#titanic conspiracy?

[artemis-moon23]

I find irrational fears hilarious

Not like fears of clowns or dolls or things that are scary, but won’t hurt you.

But like SUPER specific fears.

Like my friend’s fear that the titanic only sunk because Leonardo di Caprio went back in time and sunk it himself just to star in the titanic movie, and that he is some all powerful time traveler that is also a serial killer? Apparently “he has too much power.” And “our fate is in his hands”

Idk what’s going on.

Now I’m starting to think he also invented the stock market.

(I’m also kinda scared now to)

[hiraeth-doux]

the kate middleton thing is the most fun the internet has been since a bunch of rich people decided it was a good idea to visit the bottom of the ocean in a diy submarine built it someone's backyard

[8one6]

[lyralee333]

Head Canon

What if unclaimed demi-gods at Camp Half-Blood were just Roman's brought to the wrong camp.

[grimm-the-tiger]

I made this post a little while ago listing some facts about shipwrecks that probably only I find interesting, so now I’m back to talk about some of them. Specifically, the Olympic. The Olympic was the namesake of the Olympic-class liners, whose most notable member was the Titanic. Out of the three Olympic-class ships - Titanic, Olympic, and Britannic - only one of them was actually unsinkable, and that was the Olympic. 

Over the more than 20 years of its existence, the Olympic was never once in real danger. The Olympic was the danger. On its fifth voyage in September 1911, Olympic was running parallel to the HMS Hawke, a British warship designed specifically for ramming things. Olympic suddenly turned to starboard (right side of the ship if you were facing towards its front), catching Hawke’s commanding officer off-guard; he wasn’t able to avoid the collision and ended up ramming the other ship. Olympic was left with a substantial hole beneath the water line (although flooding was for the most part averted due to its bulkheads actually working properly, *cough* Titanic *cough*) and a slightly less substantial hole above it. Hawke, meanwhile, had its entire bow caved in. Olympic made it back to port just fine under her own power, while Hawke almost capsized. Somehow, no one was seriously hurt or killed. 

Three fun facts about this situation: Violet Jessop, a woman famous for surviving the sinkings of both of the Olympic’s sister ships, was onboard the Olympic when this happened. This incident also reinforced the idea that the Olympic-class was unsinkable. The famous postponement of the Titanic’s maiden voyage also occurred because of this incident; a propeller shaft was damaged in the collision, they needed a new one ASAP, and, well, the Titanic was right there... 

Four years later, WWI broke out. The Olympic was requisitioned as a troop ship, given 6-inch naval guns, and sent on its way. In 1918, while travelling to France with a literal boatload of American soldiers, Olympic spotted U-103, a German U-boat chilling on the surface of the ocean. Olympic opened fire on U-103, which immediately crash dived to keep from dying, then turned to ram the U-boat. Olympic hit U-103′s conning tower and tore open the hull with its propellers. U-103′s crew decided “fuck this” and abandoned ship; Olympic didn’t bother to stop to pick them up, so a nearby American warship did instead. It was later found that U-103 was preparing to torpedo Olympic when they’d been spotted, but they couldn’t flood the torpedo tubes in time. Olympic remains the only merchant vessel in WWI recorded to have sunk an enemy vessel (which would become a more common occurrence during WWII, to the extent that the Nazis apparently tried and hanged at least one captured British merchant captain for ramming one of their U-boats. The Nazis were ones to talk, considering they rehired the man who sank the Carpathia and was notorious for war crimes that included things like “drowning surrendered enemy crews by forcing them to strip and stand on the roof of his submarine, then diving the submarine” and “attacking designated hospital ships that made it very obvious they were hospital ships”). 

Following WWI, while Olympic was being refit for civilian service, a sizeable dent was discovered below the waterline. It was later concluded to have been caused by a faulty torpedo, most likely fired by U-53 while the Olympic was travelling through the English Channel. 

Olympic collided with another, smaller ship, Fort St. George, in New York Harbor on March 22, 1924. There’s not much information on how badly Olympic fucked Fort St. George up, just that Olympic apparently fucked around a little too much and found out, because the collision broke its sternpost (support post in the back of the ship; think of it like a central pillar in a structure), forcing the entire stern frame to be replaced. 

On November 18, 1929, Olympic was cruising not far from the Titanic’s wreck site when the whole thing began shaking for two minutes. This was later found to have been caused by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Newfoundland. 

The Olympic’s last hurrah (and casualty) was on May 15, 1934, when it collided with the lightship LV-117. Olympic had known the lightship was in the area, but didn’t know where exactly it was until they were right on top of it. Olympic’s captain immediately ordered a hard turn and the engines slowed, so Olympic wasn’t moving particularly fast when it did hit LV-117 (about 3 and a half miles per hour), but Olympic was fucking huge, and the people onboard barely noticed when they practically crushed the lightship under them. Only four of the eleven crew aboard LV-117 survived; four went down with the ship and three died in Olympic’s hospital (yes, these things had hospitals; I told you there were fucking huge). 

Olympic was fully scrapped in 1937, forever going down in history as both the only Olympic-class ship that was actually unsinkable and the one with the longest reign of terror. Good God, man. I understand sinking the U-boat, but you didn’t need to bring like four other ships down with you. 

[morganbritton132]

Eddie posts a Tiktok that starts with him grinning at the camera with a smile that says he’s about to be annoying on purpose. He flips the camera around to the other side of the couch where Steve is playing Solitaire on his tablet.

Eddie, nudging Steve with his foot: Baby, did you know some people don’t think the moon landing was real.

Steve, not looking up: It was real. It was on TV.

Eddie: They think it’s impossible to go to the moon so they just filmed it in a studio in Hollywood.

Steve, annoyed by this conspiracy theory: So, they can go to another world but can’t get to the moon? That’s too hard? Eddie, I think those people are a little dumb.

[jessica-marie-baumgartner]

How strange

[deanfreakingwinchester]

The Simpsons still out here predicting shit and then it actually happens…

Update: this episode was from 2006. 🤯

[stone-stars]

songs in c3e68: dearly departed (timestamps from the ad-free version. does not include the generic combat music. “a wizard’s tournament” is the recap song.)

Langston - 7:34

Unknown Tome - 9:51

Conspiracy in the Clouds - 11:38

The Red Fen - 12:53

Montgomery Manor - 14:28

Shadowfell - 16:07

Two for Tea - 18:53

Shock at the Dock - 21:36

royalty free metal song - 22:03

Mothership Lobby - 37:22 and 40:23

Frankie Vantasmo - 43:16

All I Need is One Thread to Spin a Web - 45:09 and 46:43

Soul Coins/Deal with a Devil - 48:02

In the Dark of Dusk - 49:59

Melora's Boon - 54:10

The Feywild - 57:47

The Titan of Air - 1:00:52 and 1:04:13

Sea Beast - 1:06:45

When You Wish Upon a Stone - 1:12:12

The Multiverse - 1:14:21

The Feywild - 1:15:25

The Red Fen - 1:16:46

Into the Planar Pool - 1:22:05

Spearmint & Tea Leaves - 1:24:07

A Fairy Remembers - 1:27:33

Kingshammer - 1:28:50

A Fairy Remembers - 1:31:49

Kingshammer - 1:34:24

Bahumia Theme - 1:36:44

context for each song + notes under the cut!

Langston - 7:34 - Sinking into the water / Initiative / Waking up

Unknown Tome - 9:51 - Calder realizes they're tied to tables

Conspiracy in the Clouds - 11:38 - Callie tries to cast a spell

The Red Fen - 12:53 - Callie starts screaming / Duck Team chaos

Montgomery Manor - 14:28 - Aristocrat vampires show up

Shadowfell - 16:07 - Baron Stunch introduces himself

Two for Tea - 18:53 - Baron Stunch asks how to celebrate them / Suggests eating them for weeks

Shock at the Dock - 21:36 - Baron suggests a "compromise" (goes to eat Sol)

royalty free metal song - 22:03 - Duck Team are rescued w/ a fireball from Albin

Mothership Lobby - 37:22 - Albin leads them into Ma Goblin's ship

Mothership Lobby - 40:23 - Talking to Ma about the magic cuffs and the Shadowfell

Frankie Vantasmo - 43:16 - Articles about Jovyre, Cyrilla, and Cyra in the time Duck Team were out

All I Need is One Thread to Spin a Web - 45:09 - News of Cyra and of Jovyre's PR spin

All I Need is One Thread to Spin a Web - 46:43 - Jovyre's spin on Duck Team

Soul Coins/Deal with a Devil - 48:02 - Independent news about Jovyre (opposition to her stories)

In the Dark of Dusk - 49:59 - Dissenting voices against Jovyre

Melora's Boon - 54:10 - Callie worrying about Cyra / Talking about how to help her

The Feywild - 57:47 - Flying over Shadowfell and entering the rift / Garrosh's castle

The Titan of Air - 1:00:52 - Entering Garrosh's castle

The Titan of Air - 1:04:13 - Getting down to strategizing with Garrosh / Laying out Jovyre's current position and armies

Sea Beast - 1:06:45 - Garrosh lays out their allies

When You Wish Upon a Stone - 1:12:12 - Garrosh says they'll need help from the serpents

The Multiverse - 1:14:21 - Sol meditates to bring them to the beastlands

The Feywild - 1:15:25 - Sunflower pops up to bring them to the beastlands

The Red Fen - 1:16:46 - Duck Team, Albin, and the Sunflower squabbling

Into the Planar Pool - 1:22:05 - Oberon tells Callie to plead her case to the Serpent Queen

Spearmint & Tea Leaves - 1:24:07 - Callie appeals to the Serpent Queen

A Fairy Remembers - 1:27:33 - Callie asks if she can ask Licorice + Honeysuckle to help

Kingshammer - 1:28:50 - Duck Team agree to have their souls bound to the serpents

A Fairy Remembers - 1:31:49 - Sol binds to Licorice

Kingshammer - 1:34:24 - Calder binds to Honeysuckle

Bahumia Theme - 1:36:44 - Callie binds to Marigold

Notes: "Melora's Boon" is credited as "The Fabric of Fate" / "When You Wish Upon a Stone" is credited as "Alanis" "The Feywild" is called "Fantastic & Fuddling" in c1 but the name for that particular song has changed so much i'm using "The Feywild" here.

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

can you explain why you dont believe the titanic switch conspiracy theory? didnt they find a propeller with "olympic" written on it amongst the wreckage?

i feel like the phrase "you just activated my trap card" applies here but i have also never watched yu-gi-oh so dont fully know the correct use of that. anyway whats the text limit on a tumblr post because i think i might hit it with this response.

before we begin (if you wanna join me on this fucking journey), ill just drop some useful sources on the topic:

olympic & titanic - an analysis of the robin gardiner conspiracy theory dissertation by mark chirnside in july 2006

titanic or olympic: which ship sank? by steve hall and bruce beveridge

olympic & titanic: the truth behind the conspiracy by steve hall and bruce beveridge

with that shipkeeping housekeeping out of the way, lets jump into it after the cut

so hands up, how many people knew that this theory originated in a book from 1995?

yeah, its a pretty modern theory considering titanic sank in 1912. the theory originated in the riddle of the titanic by robin gardiner and dan van der dat.

and the theory argues that the ships were switched and titanic (actually olympic) was deliberately sank as part of an insurance scam. now they didnt do this at all for shits and giggles. instead, the theory posits that the navy enquiry that followed the 1911 collision between hms hawke and olympic was biased which meant white star line couldnt recover the costs of repair from lloyds (the insurance company), and therefore, they wrote olmpic off as too damaged to be repaired, lied about the amount of damage, switched the ships and sank olympic disguised as titanic to recover some costs.

far-fetched? oh definitely and it gets worse, but ill leave that til later in this gargantuan response because its really fucking funny.

(seriously, i recommend you read til the end or just skip to the part where i start talking about the sinking itself because fam, gardiners theory gets wild )

according to van der dat, who is a dutch journalist and naval history writer with an incredibly dutch name, gardiner had wrote the manuscript after researching the titanic for however many years and sent it to his literary agent. this agent had previously worked with van der dat and so sent it to him to double-check the information by going back to the original sources. he then rewrote the book with line-by-line consultation with gardiner.

and would you like to hear a quote from van der dat regarding the theory? i think you would:

"the publishers were disillusioned when the theory did not stand up"

he also, in correspondence with titanic author and researcher paul lee, called it "bilge" which is a fun ship joke alongside calling the theory bullshit.

anyway, the publishers went ahead with the book anyway because fuck integrity, i guess... thats kinda harsh considering this first book (oh yeah, theres more) was praised for stellar research and for being balanced, and the final chapter of the book literally acknowledges that the wreck has titanics shipyard number (401) on it, hence disproving the theory.

in 1997, it was published in the us under the name the titanic conspiracy - cover-ups and mysteries of the worlds most famous sea disaster, and it sold like sliced bread in 1928 because 1997 was titanic fever, baby!

unsurprisingly, gardiner's following books (titanic: the ship that never sank? in 1998; the history of the white star line in 2001; the great titanic conspiracy in 2010) were a lot less well-received and were not co-authored by van der dat.

-

"but wait, kai!" you might shout if youre up to date with issues of the times from 1914, "what about raymond asquith's comments? he was junior counsel for the board of trade at the sinking inquiry!"

and i would say, what about it? the letter asquith wrote to the times was a sarcastic letter in response to a prior stance taken by the paper.

yes, he said "the architect, the owner, and the captain to repair their desperate fortunes by sinking the ship and sharing the insurance money" but said letter also included the phrase "manipulating dummy icebergs".

if were taking sarcastic or satirical responses outside of their original contexts as serious quotes, then i guess i need to cancel my dropout subscription since the company holds the opinion that oj simpson is innocent.

and while were here, that single deathbed confession from james fenton is not evidence of anything. his name is not on any crew lists or survivor lists, and not a single payment was ever claimed by a crewman called james fenton. he was not on board the titanic and his claims hold no weight.

-

now, my go-to explanation as to why i dont believe the switch theory is that their insurance scam would have lost them money and they would know that it would have lost them money.

see, it cost white star (which was a subsidiary of the international mercantile marine) £1.5million/$7.5million to build titanic and they insured it by lloyds (you can check their records on their website) for £1million/$5million.

you dont have to be good at maths to see a problem here.

they didnt just not insure the rest; it was self-insured by imm's insurance fund, but that still means theyd have lost £500,000/$2.5million on the sunken ship.

this whole insurance thing was established by uh the united states senate inquiry report:

"the vessel fully equipped, cost £1,500,000 sterling, or about $7,500,000. at the time of the accident the vessel carried insurance of £1,000,000 sterling or about $5,000,000, the remaining risk being carried by the company's insurance fund."

oh and the £1,000,009 insurance was announced in the daily mirror on 16th april 1912

and the insurance scam seemingly thought up by someones whose first and only introduction to maths was golf isnt the only way white star would have lost money on this.

after the sinking, olympic was temporarily pulled from service to increase safety measures like adding more lifeboats. obviously, a logical move made by a company with a brand new, safer ship on their hands who were desperate for any money they can make.

white star also halted construction of britannic, titanics other sister ship, in order to alter the design and make it safer. this costs quite a bit of money and is, again, an odd choice for a company apparently desperate for money.

-

and hey, question for you guys: if you were alive in 1913 and needed to cross the atlantic, would you

a) choose the near identical sister ship of that ship that sank last year and was the deadliest sinking of a ship at that time

or

b) choose any other option such as the lusitania or the mauretania or the ss france or the ss imperator

personally id take my chances with option a, idk about you

yeah so the point im making here is that the sinking of the titanic was what the kids say

a marketing disaster

it was the loss of the newest flagship on its maiden fucking voyage and it had been touted as "practically unsinkable". maybe just maybe people wouldnt feel that comfortable getting on a white star line ship after that.

i dont have any figures for you because reading through a detailed account of white stars history just is not on my to-do list, but that doesnt even matter. what matters is that its clearly a massive risk and who the fuck is taking that risk?

as titanic author, senan molony states:

"one doesnt need to compare designs and count portholes - a moments serious consideration of the reputational risk involved - individually and collectively - is all that is required to end any entertainment of the notion"

-

anyway, you guys wanna compare designs and count portholes? yeah? okay, here we go!

may i present a non-exhaustive list of differences between the ships:

olympics wheelhouse was curved; titanics was flat

titanic was 4 inches longer

the porthole arrangements on shelter deck c were different

on b deck, olympic had a 1st class promenade; titanic had 2 private verandahs and suites (put a pin in this by the way, it comes back in the best of ways)

titanic had additional cabins on promenade deck a

olympics promenade was open all the way along; on titanic, the forward half of the 1st class promenade on a-deck was enclosed with retractable glass screens

on titanic, the forward bridge wings aft docking bridge on the stern extended over the ships side by a couple of feet; this would not be true for olympic until the 1912/13 refit

the officers deck house was pushed out more on titanic

the iron gates of the elevators were different between the ships and this is evident in the wreck itself

their propellers had different pitches and hence not interchangeable (pitch is a theoretical concept which is like the distance a propeller would move if it turned once through something solid, yeah i dont know either)

the wireless cabin had an outside window on olympic, but not titanic

further, it was placed on the port side of the officers deck house on olympic but amidship on titanic

they had different air vent arrangements around the funnels

white star line cut the ships names into the shell-plating at the bow and stern, four feet high and a ½ inch deep

now, please, close your eyes, take a deep breath and consider how much money it would cost to switch just the list above. now compare all of that to the -£500,000/$2.5million youre losing in the insurance scam.

truly, a spend less on candles situation.

and while we're here, shall we quickly talk about how much hush money white star would be paying to silence everyone about this since its apparently an illegal insurance scam.

not to make another non-exhaustive list but heres just who i can think of that youd have to silence:

the 15,000 workers employed directly by the shipyard

the 20,000+ workers in support services or sub contractors

any permanent or casual staff at the belfast dock and harbour comission

all of the officers and crew who came directly from olympic onto titanic such as the captain or stewardess violet jessop (puppet history fans rise up) who interestingly remarked on how improved titanic was compared to olympic

any staff at white star, imm and harland & wolff (where she was built) who would be in the know such as designers

passengers who had previously sailed on olympic who then sailed on titanic

just like anyone in belfast who walked past while the ships were docked together

olympics wreckers: thomas wards & sons who kept huge loose-leaf ledgers for each ships. the one for olympic was 72 pages long and funnily enough olympics yard number and builders I'd frequently appear in it, as seen below

bob ballard who was the one who found titanic. hes known as a very honest man and didnt even claim salvage rights on titanic because he assumed everyone else would also recognise it was a gravesite. he also said "i think it is the titanic at the bottom of the ocean"

every other explorer or researcher like james fucking cameron or us navy consultant and titanic wreck explorer, parks stephenson

its been estimated likely over 60,000 people were involved in just the building of titanic. this was ⅕ of belfasts population and ⅓ of the working population. heres a photo of them leaving olympic at the end of the day

now maybe im just a fool, but that looks like a lot of people you need to silence, and unless white star were blackmailing them or idk fucking killing them i guess, thats a lot of hush money just in the photo above.

i mean, theres also the claim, from noted liar james fenton, that the surviving crew were forced to sign the official secrets act of 1911, but that act was about espionage that benefits the enemy military so im not sure how this is relevant to the switch, and also, again, the guy was never on the ship.

are you perhaps starting to get the picture as to why i dont believe the conspiracy theory because im still going.

-

okay so as established, if the ships were switched, there would have clearly been a lot of work that would need to be done to switch the ships.

and i only mentioned some of the structural differences, i didnt get into the aesthetic differences like the floor tiles and carpeting being different colours, or how the lounge furniture in each ship having the ship name on them.

mind you, this is what titanic looked like (in the foreground) when olympic was first docked next to her:

this was taken around october 11. olympic docked next to titanic on october 7th for repairs after that whole catastrophic collision.

now how much time do you think it was before olympic sailed away? mind you, titanic has already been launched at this point and just needs to be fitted-out, and that normally takes around 4 to 6 months?

oh, what was that? 44 days? why, kid, youre going somewhere. it was 44 days exactly!

now, i dont think i need to get into the fact that the dock only had 1 crane (which you needed to install and uninstall funnels and machinery) that physically couldnt reach olympic unless she was moved or how olympic was painted white for her launch and then painted black and that the white paint would get exposed in rough weather so the same would have to be applied to titanic so it would look convincingly like olympic.

i mean, you have that information now, but im hoping just by the words "44 days", you might get how off the wall insane it is to suggest white star was able to switch the ships so well no one noticed for decades in 44 fucking days.

"wait kai, youre forgetting that they were docked together again!" you shout, "after olympic threw a propeller, they were docked together from march 1st to march 7th 1912"

and i dont know dude, im pretty sure white star cant warp space time so i really dont know what eight extra days is gonna do.

i hate to strawman but man, the late robin gardiner would have won a gold medal in scarecrow hide and seek.

-

lets also take a quick detour into the idea that olympics repairs were so expensive.

without getting into gardiners claims about the damage because theres no evidence of it and as mark chirnside states "there are no credible sources indicating that the damage to olympic was worse than reported at the time - and indeed ample sworn expert testimony to the contrary", lets just quickly go over some financial stuff.

during the case, it was unofficially estimated that the damage didnt exceed $125,000. imm, by including lost passenger receipts, wanted to claim for as high as $750,000, but they lost that case.

during the year 1911, imms surplus profit was $822,062. so weve got:

750,000 > 822,062

now as we might remember from key stage 1 maths, the bigger number eats the smaller number, aka, their surplus profit covered the costs of repair.

aka, no ill-advised insurance scam needed.

-

"thousands of people in belfast would have seen the switch operation - and yet there is not one word in the papers of reporters or photographers rushing out to find out what was happening."

-dr paul lee

so this is the section where i ask how did no one fucking notice?

no one on titanic, who had previously sailed on olympic, ever said anything about the switch other than one guy who was literally not on the ship at any point.

no one who has ever explored the wreck or done research on it has definitively stated it was olympic. rather, they have definitively stated otherwise.

for example, what remains of the base on the wheelhouse shows it to be straight and not curved, and as you might remember: titanics wheelhouse was heterosexual straight and olympics was curved.

(id be impressed if you did remember)

also, as parks stephenson has stated:

"weve got actual high def images of this wreck. ive seen with my own eyes. weve identified the name titanic on the port bow"

its difficult to make out but its there; the name is on the fucking ship.

also, as you might remember, titanics b-deck was different to olympics. the 2 suites there were nicknamed the "millionaire suites" and jim cameron has used rovs to go inside of them.

funnily enough, robin gardiner has gone on the record saying that these suites didnt exist so make of that what you will.

and further, no one noticed anything about olympic even though she sailed for 24 more years. theres no written record of anything, theres nothing in the board of trade reports, theres no photographic proof and theres not even fucking hearsay.

she served as a damn troopship in ww1, youd figure someone would figure it out as all of her fittings were ripped out.

but no, theres nothing.

as i mentioned above, olympic was scrapped in 1935, but some of her fittings were auctioned off and still exist today. and these have the number 400 on them because that was her shipyard number. titanics was 401 and the wreck reflects this also:

the wooden parts are from olympic; the other has been salvaged from titanics wreck.

theres even the famous myth that olympic or olympus as one person told me is written on the propeller at the bottom of the ocean. its not, but you can see the number 401 written on it:

-

and while were disproving myths about the name olympic being on the titanic, the story about olympic being engraved on titanics lifeboats is also false:

theres no written testimony, no sketches and no photographs of this.

white star didnt engrave names onto lifeboats, the names were on metal plates that were screwed on

do you really think they did all of this work but just didnt fucking swap the lifeboats? if theyre this stupid, how did it take until 1995 for someone to figure it out?

-

we can also discuss the stupid olympic room thing while were here. see theres a maritime superstition that changing the name on a ship is bad luck and obviously, if youre swapping the ships, youre changing the names.

so to... get around this? cheat luck? outsmart superstition? i dont fucking know, to take a detour to avoid this, white star named a room "the olympic room."

i cannot find any evidence at all that this room ever existed. its not in the design plans or the blueprints, and no passenger or crew has ever said it existed, so im pretty sure the room just didnt exist.

and even if it did exist, titanic was in the olympic class of ships. thats what olympic, titanic and britannic were. its not weird to have an olympic room on an olympic class ship. i mean it is weird in this case since the room didnt exist, but you get my point.

-

and heres some quickfire myths and falsehoods

the myth about the 14 vs 16 bow portholes is also a false. yes, titanic had 14 portholes on launch but an extra 2 were added before her maiden voyage so yes, the ship photographed departing southampton with 16 bow portholes is the titanic, and do you really think it would take 83 years to figure this out if it was this easy?

similarly, titanic did have evenly spaced b-deck windows on launch, but then the extra verandahs and suites were added so the window configuration was altered, so that photograph is off the titanic.

the idea that titanic had a 2 degree list to port like the olympic before her is evidence of the switch theory is, to borrow a word from dan van der dat, bilge. plenty of ships at the time and now have minor lists. the one on titanic was only recorded by 2 passengers and we know that the list was related to coal consumption. it means nothing.

jp morgan (owner of imm) did not cancel last minute. as mark baber points out on encyclopedia titanica, it was announced in the new york times that hed be in venice on april 23. at that time, transatlantic voyages took at least 5 days so it would at least be a 10 day round trip and likely not give him time to get to venice for the opening of a store of whatever it was.

also, j bruce ismays wife and kids also didnt cancel last minute. theyd already decided to go on holiday to wales rather than sail on titanic.

addendum to that point: if ismay knew it was going to be sank deliberately and so warned his wife, why would he get on board himself? further, why would harland and wolff designer thomas andrews (who did not survive by the way) get on board?

-

and we're finally at my favourite part of this entire mess: the sinking itself.

see, a deliberate sinking doesnt really make sense for titanic because the conditions under which she sank has led to the descriptor "freak sinking."

these are: a new moon meaning less light, unusually calm ocean that disallowed lookouts to watch for foam as waves hit any icebergs, ice having drifted further south than normal for that time of year, and a sideways glancing blow that breached more watertight compartments than the ship could handle and stay afloat.

and idk dude, is there not an easier way? like maybe some light arson. just call it an accidental fire that got out of control and led to the ship being a write-off, this isnt difficult.

but you see gardiner has an answer to this, and i am laughing as im typing this, he claims that:

titanic didnt hit an iceberg, it hit an imm rescue ship.

thats right, this guy fully says titanic didnt hit an iceberg. apparently it hit another ship and NO ONE FUCKING NOTICED

i mean we have testimony from survivors but fuck them i guess.

he claims that as titanic was apparently a "steel double-hulled vessel" so an iceberg simply couldnt inflict so much damage.

yeah titanic wasnt double-hulled. she had a double bottom, but it was only after titanic that shipbuilders were like ah maybe full double hulls arent an unnecessary expense after all.

theres also the issue of uh no evidence of this rescue ship ever existing? at all? i dont know where it came from, i dont know where it went, and who fucking knows, maybe it was called the rms cotton eyed joe.

yeah so weve got a theory riddled with problems and im just gonna introduce some more problems with this theory as gardiner has also alleged that:

the original plan was to open the seacocks and slowly flood the ship, but this was interrupted by titanic hitting another ship

1) titanic didnt have seacocks? and 2) was the rest of it a coincidence then? i think its meant to be a coincidence.

i believe his theory is alleging that the crew on titanic would open the seacocks that didnt exist to flood the ship slowly, and that the imm rescue ship that also didnt exist was in the area in advance to help evacuate passengers, alongside other ships such as the ss californian.

this is that ship that was like 10 miles away or something and didnt respond to titanics distress signals. according to gardiner, they were expecting a rendezvous with titanic according to the "original plan", but never received it.

instead, they saw the rockets of the fabled imm rescue ship and helped them instead.

this is fucking stupid.

i cant be charitable here, its a fucking stupid theory. i mean, that imm ship did not exist, and also californian is a ridiculous choice for a rescue ship. her capacity was 47 passengers and 55 crew; there were more than 2200 people on board titanic.

to counteract this argument, gardiner alleges carpathia was also in on the scheme as a rescue ship. she, at least, had capacity for the passengers, but theres also several problems with this too.

for one, it was fucking 50 miles away and famously arrived several hours after the sinking even though the captain had her running at top speed to get there.

for two, carpathia was owned by cunard, white stars rival. was their rival line in on the insurance scam??? how much money did they have to pay cunard for this????? why? just why?

do you understand why i dont believe it? please tell me you understand. i need you to understand. i need you to tell me that you understand that the guy who created this conspiracy claimed titanic didnt hit an iceberg.

[britcision]

So I’ve been listening to Did Titanic Sink by Tim Batt and Carlo Ritchie and I gotta say, the thing I find the funniest are the guests’ reactions

Cuz you get 20 minutes of Carlo explaining his overarching conspiracy theory (JP Morgan switched the Titanic for the Olympic cuz the Olympic was broken and $$$$)

And then Tim asks a guest “alright he sounds convincing, sanity check me. Are you buying it?”

And Carlo’s extremely well researched, he’s got a lot of compelling data and lined up information, and the evidence that it was Titanic is basically “well someone would have noticed”

(Parts of the Titanic were put on the Olympic so the serial numbers match, the main differences between the two were cosmetic rather than structural, the pic of both ships side by side in dry dock didn’t have either change so the ships were at that time functionally identical)

And all the guests so far have been telling him “nah definitely not, I can’t let myself believe this”

But… it doesn’t matter

The Titanic disaster is undisputed; the ship sank, people died, it was an unmitigated disaster that was absolutely made significantly worse by the decisions of JP Morgan leading to the voyage

It doesn’t matter if it was the original Titanic, bulkheads damaged by a 3 week long fire in the coal bunker next to the two most vital watertight chambers, with parts and pieces stripped to repair the Olympic

The same people who could have made the decision to switch out the Olympic for Titanic to not have to fix Olympic all the way, and deliberately cause the fire to make the ship sink over 8-12 hours if there had not been the iceberg… are the people who said “no, no second bulkhead. No, we don’t need bigger compartments. No, no extra lifeboats”

They’re responsible either way, and made decisions which directly led to the magnitude of the disaster

The question is basically about whether you think some of those decisions were intentional sabotage, or just poorly thought through

Malicious intent vs incompetence

So yeah, I have no skin in the game here. Carlo’s got a lot of interesting points, and I’m learning a lot of cool stuff about the ship either way (never heard about the fire, or that they may have intentionally holed the bulkhead trying to put it out?)

(Engineers were told the fire wasn’t relevant to the inquiry, on the record, and told not to discuss it)

A ship with “Titanic” painted on the side sank when they hit the iceberg

The iceberg probably would have sunk it even if the fire hadn’t been going on and damaging the ship; it holed three watertight compartments

The Olympic kept sailing for the next twelve odd years

Switching the ships is a mildly interesting conspiracy theory based solely in corporate greed, which makes it one of the most potentially plausible conspiracies around, with absolutely no consequences either way

It doesn’t matter if Carlo’s right or not

But these folks are very sure he can’t be, without half the research

[grimmcheems]

Sick Armin AU relationship “chart”🐚↗️↪️🔀🔄

I love how you can tell I worked on this at different times (screaming crying). If someone looks a bit off NO THEY DONT.

I had this idea for a sick armin au like yrs ago and was gonna fully write it as a fic but never had time to and don’t now either so I have accepted that most of my writing ideas I’ll probably just draw instead into like mini comics or doodles. I’m not an expert at hospital hierarchy or dynamics so if you see any inconsistencies it is what it is.👩🏽‍🦯🗿

Yes Miché wiill be Armin’s uncle in this, does it make sense? Probably not but I don’t make the rules here. He’s also a draft dodger but don’t tell the staff🥰🫥

I also debated for the longest time on whether Levi should be a nurse or surgeon but I felt it would make more sense if he was Armin’s nurse instead of surgeon because of how I planned out the story and they will be close and Armin will miss him when he suddenly disappears.

I know half of this doesn’t make sense because the characters look different than the time the younger characters seem to be based in, so don’t pay attention to that, this was just a chart for me to get an idea of planning. 🗣️Also yes they will have wierd, cool, and fuckass haircuts because why not?!?!🗣️

I am aware that most of this will not make sense but I’m curious to know any thoughts on this. Since this is built around a modern hospital setting expect half of the crew to be afflicted with something especially when it comes to those close to Armin (excluding Eren and Mikasa). I haven’t included any other side characters yet but this is just his close network. Ik Ymir and Armin’s line is up for debate right now but do know that she and Armin will be room neighbors at some point in the story when she comes in. I don’t wanna give away too much but it is related to why her and Historia’s line is half friendship and half enemies.

Armin is my son but I’m afraid he will have to suffer greatly in this au 🥰💪🏽🎀✨🐚

Partial plot: Armin is the first to exhibit signs of what seems to be an unusual chronic disease (dawg he’s just fighting for his life so idk if chronic would really describe that but that’s the only word I can think of) that keeps him from living a normal life and he eventually ends up in custody of the hospital as there is no one left to take care of him and his health problems are far too extreme and fragile for him to be put under the care of another. Will Armin have to live like this forever or will he find a way to make himself better? After all what good could doctors be if his conditions just seem to get worse after each treatment. Is it all genetic or is there something more to his sickness? Something malicious and unsuspecting? Something right in front of him? Anyways ignore my cringe summary.

[hermitdream]

team callahan because he fits the "friend and creator" description and also we don't know anything about what he looks or sounds like. like skeppy for example has a very unique voice that I think would be recognisable even with the voice changer.

one thing that does go against the titan being callahan is that if I remember correctly, Callahan was British, and I don't hear an accent? idk

[nonsense000]

The shit is literally called OceanGate.

Let that sink in.

[yuri-is-online]

Merry Christmas I hope your holidays are filled with joy not matter how you decide to celebrate 💖

[psyduckz]

they need to find that submarine before we witness a rise in the worst conspiracy theories ever