How popular “History” can rapidly mutate into myth !

FACEBOOK FLASHBACK: HMS Bounty – Conspiracy on the Bounty
[15 February 2015]

Similar to HMS Bounty myths, many Titanic myths have been spread by films.

“It is the tragic story that everybody knows the end to – the doomed Titanic sinks. Its final hours have become the stuff of myth – but how much have the various film versions of the story helped to create and reinforce these legends? One hundred years ago RMS Titanic raced into an iceberg at almost full speed. Two-and-a-half hours later, it sank to the bottom of the Atlantic with the loss of over 1,500 men, women and children. It has inspired a host of films, documentaries and conspiracy theories such as: The Titanic Conspiracy Theory, Investigating the Titanic Conspiracy.” [The Titanic Conspiracy — The James Cameron Conspiracy]

“There are some who believe that the Titanic tragedy was simply a conspiracy designed to pull off one of the largest acts of insurance fraud ever committed. The sister ship of the Titanic by the name of the Olympia had sustained damage during one of its voyages and it was said that the ship was rendered completely useless. Many experts see evidence that supports this theory due to some of the inconsistencies in the Titanic sinking story. Small differences in the two ships have been analysed by experts suggesting that after the Olympic had been damaged, that it was designed to look like the Titanic. Many accounts of this type of marine insurance fraud have been documented throughout the course of time. The idea of swapping ships in order to collect insurance is not a new idea, and if the story is true, this would be the largest case of marine insurance fraud ever successfully pulled off.”

However like the Bounty myths, the anomaly can be explained:

“Contrary to the popular interpretation the White Star Line never made any substantive claims that the Titanic was unsinkable – and nobody really talked about the ship’s unsinkability until after the event, argues Howells. Although the sinking of the Titanic happened around 15 years after the birth of cinema, and the disaster featured heavily in the silent newsreels of the day, there was very little footage of the ship itself. This was because the Titanic was not big news before it sank. Its sister ship the Olympic effectively stole the limelight on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1911. It had the same captain as the Titanic, travelled the same route, had the same safety facilities and the same number of lifeboats – or lack thereof. Olympic’s hull was painted a light grey purely so that it would look fantastic in the news reel footage”, says John Graves, from the National Maritime Museum in London. Some of this footage was used for the Titanic newsreel after the disaster, but with any tell-tale signs scratched or inked out. Simon McCallum, archive curator at the BFI, believes this misrepresentation “fed into the conspiracy theories and mysteries around [the Titanic]. Film makers could project their own narratives and agendas on the event from the get-go.” “History turned into myth within hours and certainly days of the sinking,” agrees Richard Howells.

[The Titanic graphic by Matthew Greenway from the cover of People Take Warning (Tomkins Square; 2008) TSQ 1875]