Turns out, the unsinkable ship was probably the most sinkable ship of its time.
An Irish journalist Senan Molony investigated a series of historical photographs of Titanic and found a suspicious black streak on its hull. The irregularity is very close to the place Titanic collided with the iceberg.
Upon further digging, Molony concluded that a coal fire inside one of the steam engines must have critically weakened the hull to the extent that a collision sunk it easily.
The black streak is over 30 feet long and cannot be a reflection or a fault in developing the photograph as he has consulted the specialists and taken their opinions already.
Molony has spent decades investigating the sinking of the Titanic and looked for further proof of this fire. He found newspaper records of the survivors saying that the fire caused the shipwreck.
Many survivors in 1912 mentioned the fire, and a court judge even listened to these accounts but he struck them down. He was apparently a judge with vested interests in shipping companies.
But even though the fire may have weakened the single-hull Titanic critically, experts still think that the iceberg was the main reason Titanic sank. That’s the official standing, anyway.
But Mr. Molony stands by his theory
“Just because an official finding says it, doesn’t make it true,”
So, was it a fire that sunk the Titanic or just an iceberg or both? Only further breakthroughs in the investigation will tell. Until then, we should go with the James Cameron version of the Titanic.
And the amazing thing is that even after a century, Titanic captures our mind in its mystery.
News Source – The Smithsonian