Everybody knows of the story of the supposed “unsinkable” Titanic. Which on April 10th, 1912 at 9:30 a.m., the excited people of Southampton started boarding the Titanic. They were traveling to the magical New York City. People boarded the ship with their mouths open at the sight of her designs. They admired the walls, staircases, and paintings of the so called “Titanic”. People waved their family goodbye, for what was maybe the last time, and settled down on the top decks. Fast forward four days, the Titanic has had a smooth ride. Until they received several iceberg warnings throughout the day. Eventually the Titanic hit an iceberg in the ocean at 11:40 p.m.. Soon after the ship started to sink. People fought their way to the lifeboats for hope of escaping the sinking ship. The beautiful halls gone, the paintings gone, and the poor people’s lives gone. This happened, but what if the ship the sank was not the Titanic, but rather her sister ship…. The Olympic? All the unnecessary deaths could have been prevented by one mistake long ago.

The RMS Titanic hit an iceberg while on her voyage from Southampton to New York City, sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. She was an Olympic-class ocean liner which was 882 ft 9 in (269.1 m) long and 175 ft (53.3 m) tall, and was built by White Star Line. She had the ability to carry 3,547 people, but only carried 2,224 People. She also only contained 20 lifeboats, which could only carry a minority of the passengers on board. This monster of a ship cost a total of $7.5 million to build. The captain of the Titanic was Edward Smith. People normally only know of the Titanic, but there was also a sister of the Titanic. The RMS Olympic, which was also built by White Star Line. Apparently after service, she was scrapped for parts. She was a Olympic-class ocean liner which was 882 ft 6 in (269.0 m) long, which is three inches difference, and 175 ft (53.3 m) tall. The dimensions of the ship's were almost identical. She was built to carry up to 2,435 people. She also costed a whopping $7.5 million.

Now, this is where the conspiracy theory begins. J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line, sold the company to J.P. Morgan in 1902. Then fast forward to 1911, when the RMS Olympic collided with a Royal Navy ship, damaging the left hull of the ship. The left side of the hull had a large hole which, while in port, caused the ship to tilt the left. Then White Star Line was blamed for the incident, and refused to pay the $800,000 insurance for the ship's repair. Since the Titanic was still incomplete and the needed repairs to the Olympic, White Star Line was in financial debt. And this was where things start to get weird. According to Robin Gardiner, a writer of The Great Titanic Conspiracy, this was where JP Morgan created a plan to advertise the Olympic as the Titanic. The Olympic would then set sail to New York City masked as the Titanic. Since the Olympic was already damaged from 1911, they would then sink the Olympic and then White Star Line could claim the full insurance for the Titanic. They would then be able to complete the RMS Titanic. The Titanic, being completed, would carry on its life known as the Olympic.

But something of course had to go wrong with the planned sinking. When the Olympic hit the iceberg, it tilted to the left, the same side where it collided with the Royal Navy ship(confirmed by survivor Lawrence Beesley). Lawrence Beesley stated, while the ship was sinking, “I then called the attention of our table to the way the Titanic listed to port, and we watched the skyline through the portholes.” The ship tilted to the left, their fore drifting towards the left. J.P. Morgan was supposedly ready for sinking ship, having prepared many rescue ships of to the right were ready to take and rescue the passengers. One point which Dan Parkes(writer website designer for http://www.williammurdoch.net) made about the of the rescue ships the S.S. Californian was carrying about one-thousand wooly jackets and blankets. Why would a ship be carrying thousands of jackets and blankets?  But since the ship veered of to the left, away from the supposed rescue ships. J.P.’s ingenious plan to swap two Olympic-class ocean liners, “accidently” killed around 1,503 people. But all of this was the one fault in J.P. Morgan’s plan, The Olympic was already damaged, and this accident could have been avoided.

There is an overwhelming amount of evidence to support this theory. First of all if you look at the Titanic and Olympic in the same picture, you can barely tell them apart. Their deck plans and dimensions of the ships are indistinguishable from each other. Their length was only a six inches difference, which was not recognized without a firm look. But the height was the same on both ships, 175 ft (53.3 m). Both ships did not prominently display their names like a normal ship which usually has its name on its hull, so it wouldn't of taken much effort to switch the names. Survivors of the incident claimed they ran across the Titanic's decks, but were cabins were supposed to be, there were promenades, which match the Olympics plans. Also, the most supportive evidence was the ship's sea trials says Gardiner. In 1910 the Olympic took two days to complete its sea trials at high speeds, and in 1912 the Titanic could only manage one day and at half the speed. This was because when the Titanic was the Olympic, it couldn't go at high speeds because of the damaged hull from 1911.  Last of all, on the wreck of the Titanic, the letters M and P can be supposedly be seen, Suggesting the word OLYMPIC. Furthermore supporting the theory.

With all the evidence and proof that this theory is plausible, there are some things which point otherwise. When Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of the Titanic, there was an identification number found which read 401. The identification number 401 is the number for the Titanic. Meaning the ship at the bottom of the ocean is the Titanic. In this grand scheme of J.P. Morgan to switch the ships and claim insurance, the cost of Titanic was $7,500,000, but only insured for $5,000,000. So White Star Line would of made a $2,500,00 loss in insurance claims. Which they would not benefit from.  Last but not least, on the wreckage there are the letters: T I T A N I C pointing to that the ship under the ocean is the RMS Titanic, not the Olympic.

The information provided and needed to determine that the Titanic was the Olympic is overwhelming. There is sufficient proof to say that the Titanic is the Titanic and the Gardiner theory is just unquestionably convincing coincidence. Unless there is some dethroning evidence to displace this conspiracy theory, people will still believe the biggest insurance scam in history.