Who hasn’t heard the tragic story of RMS Titanic?

The ship’s architects claimed it was “unsinkable,” and was the most luxurious ship in the world at the time; but it is now infamous for causing the death of over 1, 500 people. One theory claims that it sank because of a cursed Egyptian mummy named Princess Amen-ra, also known as the Unlucky Mummy. Another theory stated that it wasn’t just an iceberg that hit Titanic, but that the sinking of the ship was part of an insurance fraud.

A number of people don’t know that Titanic had two “sister” ships called Britannic and Olympic. The ships’ operator and the owner of White Star Line used Olympic to “fool the world” and claim a large sum of money.  If you look closely at footage from the British Patti archive which has been used for a numerous amount of films, you’ll see what you think is Titanic, but little do you know, it is actually Olympic. The fact that movies used this footage to represent the Titanic shows how similar the two are and how easily it could fool the common eye. The plan was to swap Titanic with Olympic. Passengers wouldn’t know the difference between the two because of how similar they look. Next, just switch the nameplates. Make sure everyone is aboard the ship so all of the money is collected from the tickets. Then, make it appear as if the ship accidentally hit an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Get everyone onto the passing vessel the SS Californian. Lastly, claim the insurance money without losing lives.

Does that sound risky? Quite possibly! So, what would have made White Star Lines so desperate for money to fulfill this plan? J. Bruce Ismay (the owner of White Star Lines) thought that Olympic was going to be the “cash cow” ship, but it didn’t succeed as much as he hoped. To start off with, Olympic had major electrical problems, and after its maiden voyage in 1911, the ship had a serious collision with Royal Navy Ship HMS Hawke. The damage following the accident was far more severe and would cost more money than the company’s budget allowed for and White Star Line’s insurance policy didn’t cover all of these damages. So, the only way the company could make money on off Olympic was to sink it. They changed the name to Titanic, which was heavily insured, and this later passed as Olympic.

Olympic or possibly Titanic would continue operating for another 23 years and was finally abandoned in 1935.

Sadly, nothing seemed to go to plan, and many people lost their lives when the SS Californian failed to respond to Titanic‘s distress signals. The White Star Line ended up paying out millions of compensation claims.

The final question is – what do you think?