It’s been 100 years since the Titanic set sail for the first time; also the same time since it sank, becoming one of the most known and devastating shipwrecks in modern history. We all know the story; the majestic and unsinkable ship set sail on April 10, 1912, from Southampton, England, to New York. On its fourth night, the Titanic hit an iceberg; in less than three hours, the ship sank completely. Of the 2,224 registered passengers and crew members, only 700 survived.
But what if the largest ship of the time, deemed unsinkable, was doomed to sink? What if it wasn’t only the iceberg that doomed the ship but human negligence that helped speed the tragedy? Theories around the sinking of the Titanic have been around since the very time the ship sank. Back in the day, the most random theories emerged, from the laughable story of the Titanic being cursed by an Egyptian mummy to a more sinister one regarding J.P. Morgan, the villainous banker that plotted the sinking to end with his enemies.
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Of course, these are mere conspiracy theories, but recently a very plausible one emerged that could shed light on what really happened to the Titanic.
Iceberg and fire?
In 2017, an Irish journalist revealed in his documentary Titanic: The New Evidence, that before the iceberg, the Titanic experienced a fire that damaged the hull of the ship before it even set sails on its maiden voyage. Senan Molony spotted the damage on photos of the ship taken in Ireland before it was shipped to Southampton.
Molony came to the realization after acquiring a set of photos taken by no other than the engineering chief of the Irish company that built the Titanic. These were sold by a descendant of the director of the company to Molony who after a thorough examination discovered there was a sign of damage, a long black streak, on the hull of the ship. At first, naval architects suspected it was a light reflection showing on the photograph, but analyzing the light and the buildings around Belfast’s shore, there’s no way a reflection that noticeable could’ve appeared on the photo.
According to Molony’s research, this 30-feet streak may have been caused by a fire registered on the coal bunkers of the Titanic, weeks after its first voyage. For Molony, it was clear that the company decided to put down the fire and ignore the damage to avoid bad press on what was publicized as the fastest and longest ship of its time and to keep things on schedule.
How bad was the damage? According to an interview Molony gave to the Smithsonian, the Titanic was a single-skin ship like most ships at the time. The coal bunkers were placed right next to the single-skin hull, so the fire definitely damaged the structure of the Titanic. So, when the Titanic set sail it was already a weakened ship, the iceberg only accelerated the tragedy.
Doomed to sink
To sustain his theory, Molony explains that the fire had been documented at the time but seeing the magnitude of the devastation, that fact lost interest. As mentioned, he believes that the engineers and the company in charge of making the Titanic were well aware of the damage the fire had caused to the structure of the ship but decided to let it sail anyways to avoid public scandal.
The iceberg hit the ship next to the already damaged hull, making it sink faster. Had not been for the weakened structure, the ship might’ve held longer and allowed the Carpathia to reach them on time to save more lives. Molony also believes that without the damage the ship would’ve not broken, which also accelerated the sinking.
For him, the tragedy of the Titanic “it’s a perfect storm of extraordinary factors coming together: fire, ice, and criminal negligence… She should never have been put to sea.