two eighteen AM The lights flicker out It's a moonless night. Tic becomes a Towering shadow Poor souls left on board probably can't see what happens next As the Titanic becomes almost vertical The strain is so great that it breaks across the midsection right between the third and fourth funnels The massive front end of the ship. disappears into the sea The stern crashes back down to the water and it too begins to slip below the surface the back of the Titanic rises straight up and moments later The rest of the ship is swallowed by the ocean. to be seen again for over seventy years betweenween three thirty and four AM Carpathia arrives to rescue survivors It's been well over an hour since the Titanic sank. And in that time, just a few lifeboats have gone back to check for signs of life among the debris A handful of people are pulled from the water Very few survived the cold It's difficult to know precisely how many lives are lost, but The generally accepted estimate is fifteen hundred. This news makes it back to the mainland The immense death toll sends the world reeling I can see why it would be hard to process One day, the Titanic is one of the safest ships in the world The next, every headline screams that more than a thousand men, women, and children on board Public demands answers. Just two days later, the United States Senate announces an investigation into the Titanic disaster Over eighty witnesses are called upon to testify. And during these hearings, a story comes out about the sinking that is treated as a disproven theory For years. few survivors claim they saw or at least Heard the ship breaking too And we now know that really is what happenens But in nineteen twelve ese witnesses are largely met with incredulity. For years, people tell them they're wrong Thanks in large part to the opposing testimony of Charles Light Toller He's the highest ranking crew member to survive He'd stayed on the Titanic stern until nearly the last second when he dove into the water. He might have gotten pulled into the deep. If it weren't for a boiler exploding from somewhere below him, the thrust of that explosion pushed him upward. right next to a lifeboat Like Toller insists the ship did not break people believe him Well afterfter all, he had a front row seat. He's a high ranking officer. and he says the Titanic breaking in two is flat out impossible It isn't until nineteen eighty five that the other version of the story is proved. Correct When Bob Ballard locates the wreckage of the Titanic He comes back with photographic proof that the ship did in fact break apart bound the stern rest approximately a third of a mile apart on the ocean floor lightight holder, the apparent expert. was wrong. this turn of events may have lent an air of possibility to other theories about the Titanic If they got this huge fact wrong What else don't we know And with an accident of this scale, there are many theories includluding one that suggests this wasn't. ident This episode is brought to you by Netflix In every major disaster, there are two stories. the one you see on the news. and the one happening behind closed doors Unhinged A new thrilling interactive game experience on Netflix, The hurricane is just a cover story somethingomething else is going on missing neighbors, padlock stairwells peopleople who have met a fate worse than what a raging storm could create Your phone is the controller flashlight and lifeline to your best friend who is aiding in your escape from your apartment before the attacker closes in. When your phone rings Will you answer Play unhinge now. On on Netflix Right now, get up to fifteen percent off seelect Storage Solutions Put heavy duty HDX tots to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid impact resistant design prevents cracking, and the clear basein sides make items easy to find even when the tots are stacked. Find select shelving and tote storage up to fifteen percent off at the Home Depot to organize every room in your home, from your garage to your attic Visit Homedepot. com how doers Get moreore done Your summer weekends fill up fast, but Crocx has your back. Road trips, beach days, last minute getaways, whatever's on the agenda, swing by your local store and find your new goat too Try it, style it, make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up, it shows off. Walock out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest crox store today officially. The Titanic struck an iceberg just before midnight on april fourteenth, nineteen twelve. Tw and a half hours later, it sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean nine hundred and sixty three miles from its intended destination, New York As with so many major tragedies, there is no shortage of people who claim they were supposed to be there But with the Titanic, it's actually true that several notable figures narrowly escape death For whatever reason divine intervention Their plans change. they never board the ship. and their lives are spared Milton S. Hershey, the chocolate magnate, pays a deposit for his first class room on the Titanic. which he later cancels Alfred Gwin Vanderbilt has his ticket to but is a last minute no show adding three more years to his life. In nineteen fifteen, Vanderbilt would go down, ironically, with another massive famous ship. the Lusitania Anden there's American financier and Wall Street tycoon John Pierpont Morgan Reportedly, he's also set to sail on the Titanic in april nineteen twelve but changes his mind Coincidence? Well Not everybody thinks so. JP. Morgan wouldn't be just another first class passenger. One of Morgan's companies controls the White Star line ownwns the Titanic Morgan actually has a special suite on the ship of Dreams. dedicated especially to him It's ready and waiting whenever he wants to hop on board He has his own deck, his own specially designed bathtub The room is styled to suit his personal taste right down to the wood paneled walls In fact Some of Morgan's personal art collection is already loaded onto the ship He's all set to return to New York And then just days before his trip He changes his plans And historians say we don't know for sure why he does this Others say he doesn't board becausecause he knows s. Step back a few years. Around the turn of the twentieth century, the cruise ship industry is born Prior to that, sea travel had been focused on one thing efficiency But a few visionaries see an opportunity. peopleeople want a better experience when they make that long trek across the Atlantic peopleople with money want to travel in luxury Why not make the ship part of the vacation Setting sail on the open sea no longer means months of rigor and meager supplies. even practical journeys between America and Europe could be done in style A few years later, this new business model sparks A rivalry In the early nineteen hundreds, two luxury ocean liner companies are locked in a battle. Cunard line Vversse the White star line. Cunar has the slight advantage. They're the first to add state of the art wireless communication and electric lights to their ships. right on their heels is the White Star line ownwned by Joseph Bruce Isme The company is both innovative and also quite lucrative for its shareholders compompetition between White Star and Cunard is fierce Both companies try to lower ticket prices But that means profit margins dwindle, making it difficult to thrive It's around this time that JP. Morgan takes notice. The investment banker and financial executive already heads a business conglomerate that dominates Wall Street. He can see the cruise line industry is worth its weight in gold. But in his view Profits are being dispersed between too many companies. He does what he does best He sets out to create a monopo. purchases a slew of smaller shipping companies until he owns a growing oceanic empire One thing is still missing though. Prize Jewel He attempts to buy the largest of all the shipping companies Junard Even JP Morgan can't always get what he wants His proposal is rejected That's when he shifts his attention to the white star line Morgan's trrust, the International Mercantile Marine or IMM buys White Star for roughly thirty two million dollars in nineteen oh two, or more than one point two billion dollars today the time of Morgan's death in nineteen thirteen portedably be worth about eighty million dollars That's about two point seven billion dollars today He's rich. But he's by no means the richest man in America. In fact, when he dies, some of his friends are like, what I' only worth eighty millionllars. Oh my go God, how embarrassing I thought you were like rich, rich But to Morgan, money is not as important power. which he has in abundance accccording to an article by the Library of Congress One wouldn't be totally wrong in thinking that JP Morgan was banking. He is a Titan and not just on Wall Street In nineteen oh one, he takes control over US. steel and grows it into the very first billion dollar company He also finances and oversees deals for the expanding railroad network Above all else Morgan likes to be the one in command the one who other powerful people turn to. He even bails out the United States government The panic of nineteen oh seven results in a run on the banks Many of them are forced to close their doors M are on the verge of bankruptcy and the fate of the New York stock exchange hangs in the balance. too make a long story short, Morgan puts up his own money and talks his rich buddies into doing the same ensuring the banks don't run out of cash and calming the fears of the American people Afterward, Morgan wants to make sure an economic crash like that never happens again After all, his businesses rely on a thriving economy That takes us to November of nineteen ten when an elite group of six men meet in secret at an exclusive club hidden away on a remote island Of course, these things are going to start with an elite group meeting in secret at an exclusive club hidden away on a remote island likeike they're just going to meet at a hotel conference room in Manhattan Jeyll Island. course, sits just off the coast of Georgia. At this time owned by the members of the Jeyll Island Club. This is not just any private organization It's believed to be the most inaccessible club anywhere populated by the richest members in the world including, of course JP Morggan Morgan is not present at this meeting in nineteen ten But it's believed he's probably the one who sets everything up The man ostensibly in charge on Jekyll Island is a Republican senator named Nelson Aldritich who by the way, has a toddler grandson named after him future Vice Pident Nelson Rockefeller Aldrich goes to great lengths to keep this whole meeting under wraps He invites the other attendees to a quote unquote ing trip Each man is instructed to arrive separately at a New Jersey train station. board Aldrich's private train car and to only use first names throughout the week They are like little boys playing a spy game. But the ruse works. details about this meeting won't come out to the public for years And not for lack of trying Journalist BC. Forbes founder of Forbes magazine catches wind of the story a few years later and writes about it twice He thinks he's got the scoop and he's going to expose everyone Except articles fly under the radar People either don't notice or they think he's making it all up At the end of the Jeyll Island meeeting Aldrich and the others leave with a plan for what they call the National Reserve Association early iteration. of the Federal Reserve But the plan faces a lot of detractors. they say Aldrich's plan removes too much of the government's authority over its own economy unchecked The Federal Reserve could favor private interests instead of the interest of the public Furthermore, they worry it puts too much power into the hands bankers Honestly, Aldrich was probably expecting all of this criticism It's a big reason why the island meeting was kept secret in the first place He didn't want people to know the architects of the National Reserve Association could also explain why JP Morgan only watched them work from the sidelines. Rember He is banking If his name were all over the plan, might scare people off And he's very much in favor of this central bank idea It brings us back to the theory that Morgan supposedly knows the Titanic. will sink Theorists say that some of the loudest and most powerful opponents of the Federal Reserve on board the Titanic when it sinks. spepecifically They named three influential men American millionaire, John Jacob Astor Ming magnate, Benjamin Guggenheim. and Macy's co owner Isidor Strauss And remember, Morgan has a ticket and a room set aside for him on the maiden voyage. Some of his belongings reportedly have already been loaded into the cargo hold. And yet he changes his plans a few days before the ship set sail And it's not like today, you know, where a billionaire could jump on his private jet later that day This is his ship, his special room, and the trip takes about a week. It's a pretty big deal to change plans And if he does give an explanation, It gets lost to time But Titanic historians are for two possible answers In twenty twenty one Don Lynch of the Titanic Historical Society tells Reuters that Morgan is too busy trying to export valuable artwork from France Apparently French authorities have had enough of rich Americans buying up their art and hoarding it And now they're tightening their rules Lynch says Morgan sees this moment as one final opportunity to add to his collection before that door closes behind him instead of catching a ride on the Titanic He's in Paris tying up looue ss Another Titanic expert, Ray Lapine says that could be true, but the official story he heard is that Morgan falls ill and wants to extend his stay in Aes Lebon, France E vacations there every year and It's easy to see why. The town is known as the Riviera of the Alps place where lush green mountains tower over andossibly blue waters place that's famous for its healing thermal spas where the ultra wealthy, like Morgan can relax from their I assuming rigorous daily lives Morgan is about to turn seventy five years old If he really is sick, he might be thinking Why leave this calming, healing wonderland aboard a ship Even if it is the nicest ship in the world, Rough seas probably don't sound too appealing either that's, or he just wants to spend a few more days with his travel companions who also happens to be his mistress some say thoseose are justcover stories because in nineteen thirteen, the year after the Titanic sinks the Federal Reserve Act is signed into law in order to make that happen. The theory goes. Maybe Morgan wields his power something he clearly relishes to make the Titanic go down his detractors with it. But If Morgan did target his rivals, then sinking the Titanic seemeems like a risky way to take them out. That True, all three supposed enemies of the Federal Reserve Astor Strauss and Guggenheim do Paris that night According to sururvivors' reports Astor ushers his wife into a lifeboat passed up his own chance to board one. Strauss's story is similar He refuses to board before women and children and gets left behind As for Guggenheim, when it becomes clear the ship is sinking, reportedly gives up his life vest changes into his best suit spends his final hour drinking brandy and smoking a cigar As the legend goes He and his valet declare they want to quote Go down I'm not saying it would have been easy for these men to survive. Perhaps Morgan knows they would rather die than be thought of as cowardly stealing a seat out from under a woman or child By the way, that's exactly what happens to White Star Managing director, Bruce Ismay After he survives on board a lifeboat American papers go so far as to brand him It's unfairly poward of the Titanic But if Morgan did just assume all three men would die You made a lucky guess. that first class passengers had the highest survival rate of all the Titanic passengers about sixty two percent They were closest to the lifeboats Fthest from the rising water And historians say their safety was prioritized over those in second and third class. Nearly two out of three of the wealthiest people on board What really makes this Morgan plananet theory questionable though is the fact that they're is no proof that Astor Strauss or Guggenheim were actually against the Federal Reserve There's no evidence of how Asther or Guggenheim felt about the central bank at all. And Isadore Strauss went on record with the New York Times in nineteen eleven, stating his support for the idea You can even find the article in the archives under the headline Isidadore Strauss urges new banking plans. Strauss agrees the country needs something like what the National Reserve Association is proposing Quite frankly, even if all three men had been outspoken opponents It's hard to see how their deaths would keep the Federal Reserve Act from passing. The initial ideas that came out of that secretive meeting on Jekyll Island went through multiple revisions before being signed into law. When it was first proposed by the Republican Senator, Aldrich He failed to gain bipartisan support In nineteen twelve Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the presidential election Democrats took control of the Senate and the House both of which form committees to scrutinize Aldritich's proposals and make changes. point being It's hard to understand how Astor, Strauss, and Guggenheim could have stopped that train in its tracks And again, that's if they were truly against the Federal Reserve in the first place It's even more difficult to imagine how one would orchestrate sinkingly famously unsinkable ship using an iceberg Morgan knows that the Titanic can only stay afloat if no more than four of its watertight compartments are compromised as the ship's owner, he theoretically could have had influence over its design. and more than enough money to pay an engineer for their silence There's never been any evidence to suggest striking the iceberg is anything but an accident. notot to mention This theory assumes Morgan is willing to sacrifice teen hundred innocent lives to target three men In a situation he has little actual control over It's also been suggested that the Titanic does not have the correct type of rockets on board And that's why nobody responds to their distress signal. Those who support the idea Morgan had something to do with making sure it sank T point out the ship needed red flares all they had on board were white flares The Titanic was indeed outfitted with thirty six white flares, not red part is true And red is the color that's generally required today if a ship is in trouble. However, the rules are a little different when the Titanic sinks According to the nineteen twelve International Rules of the Road, basically the maritime traffic rulebook Signals do not necessarily have to be read as long as they make a loud sound Now there is one more stipulation Signals of distress should be fired at one minute intervals on the Titanic. A total of eight rockets were fired over the course of an hour. and not at regular intervals either Witnesses say there are long stretches of time in between. any ships that might have been within earshot wouldn't be expected to understand this pattern as a distress signal Now There is one eerie part to this theory And that is the existence of the novella. ertility or the wreck of the Titan. It's an eighteen ninety eight story by Morgan Robertson, written and published years before the Titanic was built. It main character is John Roland So we'ce is an opportunity to work aboard the world's largest ship called Titan The fictional boat is supposed to be Unsyinkable Then, while crossing the Atlantic, the Titan strikes an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland and sinks to the bottom of the ocean aren't enough lifeboats on board and few survive. By the way, all these parallels between the book and the actual disaster that happened less than fifteen years later are real which has led to the insinuation that Morgan could have read the Novella used it as a playbar But all of this seems to be ignoring one basic fact Morgan is nothing if not a good businessman. and sinking the Titanic is not a good deal Now For one thing, the Maiden voyage should be one of the crowning achievements of his career and a huge boost for the White Starline for another The Titanic would need to make several more trips before it could recoup the building cost Ultimately, Morgan has more to lose than gain by sinking the Titanic If he had wanted to kill those men there were more cost efficient ways of doing it. tragedy like this aside from the immeasurable human cost is just bad business However There's another theory about why the White Star line might have wanted the Titanic to sink It has nothing to do with who is on board Everything to do with making a profit. 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Find Starbucks Rappuccino drinks wherever you buy your groceries In the nineteen nineties, over eighty years after the Titanic sank Author Robin Gardner publishes two books exploring his theory The White Star line intentionally sank its own ship in April of nineteen twelve But that's not the Titanic Ballard found at the bottom of the ocean It's a different ship that was passed off as the Titanic first We need to understand why the Titanic is built in the first place Remember that rivalry I mentioned between the White Star line and cunard Well, a few years after JP Morgan buys White Star, unard launches two amazing new ships. theauritania and the Lusitania When they both began operation in nineteen oh seven, they are the biggest and fastest passenger superliners in the world. They're also the most expensive If you listen to our recent episode on The Lusitania, you may already be aware of the luxuries offered on board. Roomy cabins There are even electric elevators. For its time, the lusitaneous level of opulence is mind blowing I have to assume, JP Morgan isn't thrilled Now the White Star line is being walloped by Cunard in pretty much every conceivable way. Bruce Ismay, the managing director of White Star. has to find a way to keep his boss, Morgan happy to keep their company in the game That same year. He works with White Star's dedicated shipbuilders to focus on the one area where they know they can outclass the Cunard line Luxury They can't be faster They might as well be more stylish and comfortable best stateooms on the ocean squash quartz Tirkish bath. A gymnasium complete with a mechanical horse elegant woodwork, every detail thought out and to provide world class comfort They'll build their ships bigger than the Lusitania and Mauritania too The White Star line plans three new ocean liners The first two The Olympic and the Titanic. are to be built almost in tandem in Belfast, Ireland Construction on the Olympic begins in december nineteen oh eight. Once the haul is in place, work begins on the Titanic in march nineteen oh nine The sister ships are brought to life side by side On paper, they are nearly identical in design, almost the same specs, similar layout, similar decor, and machinery. They even have sequential yard numbers to identify their parts The Olympic is branded with the number four hundred, while the Titanic is four hundred one As planned, the Olympic is finished and launched first in october nineteen ten And it's in service by late spring of nineteen eleven But just a few months later, the Titanic's big sister badly damaged That September, the Olympics sets off on its fifth voyage across the Atlantic as it passes through the narrow channel between mainland Great Britain and the Isle of White A Royal Navy ship, the HMS Hawk sails toward it, eventually they turn and wind up moving parallel to each other. All of a sudden, the Olympic takes a turn wider than the Hawk expected and the two ships collide. is much smaller than the Olympic. mostost ships are, remember, it's currently the largest ocean liner in operation However, the Hawk cruiser that's been in use since eighteen ninety one has an inverted bow in front It sticks out farthest under the water that so it can ram other ships and inflict Damnits The result is a forty foot tear along the Olympic starboard side. twowo of the Olympics lower compartments take on water Captain proceeds with an evacuation By the way, that's Captain Edward J. Smith as in the same guy who will later captain the Titanic and die in the process Anyway, he suddenly realizes, hey The Olympic isn't sinking the watertight compartments have worked The evacuation is halted and the Olympic safely makes it to dry land even with a gaping hole in its side There is no loss of life which will reinforce the idea that the White Starlines's ocean liners really are Unsinkable. But while the Olympic doesn't sink Obviously damaged. damaged. It returns to Belfast for repairs in october nineteen eleven where construction on the Titanic is still underway accccording to the official story R repairs take about six weeks, and the Olympic is back in operation that November The Titanic's maiden voyage will ultimately be delayed in part because some of its builders have to divert their energy to fixing the Olympics However Author Robin Gardner says that's not what actually happens Once the Olympic makes it back to Belfast, he says Higher ups at White Star realize the damage done by the Hawk is much worse than what was widely reported. Gardner partially bases this claim on how long the Olympics spent at port in South Hampton right after the collision The temporary repairs needed to sail onto Belfast, he argues took a suspiciously long time. And that gives way to the theory that once the Olympic does pull into port in Ireland taking its old spot next door to the Titanic A decision is made to switch Why Well, the Olympic is going to take too long to fix and the extensive repairs are going to cost far more than anybody anticipated added to that An investigation deems the Olympic at fault for the Hawk incident whichich means be no insurance money And somewhere along the way, Gardner says, Bruce Ismay realizes It will be much faster to finish the Titanic put her into service disguised as the Olympics. Thus buying them a few more months to fix up the Olympic, which will now sale under the new name Tanic It's a colossal switcheroo, and that's not all. The theory goes that White Star has given up on fully restoring the real Olympic cost isn't worth it Instead They can call it the Titanic then sink the ship in a fake accident. take home a full insurance payout againgain. When the Titanic sets sail on its maiden voyage in april nineteen twelve, Gardner is saying that's really the Olympics. Days later, it sinks because he says it was always meant to snink all in the name of making a buck Gardner's theory has gained momentum on social media and Rddit in the past few years Those who believe the Olympic and Titanic were switched say there's even photographic evidence in particular, pointoint out The theory goes like this In its original designs, the Titanic has fourteen portholes evenly spaced on the port side of seea Deck while photos show the Olympic has sixteen poroles in the same spot and they are unevenly spaced But when the Titanic leaves South Hampton on april tenth, nineteen twelve What port holes does it have? Not fourteen But sixteen. and they're unevenly spaced Suddenly, the Titanic just like the Olympic as if they've been swapped But historians say the porthole theory and the photos are easily debunked when the two ships were designed, they looked very similar on paper, right? Not identical but close. The Olympic is launched over five months before the Titanic It also has a head start of nearly ten months in operation, transporting passengers. All that time, the designers are learning lessons with the Olympic taking note of what works and what doesn't and making improvements to the Titanic while it's still under construction For example The Olympic has a large BDck promenade The designers believed passengers would enjoy strolling through and catching a glimpse of the sea. But in practice the BDC promenade doesn't get much use. So over on the Titanic The same promenade gets scrapped That space is redesigned and used for additional first class cabins and a cafe The Titanic then gets an enclosed promenade up on ADck, which you can see in photos taken in april nineteen twelve as the Titanic departs on its maiden voyage aroundround the same time The Olympic does not have the enclosure on the AD So What's were the port holes? It is true that the Titanic was designed to have fourteen In fact, So was the Olympic Between the Titanic's launch in nineteen eleven and its actual Maiden voyage in nineteen twelve Two additional portholes are added above the crew galley busy space gets spoiling hot and the workers needed more air and light two new poroles provide some relief, even if they aren't perfectly spaced. Experts say Gardner's theory confuses the timelines of when the porthole photos were taken Now, Gardner counters that during those six weeks in the fall of nineteen eleven, when the Olympic and the Titanic are swapping places buildilders change how their upper decks look too The Olympic is given a be deck that resembles the Titanics and vice versa The fact is the port holes and the decks were not the only noticeable differences between the two ships At the time, the Titanic is still being finished. It has months to go before its maiden voyage. inststallation of its engines and even its funnels hasn't been completed Retrofitting the Olympic to look like the Titanic did in november nineteen eleven would have taken more than six weeks. along with all the other repairs and finishing touches that had to be done First, there's the fact that physically swapping the parts would have actually been a tremendous undertaking carried out in a very short period of time Since Bob Ballard discovered the Titanic wreckage Items have been brought to the surface. that includes dishware stamped with the Titanic logo, as well as parts of the ship which are all stamped four hundred one Titanic yard number If it were really the Olympic at the bottom of the ocean floor somethingomething emblazoned with its yard number four hundred should have been recovered There are other details down to where the bells were located that make it easy to differentiate between the Olympic and the Titanic. and which would have made swapping them a monumental task Pulling it off would have required so much manpower that somebody would have talked or if workers were paid for their silence, Passer by could have seen something. The Titanic and Olympic were out in the open for all of Belfast to see As Naval designer Stephven Payne tells Ocean Liner D designs The theory is, quote, compleomplete nonsense and an absolute fallacy If that evidence isn't enough, well, The insurance scam wouldn't even pay off The Titanic reportedly costs seven point five million dollars to build. It's insured for a total loss It's just five million dollars White Star would need an incredibly strong motive to sacrifice fifteen hundred lives and its own reputation and Losing two and a half mill just doesn't make financial sense When I was a kid, I remember thinking, how did they not see the iceberg? which I think leads to this whole sense of like, was there something more nefarious at play But in recent years, a new theory about what happened that night has come forward On the night the Titanic sank Air near the surface of the water was much colder than the air above it. bends light in ways we aren't used to creating a mirage. It's called super reffraction comes with a thermal inversion and it makes the horizon appear higher than it really is. and everything below that looks like water. It's why we see an oasis mirage in the desert Not only did it make it difficult to spot the iceberg until they were too close to avoid it It also made the Titanic invisible to a ship that was nearby They could have saved more lives The sinking of the Titanic is a deeply unsettling story filled with destruction and death There are many heroes. sickness of human desperation is also very much on display So I want to leave you with another Later theory concerning the Titanic. It's august eighth, nineteen ninety six, and filming is underway on James Cameron's Titanic cast and crew are in Nova Scotia, wrapping up the present day scene starring Bill Paxton and Gloria Stewart The film sets are already notorious for long hours. added to that, this crew is filming outdoors at night. They don't get a lunch break until midnight And that's when they tuck into a warm, comforting bowl of chowder. when it's time to get back to work James Cameron suddenly feels horribly ill. He runs off the bathroom and ends up losing a stouter, as they say. And as he walks back onto the set, he says it's like he's found himself in the middle of a twilight zone episode Everybody's gone. Turns out they have not vanished into thin air. they've gotten sick too Everyone who ate the chowder is experiencing intestinal distress. According to a police report, some eighty crew members will be sent to the hospital by the end of the night The immediate assumption is it's a case of food poisoning Cameron actually thinks the chowder could have been tainted by shellfish neurotoxin You know, the kind we've mentioned was used in the CIA's heart attack gun Because tummy troubles aren't the end of it Cameron experiences other debilitating effects He's so anxious he can barely breathe. And canan't stop laughing Even when a crew member walks up and stabs the director in the face with a pen Meanwhile, Bill Paxton, who also ate the Tainted chowder, is busy taking part in a conongo line around the set If this is food poisoning, it is one of the most bizarre cases ever reported. So the local police conduct an investigation. They discovered that the chowder hadn't gone bad Somebody laced it with in cycladine. otherwise known as PCP or angel Dust, which can cause extreme hallucinations Detectives never name a suspect and the case is closed in nineteen ninety nine Cameron has voiced his suspicion that a recently fired crew member did it, but then again, who knows Gloria Stewart reportedly didn't eat lunch on set that night at all. She went to a restaurant Either she's just that classy or she needed an alibi The Chowder story is true, and yet it's almost too wild to be believed Which fits in perfectly with the real story. Titanic unsinkable ship. down by an iceberg Five days. into its maiden voyage. Thank you for listening. Conspiracy theories rewind We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at the Conspiracy Pod. If you're watching on Spotify, swipe up and give us your thoughts Our sources for today's episode include National Geographics documentary, Titanic, The Digital Resurrection Tanic, the ship that never sank by Robin Gardner Britennica and Titanic conspiracy The full trruth by Ocean Liner desesigns Until next time, remember. The truth isn't always the best story. And the official story isn't Always the truth This episode was written and researched by Mickei Taylor and Jenna Lennon, edited by Justin Sales, fact checked by Sophie Kemp, and engineered, video edited and sound designed by Alex Bututton. I'm your host, Carter Roy There are two types of business owners, those who are busy and those who want to be busy. 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