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In 1912 the unthinkable happened - the supposedly unsinkable Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg, or so it was thought. In this bestselling book author Robin Gardiner claims that it was not in fact the Titanic but the sister ship, the Olympic, which finished its days sinking in the icy waters of the North Atlantic on that fateful night. His contention is that what happened was an insurance scam perpetrated by the White Star line which may have involved the possible collusion by the British government in the cover-up.
On 20 September 1911, the Olympic was involved in a collision with the Royal Navy Warship HMS Hawke in Southampton Water. Olympic was found to be to blame in the collision. Because of this finding, White Star's insurers allegedly refused to pay out on the claim. As this would amount to a serious financial loss for the company, it is alleged that, to make sure at least one vessel would be earning money, the badly damaged Olympic was patched up and then converted to become the Titanic. The real Titanic when complete would then quietly enter service as the Olympic. To dispose of the Olympic, which had allegedly been damaged beyond economic repair in a way that would allow White Star to collect the full insured value of a brand new ship, the plan was to open the seacocks at sea to slowly flood the ship. Numerous ships were stationed nearby to take off the passengers, the shortage of lifeboats would not matter as the ship would sink slowly and the boats could make several trips to the rescuers.
The controversy which this theory has generated, and some of the evidence used to support it is compelling, has made this book into a bestseller in the years since it was first published. Regardless of whether you choose to believe in this version of the events that took place on that terrible night in 1912, which still resonate so strongly well over a century afterwards, Titanic: The Ship That Never Sank? is a fascinating, well written and absorbing read.
