The Role Of Iron Rivets In The Construction Of The Titanic
The wrecked “Titanic” was searched for and located by Robert Ballard in 1985 (The Ship That Never Sunk). Upon review of the footage and pictures of the wreck, the propeller caught the attention of many. The propeller was clearly stamped with the number 401 (The Ship That Never Sunk). This number was the ID given to the Titanic during its construction. Although this seemingly proves that the Titanic really is the wreck at the bottom of the ocean, supposedly the Olympic's propeller was damaged in the crash with the HMS Hawke. The propeller needed to be replaced, and one theory is that it was fitted with the Titanic's propeller instead of building and shipping a new one. This small detail contributes to the point that the Olympic is the
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one lying on the bottom of the Atlantic. Other fine details can be used to prove this theory. While the unused lifeboats were being extracted from the wreck, they were transported to land and the name of the “Titanic” was sanded off to thwart souvenir hunters (The Olympic Switch Theory). While sanding off the name, the workers discovered the faint indication of the word “Olympic” underneath (The Olympic Switch Theory). On the side of the ship, the two letters “M” and “P” can be faintly seen. Other small evidence is the undercoat of the Olympic versus the undercoat of the Titanic. The wreck of the supposed Titanic features an undercoat of gray paint, which was used on the Olympic. The Titanic used a black undercoat. Even if these pieces of evidence are not substantial proof for the theory of the swap, one piece of irrefutable evidence has surfaced and it is based on the rivets holding the entire liner together. Three million rivets that held the Titanic together were flawed in their composition (Spignesi 264).
the iron rivets used for the construction of the Titanic were cheaply made and resulted in the damage from the iceberg to be more extensive than normal. The problem of the iron rivets were the way they were created. The usual composition for iron rivets would use about two percent of a substance called slag (Spignesi 265). “Slag is glass residue that is left over from smelting metallic ores” (Spignesi 265) It is used in iron rivets to make them structurally stronger, otherwise the metal would be too soft and give way to deformation. Paul Foecke, a metallurgist, experimented on two iron rivets pulled directly from the wreck of the presumed Titanic (Spignesi 261). When testing the levels of slag in the Rivets, Paul found that there was a nine percent concentration of slag instead of the regular two percent. This over saturation of slag would make the rivets more brittle and susceptible to snapping (Spignesi 261). This factor greatly contributed to the Titanic's sinking. Although the idea of a deliberate sinking would come long after most of the rivets were placed into the Titanic, this revelation actually works in favor of the theory because of the brute strength of the “Olympic” post sinking of the
“Titanic.” After the “Titanic” had sunk, the “Olympic” which was in fact the Titanic, went on to sail for 27 years (Spignesi 267). If the builders of the Titanic decided to call it “the unsinkable ship,” then they would have spared no expense to ensure that the ship really would not sink, as the ship was advertized as being the most luxurious liner of the time. This causes one to question, if the “unsinkable ship” sunk so easily by ramming into an iceberg, how could the supposed Olympic survive for 27 years? Of course in normal circumstances, any ship could sail for 27 years without accidents, but the “Olympic” which was really the Titanic, was plagued with accidents, despite being called “Old Reliable” (Spignesi 267). The ship, during it's long life, collided with two other ships, ran over and sank a submarine, and was hit by a dud torpedo, before ultimately being scrapped in 1936. Despite these incidents, the ship truly never sank (Spignesi 267). The sheer strength of this vessel was immense, even by today’s standards, and for the alleged Titanic, a ship that was assumed to be more powerful and grand than the Olympic, the vessel did not stand much of a chance against a measly iceberg. The logical conclusion is that the ship nicknamed “Old Reliable” was really the Titanic. After the “Olympic” was dismantled, many of the pieces were used for other projects instead of being scrapped. Some of these pieces included the first class staircase, which was used in the construction of the White Swan Hotel (Did The Titanic Really Sink). Curiously, the wood paneling from the purported Olympic is marked with the number 401 (Did The Titanic Really Sink). This was the identification tag used when the Titanic was being constructed in Belfast while the Olympic was identified with a 400 (Did The Titanic Really Sink). This small detail is more than enough proof that the salvaged paneling belonged to the Titanic and not the Olympic. Although there is much evidence supporting the theory of a swap, many still believe that the Titanic did in fact sink, many try to debunk the theory of a swap because it seems so unreal or impossible. Many opponents of the swap theory state that the wreck of the purported Titanic is enough evidence to determine what really happened. One such “proof” of the ship really being the Titanic is the marking of the number “401” on most of the furniture and other artifacts brought to the surface from the wreck (Did The Titanic Really Sink). Although a substantial point, it would be redundant not to assume that if White Star would go through all the trouble to switch the ships, then it is not a stretch to say that they also swapped the furniture between the ships to make it appear more accurate. If White Star would go as far as switching the two largest liners in the world at the time, they would obviously take precautionary measures such as replacing all the furniture with the “correct” identification number. Some people believe that the two sister ships were not identical and were spotted with several small differences. Many skeptics believe that the similarities between the two ships were not as alike as most portray it to be (Did The Titanic Really Sink). While the two liners had their differences, they were still almost identical in representation and therefore still easy to swap the two without much suspicion of a change. Even though some of the differences on the Titanic and Olympic were easy to spot. It would have not been enough time for anyone to suspect a difference between the two liners. There are other reasons to be suspicious of the claim that the collision between the Olympic and HMS Hawke itself was really as serious as most say. Some skeptics say the Damage the HMS. Hawke inflicted on the Olympic was really not too serious (The Olympic Switch Theory).While this point may make sense, it is important to note that the repair costs for the damages would still be expensive for the company to pay without having some way of recuperating. It is understandable that any unforseen expense, will take a toll on a company. Even if the damages were minute, the cost of the repair for the boat itself is not the only expense, there would also be worker expenses and payments to the owner of the docks they were filling with their liners. Other factors that point against the swap theory claim is the idea of a dismissive public's interest in the Titanic. Many claim that the Titanic did not receive much attention from the media because its sister ship, Olympic had been seen before and therefore people were relatively uninterested in the Titanic (The Olympic Switch Theory). This seems like an unreliable theory as many people were excited to see the Titanic which is reflected in many photos. Another defense that skeptics claim is that with so many variables and opportunities for something to fail, how could Captain Smith be sure he was going to strike an iceberg (Did The Titanic Really Sink)? This question is easy to answer as the alleged Titanic was not hit by one random rouge iceberg, but it was in a sea of icebergs and therefore would have been difficult to avoid them all. The idea that it would be difficult to hit an iceberg in an are filled with them is not far fetched. The final piece of speculation against the swap theory is the loss of reputation of White Star Line would suffer as a result of the crashing of their ship. Although a significant point, reputation is not as important as money is, at least in White Star's eyes. Even if many potential customers were driven away because of the Titanic's sinking, there would still be many people willing to take the risk. White star would rather cultivate money instead of keeping their reputation as pristine as possible. The Titanic was the grandest ship in the sea up until its supposed sinking on the morning of April 15 1912 (Hines 3). The tragedy of the most luxurious ship in the ocean on its maiden voyage resonates deeply with all who know the story. Although a horrendous incident that led to the terrible fate of more than 1,683 lives, as the first official report reads (Hines 7), the fate of these passengers was pre-determined by a struggling company to recuperate over one million dollars (Hines 22). The Titanic indeed never sank, it was instead swapped out with its damaged sister ship to acquire the money they lost when the careless captain of both ships, Edward Smith, crashed into the HMS Hawke (Spignesi 21). It was because of this accident that the idea was concocted to switch the ships. It was because of this careless plan that cost many people their lives based on the liner's title “Unsinkable”. The vessel that set sail and sunk because of an iceberg was not the Titanic. It was the Olympic and all the evidence amounts to unquestionable proof that the wreck of the Alleged Titanic was more than it seemed. The wreckage of the “Titanic” shows the lengths White Star Line went through to save themselves from going bankrupt. It shows the audacity the company had to risk the lives of their own customers just to stay in business. Because of the wreck, many men and women lost their lives in vain, they died because of the poor and immoral decisions other men made. It is important to remember and accept the truth that the Olympic was switched out and presented to the public as the Titanic because it exposes the dark truths that White Star wanted to remain buried. The sinking of the Olympic disguised as the Titanic is an important part of history and the theory that remains widely unaccepted should be recognized as true fact. Until the truth is exposed, one of the biggest lies in history will continue to present itself as fact which is a grave insult to the many men and women who lost their lives on the ill fated trip aboard a ship they called the Titanic. The Titanic truly never sank and the proof from the smallest rivets, to firsthand witness accounts, to the wreck as a whole, prove in 100 percent fact the truth behind the sinking of the purported Titanic.
Works Cited
Hines, Stephen W. Titanic. Sourcebooks, 2011.
“Murdoch.” The Olympic Switch Theory: Did the Titanic Really Sink? William Murdoch, www.williammurdoch.net accessed 4 Apr. 2018.
1912.” Trove, trove.nla.gov. accessed 4 Apr. 2018.
Spignesi, Stephen J. The complete Titanic: from the ships earliest blueprints to the Epic film. Carol Pub., 1998.
“Titanic Disaster. - The Scrutineer and Berrima District Press (NSW : 1892 - 1948) - 3 Aug accessed 4 Apr. 2018.
TitanicMystery. “Did the Titanic Really Sink or was it Olympic?” Shorthand, social.shorthand.com accessed 4 Apr. 2018.
Titanic: the tragedy that shook the world: one century later. Life Books, 2012.
Unredacted, The. “Titanic Conspiracy: The Ship that Never Sank.” Theunredacted.com, The Unredacted, 30 Jan. 2018, theunredacted.com accessed 4 Apr. 2018.
one lying on the bottom of the Atlantic. Other fine details can be used to prove this theory. While the unused lifeboats were being extracted from the wreck, they were transported to land and the name of the “Titanic” was sanded off to thwart souvenir hunters (The Olympic Switch Theory). While sanding off the name, the workers discovered the faint indication of the word “Olympic” underneath (The Olympic Switch Theory). On the side of the ship, the two letters “M” and “P” can be faintly seen. Other small evidence is the undercoat of the Olympic versus the undercoat of the Titanic. The wreck of the supposed Titanic features an undercoat of gray paint, which was used on the Olympic. The Titanic used a black undercoat. Even if these pieces of evidence are not substantial proof for the theory of the swap, one piece of irrefutable evidence has surfaced and it is based on the rivets holding the entire liner together. Three million rivets that held the Titanic together were flawed in their composition (Spignesi 264).
the iron rivets used for the construction of the Titanic were cheaply made and resulted in the damage from the iceberg to be more extensive than normal. The problem of the iron rivets were the way they were created. The usual composition for iron rivets would use about two percent of a substance called slag (Spignesi 265). “Slag is glass residue that is left over from smelting metallic ores” (Spignesi 265) It is used in iron rivets to make them structurally stronger, otherwise the metal would be too soft and give way to deformation. Paul Foecke, a metallurgist, experimented on two iron rivets pulled directly from the wreck of the presumed Titanic (Spignesi 261). When testing the levels of slag in the Rivets, Paul found that there was a nine percent concentration of slag instead of the regular two percent. This over saturation of slag would make the rivets more brittle and susceptible to snapping (Spignesi 261). This factor greatly contributed to the Titanic's sinking. Although the idea of a deliberate sinking would come long after most of the rivets were placed into the Titanic, this revelation actually works in favor of the theory because of the brute strength of the “Olympic” post sinking of the
“Titanic.” After the “Titanic” had sunk, the “Olympic” which was in fact the Titanic, went on to sail for 27 years (Spignesi 267). If the builders of the Titanic decided to call it “the unsinkable ship,” then they would have spared no expense to ensure that the ship really would not sink, as the ship was advertized as being the most luxurious liner of the time. This causes one to question, if the “unsinkable ship” sunk so easily by ramming into an iceberg, how could the supposed Olympic survive for 27 years? Of course in normal circumstances, any ship could sail for 27 years without accidents, but the “Olympic” which was really the Titanic, was plagued with accidents, despite being called “Old Reliable” (Spignesi 267). The ship, during it's long life, collided with two other ships, ran over and sank a submarine, and was hit by a dud torpedo, before ultimately being scrapped in 1936. Despite these incidents, the ship truly never sank (Spignesi 267). The sheer strength of this vessel was immense, even by today’s standards, and for the alleged Titanic, a ship that was assumed to be more powerful and grand than the Olympic, the vessel did not stand much of a chance against a measly iceberg. The logical conclusion is that the ship nicknamed “Old Reliable” was really the Titanic. After the “Olympic” was dismantled, many of the pieces were used for other projects instead of being scrapped. Some of these pieces included the first class staircase, which was used in the construction of the White Swan Hotel (Did The Titanic Really Sink). Curiously, the wood paneling from the purported Olympic is marked with the number 401 (Did The Titanic Really Sink). This was the identification tag used when the Titanic was being constructed in Belfast while the Olympic was identified with a 400 (Did The Titanic Really Sink). This small detail is more than enough proof that the salvaged paneling belonged to the Titanic and not the Olympic. Although there is much evidence supporting the theory of a swap, many still believe that the Titanic did in fact sink, many try to debunk the theory of a swap because it seems so unreal or impossible. Many opponents of the swap theory state that the wreck of the purported Titanic is enough evidence to determine what really happened. One such “proof” of the ship really being the Titanic is the marking of the number “401” on most of the furniture and other artifacts brought to the surface from the wreck (Did The Titanic Really Sink). Although a substantial point, it would be redundant not to assume that if White Star would go through all the trouble to switch the ships, then it is not a stretch to say that they also swapped the furniture between the ships to make it appear more accurate. If White Star would go as far as switching the two largest liners in the world at the time, they would obviously take precautionary measures such as replacing all the furniture with the “correct” identification number. Some people believe that the two sister ships were not identical and were spotted with several small differences. Many skeptics believe that the similarities between the two ships were not as alike as most portray it to be (Did The Titanic Really Sink). While the two liners had their differences, they were still almost identical in representation and therefore still easy to swap the two without much suspicion of a change. Even though some of the differences on the Titanic and Olympic were easy to spot. It would have not been enough time for anyone to suspect a difference between the two liners. There are other reasons to be suspicious of the claim that the collision between the Olympic and HMS Hawke itself was really as serious as most say. Some skeptics say the Damage the HMS. Hawke inflicted on the Olympic was really not too serious (The Olympic Switch Theory).While this point may make sense, it is important to note that the repair costs for the damages would still be expensive for the company to pay without having some way of recuperating. It is understandable that any unforseen expense, will take a toll on a company. Even if the damages were minute, the cost of the repair for the boat itself is not the only expense, there would also be worker expenses and payments to the owner of the docks they were filling with their liners. Other factors that point against the swap theory claim is the idea of a dismissive public's interest in the Titanic. Many claim that the Titanic did not receive much attention from the media because its sister ship, Olympic had been seen before and therefore people were relatively uninterested in the Titanic (The Olympic Switch Theory). This seems like an unreliable theory as many people were excited to see the Titanic which is reflected in many photos. Another defense that skeptics claim is that with so many variables and opportunities for something to fail, how could Captain Smith be sure he was going to strike an iceberg (Did The Titanic Really Sink)? This question is easy to answer as the alleged Titanic was not hit by one random rouge iceberg, but it was in a sea of icebergs and therefore would have been difficult to avoid them all. The idea that it would be difficult to hit an iceberg in an are filled with them is not far fetched. The final piece of speculation against the swap theory is the loss of reputation of White Star Line would suffer as a result of the crashing of their ship. Although a significant point, reputation is not as important as money is, at least in White Star's eyes. Even if many potential customers were driven away because of the Titanic's sinking, there would still be many people willing to take the risk. White star would rather cultivate money instead of keeping their reputation as pristine as possible. The Titanic was the grandest ship in the sea up until its supposed sinking on the morning of April 15 1912 (Hines 3). The tragedy of the most luxurious ship in the ocean on its maiden voyage resonates deeply with all who know the story. Although a horrendous incident that led to the terrible fate of more than 1,683 lives, as the first official report reads (Hines 7), the fate of these passengers was pre-determined by a struggling company to recuperate over one million dollars (Hines 22). The Titanic indeed never sank, it was instead swapped out with its damaged sister ship to acquire the money they lost when the careless captain of both ships, Edward Smith, crashed into the HMS Hawke (Spignesi 21). It was because of this accident that the idea was concocted to switch the ships. It was because of this careless plan that cost many people their lives based on the liner's title “Unsinkable”. The vessel that set sail and sunk because of an iceberg was not the Titanic. It was the Olympic and all the evidence amounts to unquestionable proof that the wreck of the Alleged Titanic was more than it seemed. The wreckage of the “Titanic” shows the lengths White Star Line went through to save themselves from going bankrupt. It shows the audacity the company had to risk the lives of their own customers just to stay in business. Because of the wreck, many men and women lost their lives in vain, they died because of the poor and immoral decisions other men made. It is important to remember and accept the truth that the Olympic was switched out and presented to the public as the Titanic because it exposes the dark truths that White Star wanted to remain buried. The sinking of the Olympic disguised as the Titanic is an important part of history and the theory that remains widely unaccepted should be recognized as true fact. Until the truth is exposed, one of the biggest lies in history will continue to present itself as fact which is a grave insult to the many men and women who lost their lives on the ill fated trip aboard a ship they called the Titanic. The Titanic truly never sank and the proof from the smallest rivets, to firsthand witness accounts, to the wreck as a whole, prove in 100 percent fact the truth behind the sinking of the purported Titanic.
Works Cited
Hines, Stephen W. Titanic. Sourcebooks, 2011.
“Murdoch.” The Olympic Switch Theory: Did the Titanic Really Sink? William Murdoch, www.williammurdoch.net accessed 4 Apr. 2018.
1912.” Trove, trove.nla.gov. accessed 4 Apr. 2018.
Spignesi, Stephen J. The complete Titanic: from the ships earliest blueprints to the Epic film. Carol Pub., 1998.
“Titanic Disaster. - The Scrutineer and Berrima District Press (NSW : 1892 - 1948) - 3 Aug accessed 4 Apr. 2018.
TitanicMystery. “Did the Titanic Really Sink or was it Olympic?” Shorthand, social.shorthand.com accessed 4 Apr. 2018.
Titanic: the tragedy that shook the world: one century later. Life Books, 2012.
Unredacted, The. “Titanic Conspiracy: The Ship that Never Sank.” Theunredacted.com, The Unredacted, 30 Jan. 2018, theunredacted.com accessed 4 Apr. 2018.