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Seven Weird Facts
Despite sinking in 1912, the RMS Titanic remains the best-known ship of all time. Although the horrific fate of the ship and most of its passengers are historical facts, there are lesser-known facts that are both directly and indirectly related to the legendary ocean liner.
The Famous "Thayer Drawing" was Wrong
The Famous "Thayer Drawing" was Wrong
A famous drawing of the Titanic disaster was wrongly attributed to survivor Jack Thayer. In truth, Mr. Thayer relayed his account to an artist after being rescued by the RMS Carpathia, and the artist then proceeded to get many of the details wrong. Most notably, the Titanic's front end never raised out of the water, and the ship did not split apart in the shape of a letter "V" (as later happened to the ill-fated warship HMS Hood). Regardless of the facts, the above drawing is still referenced as being a factual representation despite being incorrect in very meaningful ways.
Titanic Had Enough Lifeboats
Titanic Had Enough Lifeboats
The number of lifeboats aboard Titanic was sufficient for their intended use as emergency watercraft to get people to another ship and then return to Titanic to get more. They were meant to go back-and-forth as emergency ferries to get everyone off Titanic in stages, but they were never meant to be used for getting everyone off the ship all at once. That was a fault not of Titanic's owners, but of the maritime rules of the day. Titanic's sinking caused the rules to be changed.
Some Thought the Sinking was Faked
Some Thought the Sinking was Faked
For decades, some believed that RMS Olympic (pictured above) was switched for the brand-new RMS Titanic, and that Olympic was intentionally sunk as part of an insurance scam. The factual part of the story is this: in 1911, Olympic collided with a British warship named HMS Hawke. From there, the conspiracy took over. Claims were made that the brand-new Titanic was fully insured, but the Olympic was badly underinsured, so the cost of Olympic's repair would exceed its coverage amount. The story then claims that the White Star Line crafted a fiendish plot wherein the Olympic and Titanic were both put back into port, and all signage was covertly swapped between the two sister ships. When done, the allegation stated that Titanic then had all of Olympic's markings, and Olympic emerged with all of Titanic's markings. From there, it was a simple matter to sink the damaged Olympic (posing as the Titanic) in the then-unreachable depths of the Atlantic regardless of the lives lost.
However, the conspiracy theorists ignored one major detail: the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast carved unique yard numbers on the propellors of the RMS Olympic (400), RMS Titanic (401), and HMHS Britannic (433) while they were under construction. After the wreck of Titanic was discovered in 1985, various researchers checked the yard number carved into her propellors. The number they found was 401, confirming that it is indeed Titanic that rests at the bottom of the Atlantic.
"Unsinkable" Began With a Misunderstanding
"Unsinkable" Began With a Misunderstanding
Titanic was initially not proclaimed to be unsinkable. Among other statements made by its designers and builders, it was said to be "as unsinkable as possible" (among other statements to that effect) due to its multiple watertight compartments and double bottom hull, but they never claimed the ship was absolutely unsinkable. The false claim regarding the ship's impossible buoyancy was traced to misunderstandings of the above and to overzealous employees who innocently repeated the incorrect beliefs as truth, and their unwitting misrepresentations live on in perpetuity.
A Book Predicted Disaster
A Book Predicted Disaster
A kind of strange link exists in that Morgan Robertson's novel, Futility, a work later retitled as The Wreck of the Titan after the sinking of the Titanic, detailed the sinking of the world's largest ocean liner after it struck iceberg. The book came out 14 years before the Titanic went down. Stranger still, the name Titan was given to the submersible that imploded and sank near the wreck of the Titanic.
The Deadly Iceberg was Not Visible
The Deadly Iceberg was Not Visible
Keep in mind that just because an object is white, it does not give off white light on its own, and with no moon in the sky on the night Titanic sank, there was no moonlight to reveal the deadly white iceberg. The lack of light caused the iceberg to appear as a black void in a black ocean. Yes, the sea was black, not blue, due to lack of light. It's blue in the daytime, but at night it's black. The following video shows you the ocean at night from a cruise ship. The few lights in the distance are likely from another vessel. This is what the crew of Titanic was facing when they were trying to spot icebergs on the dark sea.
Not the Biggest Ship
Not the Biggest Ship
Titanic was actually the second of three vessels of the Olympic class of ocean liners for Britain's White Star Line. Despite being remembered as the biggest ship of her day, that belief is not true, as all ships of the class shared the same length, height, and a similar width. However, Titanic was slightly heavier than her older sister, Olympic, and it was slightly lighter (and narrower) than the final ship of the class, Britannic, upon that ship's later completion.
-TechRider
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