Imagine, if you will, a magnificent vessel, setting forth on a journey that promised opulence and grandeur, from the picturesque Queenstown, Ireland to the glittering shores of New York. The Titanic, a marvel of human engineering, stood as an unshakable symbol of invincibility, or so they said. Yet, on that fateful night, destiny took a different course. But what if this tragedy wasn't merely an accident? What if hidden beneath the waves lies a tale of hidden motives, concealed agendas, and unanswered questions? Today, we embark on a voyage of inquiry and curiosity, as we dive headfirst into the enigmatic web of conspiracy theories that continue to swirl around the Titanic's sinking. Can it be, that the Titanic's fate was not a mere twist of chance, but a carefully orchestrated event with motives that remain obscured to this day? Join us, as we navigate these treacherous waters and uncover the mysteries that refuse to let this maritime disaster rest in peace. Things are about to get strange.

Let’s start with the history of the RMS Titanic. It got its name from the Titans of Greek mythology.  It was the largest ship at the time, and was the second of three Olympic-class ocean lines operated by the White Star Line. It was built in Belfast (Northern Ireland’s capital), by the Harland and Wolff shipyard. Thomas Andrews was the chief naval architect of the shipyard. He died in the sinking. Captain Edward Smith was in command of the ship, and he also went down with the ship. The Titanic carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as emigrants from Europe who wanted to make a new life in America and Canada. 

Let’s talk about the specs of the Titanic. It was 882 feet 9 inches long with a maximum width of 92 feet 6 inches. The total height from the base of the keel to the top of the bridge was 104 feet. Titanic had 10 decks (excluding the top of the officers quarters), and eight of them were for passenger use. The Titanic was equipped with three main engines, each driving a propeller. The passenger facilities on the Titanic aimed to meet the highest standards of luxury. The Titanic could accommodate 833 First class passengers, 614 Second class passengers, 1006 Third class passengers, making the total passenger capacity of 2453. In addition to the passenger capacity, there was an additional capacity for the crew, and that exceeded 900. The interior design was a style of a manor house or English country house. First class passengers had access to a 7 foot deep saltwater pool, a gym, a squash court, massage room, and hot room as well as other accommodations. There was a lounge in the style of the Palace of Versailles, a men’s smoking room, and a reading and writing room. In contrast, Third class was not as nice. They consisted of little more than open dormitories where hundreds of people were confined without adequate food or toilet facilities. They did have open deck space, a woman’s reading room, and a smoking room for men. 

At 11:40PM on April 14th, lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic and alerted the bridge. First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the icebergs and the engines to be reversed. Unfortunately, it was too late. The starboard side of the Titanic struck the iceberg. This created a series of holes below the waterline. The hull was actually not punctured, but dented in a way that its seams buckled and separated. This allowed water to rush in. Five of the watertight compartments were breached. It was soon clear that the Titanic would sink. She could not remain afloat if more than four compartments were flooded. She began to sink bow-first. Water spilled from compartment to compartment as the angle in the water became steeper. 

Those in charge were ill prepared for such an emergency. Since ships were seen as largely unsinkable and lifeboats were intended to transfer passengers to nearby rescue vessels, Titanic only had enough room for about half of those on board. If the ship carried her full capacity of about 3339 passengers and crew, only about a third of the passengers could have been accommodated. The crew was not trained properly in carrying out an evacuation. The officers didn’t know how many people they could safely fit on the lifeboats, so they were sending them off half-full. Third class passengers were largely left to fend for themselves. Many of them were trapped below decks as the ship filled with water. The “children and women” first rule was generally followed when loading the lifeboats, and most of the men and crew members were left on board. Women and children survived at rates of about 75% and 50% while only about 20% of the men survived. 

Between 2:10 and 2:15am, about 2 ½ hours after the Titanic hit the iceberg, her rate of sinking suddenly increased as the boat deck dipped underwater. The sea poured in through open hatches and grates The ship broke into two pieces between the second and third funnels as her unsupported stern rose out of the water. This was due to the immense forces on the keel. With the bow underwater and air trapped in the stern, the stern remained afloat for a few minutes longer. It raised to almost a complete vertical, and still had hundreds of people clinging to it. It finally filled with water and sank at 2:20 am. All remaining crew and passengers were immersed into the water at a temperature of only 28*F. Only 5 who were in the water were helped into the lifeboats, even though the lifeboats had room for almost 500 more people. 

Distress signals were sent out by lamp and rockets. None of the ships that responded to the Titanic were near enough to reach the Titanic before it sank. A radio operator on board SS Birma estimated that it would be around 6 am before they got to the sinking ship. The SS California saw Titanic’s flares but did not go and help. RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene at around 4 am and assisted. The lifeboats that had been lowered were only filled up to about 60% when the ship sank. 706 people survived while 1517 people died. 

Now let’s get into the conspiracy theories on the Titanic. Here are the main theories out there:
It was actually the Olympic instead of the Titanic: This is one of the most elaborate and controversial theories out there. It was advanced by Robin Gardiner in his book, Titanic: The Ship That Never Sank? Gardiner draws on several coincidences and events leading up to the sinking of the Titanic. IT concludes that the ship that sank was actually Titanic’s sister ship, Olympic, disguised as the Titanic. This was done as an insurance scam by its owners, the International Mercantile Marine Group. That group was controlled by JP Morgan. Several researchers and authors had a problem with this theory. British historian states that “since the sister ships had significant interior architectural and design differences, switching them secretly in a week would be nearly impossibly from a practical standpoint. A switch would also not be economically worthwhile since the ship’s owners could have simply damaged the ship while docked (for instance, by setting a fire) and collected the insurance money from that “accident”, which “would have been far less severe, and infinitely less stupid, than sailing her out into the middle of the Atlantic with thousands of people, and their luggage, on board, and ramming her into an iceberg.”
There is a theory that the Titanic was sunk on purpose to eliminate the opposition to the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank. Some of the most wealthy men in the world were on the Titanic on her maiden voyage. Some of them include John Jacob Astor IV, Isidor Straus, and Benjamin Guggenheim. They were allegedly opposed to the creation of a US central bank. There is no evidence of this-Astor and Guggenheim never even spoke publicly about the subject, while Straus spoke in favor of the subject. All three men died during the sinking. The main reason behind this thought is that Morgan planned on traveling on the Titanic. He attended the Titanic’s launching in 1911, and he booked a personal suite aboard the ship that had its own private promenade deck and a bath equipped with a specially designed cigar holder. Instead, he canceled the trip on the maiden voyage of Titanic. He chose to stay at the French resort of Aix-les-Bains. His alleged last minute cancellation has fuelled speculation among conspiracy theorists that he knew the ship was going to sink. This theory has been refuted by Titanic experts George Behe, Don Lynch, and Ray Lepein. They all provide their own alternative reason as to why Morgan canceled at the last minute. 
 Closed watertight doors: This theory suggests that if these doors would have remained opened, the Titanic would have settled on an even keel, therefore, remained afloat long enough for rescue ships to arrive. This theory has been rebutted for two reasons. First, the first four compartments were naturally watertight, thus it was impossible to lower the concentration of water in the bow significantly.  Secondly, historians and studies have shown by calculations that any significant amount of water after boiler number 4 would have resulted in the capsizing of the Titanic, which would have taken place 30 minutes earlier than the Titanic would have actually sank. Even more so, the lighting would have gone out about 70 minutes after the collision with the iceberg due to the flooding of the boiler rooms. It was also analyzed in the hypothetical case that there weren't any bulkheads at all in the ship. The vessel would have capsized about 70 minutes before the actual time of the sinking and lighting would have been lost about 40 minutes after the collision.
A fire in a coal bunker: A fire began in one of Titanic’s coal bunkers about 10 days prior to the ship’s departure. It continued to burn for several days into the voyage. Fires occurred regularly on steamboats due to spontaneous combustion of the coal. The fires had to be extinguished with fire hoses, by moving the coal on top to another bunker and by removing the burning coal and feeding it into the furnace. This led some authors to theorize that the fire made the problem worse when Titanic collided with the iceberg. This is because the fire is believed to reduce the structural integrity of the hull and a critical bulkhead. Senan Molony, a writer and editor, had suggested that attempts to extinguish the fire may have been the reason why Titanic was steaming full speed prior to the collision, even though there were ice warnings. Most experts do disagree with that. Samuel Halpe, a systems engineer and author, concluded that “the bunker fire would not have weakened the watertight bulkhead sufficiently to cause it to collapse.”
A mummy’s curse doomed the Titanic: One of the passengers who went down with the Titanic was William Stead. He was a British editor who subscribed to early 20th century spiritualism. He had spent the past several years claiming that a cursed mummy was causing mysterious destruction and mayhem all around London. While he was on board, Stead happily repeated his tale of the mummy’s curse to other passengers. After the ship sank, a survivor repeated Stead’s tale to the New York World, and other media picked it up.  The very next month, The Washington Post ran this headline: “Ghost of the Titanic, Vengeance of Hoodoo Mummy Followed Man Who Wrote Its History.” In other versions of the story, the mummy was actually on board the Titanic because the British Museum had sold it to an American who was shipping it home, Snopes reports. But the real truth is that the “unlucky mummy” is still at the British Museum. No mummy was ever loaded onto the ship. 
The ship’s number read “No Pope” backwards: One myth stated that Catholic employees of Harland and Wolff, the Belfast company that build the Titanic, were distressed that the ship’s number, 3909 04, seemed to say “No Pope” when viewed in a mirror. Was this a sign of bad luck? The late Titanic historian Walter Lord thought no. He wrote that he received letters from people in Ireland relaying this theory in the mid 1950’s. Yet as he pointed out in his book, there was no such number ever written on the Titanic. This still does not stop tourists from asking about this myth when visiting Titanic museums. 


FUN FACTS:
-It was believed that the Titanic sank in one piece. The discovery of the wreck years later revealed that she had broken in 2. 
-The last living survivor, Millvina Dean from England, was only 9 weeks old when the ship sank. She was the youngest passenger on board. She passed away on May 31st, 2009 at the age of 97. 
-Isidor Straus, US Congressman and co-owner of Macy’s, died on the Titanic with his wife, Rosalie Isa Straus. Both were offered to go on a lifeboat, but Isidor refused because there were still women and children aboard. He didn’t feel like it was right. He decided to stay on board, and urged Rosalie to get on a lifeboard. She refused, saying “We have lived together for many years. Where you go, I go”
-The Titanic shipwreck is now an underwater UNESCO Heritage site. 
-Milton Hersey, the man that invented Hershey chocolate, was supposed to be on the Titanic with his family. He even wrote a $300 check to reserve his stateroom. Business took importance, and they did not make it. 
-A rust eating bacteria is slowly eating away the Titanic.This microorganism, Halomonas titanicae, can adhere to steel surfaces and forms the rusticles seen on the hull of the wreckage. 
-It is estimated that about 100,000 people watched the launch of the Titanic. That is about ⅓ of the population in Belfast. 
-The last lunch menu sold for tens of thousands of dollars. On September 30, 2015, a private collector bought the menu on an online auction for $88,000. That was $18,000 more than the initial maximum price. 
-14000 gallons of water were consumed each day on the ship. 
-It took over seven decades to find the ship’s ruins. 
-13 couples were on their honeymoon. 

Questions 
What do it think is the most logical reason behind the sinking?
 What would you do if you were on the ship?
What makes you the most sad about what happened?

As the Titanic rests silently on the ocean floor, its steel hull cradling the secrets of that fateful night, it remains a testament to the mysteries and conspiracies that lie shrouded in the depths. The whispers of the past, the unanswered questions, and the untold stories of that tragic voyage remain encapsulated in the deep, where the Titanic keeps its secrets as the world above continues to ponder the truths that have become an integral part of its haunting legacy…Stay weird ya’ll.