The Titanic sank... Or did it?

The Titanic is the "unsinkable ship" that is famous for sinking. Obvious grounds for conspiracy, right? With over 1,500 lives lost, nobody is disputing that a ship sank on that fateful night. However, evidence has been found to suggest that it wasn't the Titanic that sank, but another White Star Line ship, the Olympic. The story is that White Star Line, the owner of Titanic, was near bankruptcy around the time of Titanic's scheduled maiden voyage in 1912, and it needed to make some money, fast. Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, had been damaged in two separate collisions in 1911. According to conspirators, the damage was more serious than White Star Line officials wanted to admit, and repairs would have been debilitatingly costly. So, they hatched a plan to switch the ships, sinking the Olympic, disguised as Titanic to collect insurance money for the newer ship.¹ A pretty straightforward plan, however devious it may have been. Now the question is, does this theory hold water, or will it be sunk?

Damage done to the hull of the Olympic after
a collision with another ship in 1911.
Wikimedia Commons

There is quite a bit of evidence that makes this theory seem plausible. The ships were moored together and looked close to identical from the outside, making a potential switch fairly easy. One aesthetic difference was the number of portholes on the ships. Olympic had 16, and Titanic had 14, until it suddenly had more. Early photographs of Titanic showed 14 portholes, until it was ready for its doomed voyage, where it is seen at the dock with an additional two portholes.¹
Remember how the Olympic had been damaged? The liner's collisions left her with a port side list, meaning that she leaned slightly to one side. The brand new Titanic would not have this sort of imperfection, would she? According to a report from survivor Lawrence Beesly, a science teacher who later wrote a book on the sinking, Titanic did list to port.¹ Other witnesses testified to this phenomenon, and it can even be seen in some photographs.
One of the more intriguing pieces of evidence deals with who was not on the ship. There were several famous people who were scheduled to travel on the Titanic, but cancelled last minute due to a variety of reasons. Interestingly, J.P. Morgan, who owned White Star Line's parent company, as well as many of his friends, were among these cancellations.¹ Did Morgan know something that thousands of other less fortunate people didn't?
Even with all the casualties, the disaster could have been much worse, considering the fact that Titanic was only about half full on her voyage. Some have speculated that White Star Line tried to minimize casualties by not selling all available tickets. However, if this was the case, then why didn't they include an appropriate number of life boats?

Olympic and Titanic in March of 1912.
Olympic, on the left, is having her propeller replaced.
Wikimedia Commons

Luckily, the wreckage of the Titanic was found in the 1980s, and more theorizing has happened with the new evidence that surfaced at the ocean floor. A few cosmetic details such as paint color and lettering have been cited as evidence that the wreck is actually the remains of the Olympic, but these can't be conclusive, especially since the ship had been underwater for 70 years before being located. One interesting discovery shows that Titanic's identification number can be seen on the wreck's propeller, which is to be expected, except that Titanic's propeller was supposedly used for Olympic during her repairs.¹ If that was the case, then it keeps the switch argument in play.
So, many facets of this theory seem plausible, but there is a lot of evidence to the contrary. I'll begin with the question of the insurance. Would it have been worth it for White Star Line to attempt this huge, dare I say titanic, undertaking of switching its ships? According to the records, no. Titanic was actually underinsured by about 2.5 million dollars.² And White Star Line was not even really in financial trouble at the time, so purposefully sinking their newest, most highly-touted ship doesn't seem like the best business model to me.
Furthermore, theorists seem to have conveniently simplified the ease with which the two ships could have been switched. Besides the fact that the ships' names were plastered all over everything, there were a few major differences in layout. Titanic had an enclosed deck as well as private suites, two features that Olympic lacked. Plus, Titanic was just plain bigger than Olympic.²

The Titanic, seen with 16 portholes
The Titanic Stop- oocities.org

So what about the portholes, and the list? Those extra two portholes were added later for better light and air quality. Titanic did list to her port side, but this has been explained as a weight imbalance, something that is not uncommon in ships.²
Now we come to the issue of all the cancellations. Apparently this is just an example of finding evidence where you're looking for it. It seems to be a myth that J.P. Morgan had planned to sail on Titanic at all, since he had public plans in Europe for later in the month.²
Finally, we are back to the propeller. If you are still clinging to this bit of evidence, brace yourself for a fall. The two ships were different enough that their propellers would not have been interchangeable. While the Olympic did apparently receive one of Titanic's propeller shafts, she likely had her own spare propeller installed.² So, the fact that the wreck's propeller has Titanic's ID number on it should be a positive identification.
 Titanic's accident intrigues us to this day, evidenced by the $2 billion made by the James Cameron film. Since the ship was advertised as unsinkable, yet sank just days into her maiden voyage, people naturally look for foul play. If you want to see more reasoning, follow this link for a whole list of rebuttals to conspiratorial claims. Based on all this evidence, I think it is pretty safe to say that the ship that really sank on that April morning in 1912 was really the Titanic. However, there are some people who will probably never be convinced. They will take the words of Jack and Rose literally, and they will never let go.



¹https://theunredacted.com/titanic-conspiracy-the-ship-that-never-sank/
²http://titanicswitch.com/claims.html