While the ship was still in the hands of the builders the Board of Trade inspector overseeing the construction and reporting back on all plan changes to his superiors was confronted by the dramatic drop in gross registered tonnage due to the alterations to B Deck. This could hardly be reported without serious questions being asked. Because the extra cabins had actually existed, the BoT was aware of what the grt should be, and would already have calculated what harbour dues would be when the ship entered service. As far as it knew the ship would be inspected by its own representative at Southampton and by his American equivalent in New York. The discrepancy would be immediately apparent. The only way forward was to bring the enclosed areas of the ship back up to the same figure as that known to the BoT and American authorities. As always, the problem was time. There was no way that the cabins could be built in the time available, but it was possible to fit windows to the forward end of the A Deck promenade space. This is how the problem was solved. So as not to confuse the BoT’s book-keeping, the extra enclosed area on A Deck was listed on the registration form as not to be included as grt, but of course the Americans would not see that document. As far as they were concerned the grt exactly matched the figures they had been given.
By the end of March the conversion was all but complete except for a few carpets that still needed laying and cabins that still required some fitting out. It will come as no surprise to learn that these unusable cabins were those that had recently been used as extra coal bunker space. In that case they really would be unusable for the foreseeable future - not that that would have been any worry to White Star under the circumstances. Anyway, it was not enough of a problem to stop the ship completing the task the owners had in mind for her. Then, according to the usual accounts of events surrounding the short career of the Titanic, potential disaster struck.
Fire supposedly broke out in coal bunker No 10 at the aft end of the forward boiler room. This fire, if it really existed, could easily have been dealt with either before or immediately after the ship’s trials, which were something of a joke in their own right. There was not a great deal of coal in the bunker at the time, so it could either have been removed or water could have been poured in until it was submerged. Either way the fire would have ceased to be a problem. Nothing was done and the bunker was allowed to continue to burn unchecked. Any secondary school student should know that coal gas, predominantly explosive hydrogen, is obtained by heating coal in an enclosed container, which is exactly what was happening in bunker No 10. That same student should also know that in the presence of coal gas only a spark is required to set off an explosion. Any number of coal-burning ships were destroyed by coal-bunker explosions, not least among them the third of the ‘Olympic’-class vessels, Britannic. The danger attendant to a coal-bunker fire was well understood in 1912, so it appears incomprehensible that the builders or owners would allow such a fire to continue to burn when it was so simple to extinguish it. One possible reason is that the fire never really existed at all but was an invention to cover up something else that was going on. Could the bunker be being used for some purpose other than that which was originally intended, such as an extra trimming tank to correct a list or stern-down attitude in the ship caused by water entering the vessel further aft? We know that the original repair to the hull, carried out at Southampton following the Hawke incident, failed after less than two days at sea under ideal conditions. If the second repair, intended to be permanent, had failed to some extent, we have need for an extra trimming tank. There is another possible explanation for pretending that the ship had a bunker fire aboard when she left the builders, especially if there was the possibility that the ship might break up or sink on her way to Southampton. The blame could be laid at the door of the bunker fire. Nobody would question a ship sinking as the result of a coal bunker explosion, so the insurance companies would make good the loss.
To sink the ship on its way from Belfast to Southampton can never have been part of the plan with Titanic. She was a big ship, almost 900 feet long and 90 feet wide. The Irish Sea was not large enough or deep enough to permanently hide the wreck. Somebody would manage to reach it, probably to raise it for its scrap value if nothing else. If that happened the secret would be out and White Star would have some explaining to do. Should the vessel founder in the Irish Sea, the White Star Line would have to foot the bill for the salvage operation themselves in order to keep control of events. The bunker fire was just the company’s own form of insurance.
The plan to dispose of the ship had already been hatched. The ideal place to lose it was on the main east-to-west shipping lane south of the Grand Banks, where there was 12,500 feet of water. In 1912 it cannot have been foreseen that anybody would ever be able to dive to that incredible depth, and certainly no sort of salvage operation could be mounted within the lifetimes of the people involved in the scheme. The site chosen to lose the ship also suited J. P. Morgan, but not for quite the same reasons as White Star. Mr Morgan had his own agenda.
Chapter 9
Belfast to Southampton
While Churchill and other members of the British Government had seen Morgan’s removal of artefacts to safety in New York as defeatist, they did not view the removal of large quantities of Britain’s gold reserves to the same safe haven in quite the same way. In their view they were merely being prudent. Since the Agadir incident had almost plunged the world into war, large quantities of British gold had found its way across the Atlantic, much of it aboard Mr Morgan’s ships. So as not to depress public morale or the stock market, or invite the attention of the criminal element in every community, these shipments of gold were sent in secrecy. Another large shipment was due to leave Southampton during the second week of April 1912.
Although the British were well aware of the White Star plan to stage a fictitious accident with Olympic/Titanic some time during the ship’s next voyage, they also believed that the ship, despite her somewhat bruised condition, was all but unsinkable and that she would complete the journey to the new world, one way or another. This belief that the ship was actually safe was bolstered by the fact that J. P. Morgan himself was supposedly making the crossing aboard her. He was booked to travel in one of the special millionaire cabins, designed and fitted out specifically to meet his tastes. Over and above that, many of Morgan’s ancient artefacts and statues were also reputed to be making the crossing. As far as the British Government was concerned there was no danger at all of the ship failing to arrive in America, so there was no reason at all, given that Morgan and his treasures were going to be aboard, why it should not send its gold on the same ship. Arrangements had already been made and the officers of the White Star Line informed of the Government’s intentions. Inevitably the information would have found its way back to J. P. Morgan, which was probably why he had booked his cabin well in advance, even though he had no intention whatsoever of being aboard the liner when she sailed.
Despite the best efforts of the workforce at Harland & Wolff, the vessel we know as Titanic was not ready for her acceptance trials on, ironically, All Fools’ Day, as planned, so a spell of atrocious weather provided a readymade excuse to postpone them until the following day. The trials, when they did take place, were something of a joke. Olympic’s acceptance trials had taken two full days and the ship had really been put through her paces. She was run at 20 knots for her turning trials, when it was found that she could turn through 90 degrees in about three times her own length. An emergency stop from the same speed was tried and the vessel came to a standstill in about 800 yards, less than half a mile. Slow-speed handling tests were conducted, and the ship behaved perfectly. For those two days people ashore watched the gigantic new liner as she twisted and turned in the confined waters of Belfast Lough. Only after these extensive and exhaustive trials was the new ship accepted by the White Star Line. The trials of the second vessel, the ship we know as Titanic, were somewhat less thorough. For half a day the ship cruised leisurely up and down the lough. There was no attempt
to find out if this vessel behaved in the same way as the one that had been so fully tested 10 months earlier. Of course, if this was the same ship there was no need to do any extensive testing, as it had already been done. Anyway, there would have been no point in subjecting an already damaged vessel to more stress than perhaps she could survive. Assuming that the BoT inspector, Carruthers, was even aboard for the tests, we have to wonder why he didn’t insist on them being carried out properly, unless he was aware that a switch had taken place. After the so-called acceptance trials, and even though the ship had an uncorrectable list to port, and a reputedly uncontrolled fire raging in one of her forward coal bunkers, Harold Sanderson was only too happy to accept the ship on behalf of the White Star Line.
Olympic disguised as Titanic left Belfast on 2 April and, according to her papers for that voyage, headed for Southampton. All large ships are obliged to file papers covering their intended route and destination, and a crew list signed by the master. The captain himself was supposed to sign for the ship. In this instance the required paperwork was filed but with a noticeable inconsistency where the name of the master was concerned. According to the documentation the captain for this short voyage was not Edward Smith at all but Captain Herbert Haddock. At the time Haddock was listed by the owners as master of the Olympic, which adds a certain amount of curiosity value to the fact that his name appears on the crew list for Titanic’s first and only successful voyage. However, Captain Haddock was fully occupied at the time at Southampton preparing the other sister ship for an Atlantic crossing. He and his vessel would depart from the Hampshire port only hours before the second sister arrived with Captain Smith in command. It would have been no problem at all for Captain Smith to have corrected the glaring mistake in his ship’s paperwork before he left Belfast; after all, he had to file the crew list and other papers, if he was actually at Belfast at the time. The excuse given was that he forgot, which is hardly believable when one considers the fact that on any ship’s crew list the master’s name appears at the top. A possible explanation might be that Smith did not file the paperwork himself, that task being performed by another of his officers. There is some evidence to support this conjecture inasmuch as the captain could not have signed for the ship at Belfast because he was not there.
It was usual for any new White Star ship to visit Liverpool, the line’s home port, and be opened to the public before heading for Southampton, where she would again be open for public scrutiny. Before the public were allowed aboard for their inspection tours on these occasions they had to purchase a ticket, the revenue from which went to support local hospitals. Even Olympic, when she had first left the builders, had followed this practice, although she was much too big to use the port on a regular basis, but not this time. Instead, the ship known as Titanic left Belfast and headed at high speed out into the Irish Sea. Supposedly she was going straight to Southampton, but there is some evidence to show that she stopped off at Blackpool Bay on the way, dropping anchor off Burbo Bank, Liverpool. Liverpool, as a major transatlantic seaport, though in decline because the River Mersey had a nasty habit of silting up and therefore limiting the size of vessels that could enter the docks, had its own Board of Trade officials. These officials were noted for their thoroughness, which is one reason why the ship was not calling there to pick up Joseph Bruce Ismay and his deputy Harold Sanderson. Instead of waiting for her in Liverpool they had spent the previous night in the North Euston Hotel in Fleetwood and had then taken the tender Magnetic out to meet the ship. (Curiously, while being questioned by Senator William Alden Smith during the American Inquiry into the loss of the Titanic, Ismay stated quite plainly that he had joined the ship at Liverpool.) It has also been suggested that Captain Smith joined the ship at the same time as Ismay and Sanderson. If this was the case, it could explain some of the curious events that occurred during the rest of the ship’s voyage to Southampton, specially if Captain Smith had been unaware of the fact that he was taking over the botched-up Olympic and not a brand new vessel until he boarded her. Under those circumstances Captain Smith could be forgiven for taking umbrage. It would even be understandable if he did everything within his power, short of throwing his pension away by resigning, to prevent the coming transatlantic voyage from taking place at all.
Regardless of whether or not the liner stopped off at Liverpool we know that she did steam at her best speed for a good part of the voyage to Southampton, which means that she should have been able to complete the passage in about 24 hours. During that voyage her magnetic compasses, which would have been adversely affected by the vast amounts of metal all around the ship while she was at Belfast, were calibrated and her wireless installation was checked. The wireless worked extraordinarily well. The Marconi set had a reputed daytime range of something like 350 miles, but at night that would automatically improve because of atmospheric conditions. During the hours of darkness the wireless signals might be expected to reach out as far as 1,000 miles. However, during the trip from Belfast to Southampton the vessel we know as Titanic established radio contact with Tenerife, more than 2,000 miles away, and Port Said, a distance of more than 3,000 miles. The wireless equipment was operating at almost ten times its advertised efficiency, which leaves one wondering if perhaps it had been significantly upgraded in preparation for the coming event, when it might be called upon.
The wireless wasn’t the only thing that appears to have been working more efficiently than usual. The ship’s supposedly brand-new engines also seem to have been performing exceptionally well. Although the vessel only needed to steam at about 18 knots in order to reach Southampton on time, if she stuck to the route she should have done and no detours were taken, at one point in the journey she was slicing through the water at almost 24 knots, 25% faster than she needed to move. During the early part of the 20th century, and indeed up until the 1980s, all new machinery had to have a running-in period when it was run lightly loaded. In the days before computer-controlled machine tools, this was to allow parts that rubbed together to gently wear away any tight spots and to ensure that a film of oil separated them. Under no circumstances would a brand-new engine be run at maximum power and revolutions per minute unless the operator was intentionally trying to destroy it. This leaves us with two alternatives: either Captain Smith wanted to damage the engines so that he could not take the ship to sea, or those engines were not brand new and had already been run in.
Titanic, as we shall call her for the sake of convenience, arrived at Southampton at just before midnight on 3 April, about 30 hours after departing from Belfast. This begs the question, why did the short voyage take 25% longer than it should have done? A stopover at Blackpool would provide an explanation.
When the liner did finally reach the Hampshire port she was met by no fewer than five Red Funnel Line tugs, which would assist in reversing the leviathan into her berth at the Ocean Dock. Again, contrary to the usual White Star Line practice, once the ship had arrived at Southampton she was not opened up for public inspection. Nor was the press allowed access to the vessel even though, as ‘Olympic perfected’, newspaper articles and photographs would have been very good advertising. The excuse given was that there was still a lot of work going on aboard, which was true, and that time was desperately short. While this excuse might have been valid as far as the general public was concerned, it doesn’t stand up with regard to the press, who could have been conducted to those parts of the ship that were completed. Instead, preparations for the coming voyage began immediately.
As we already know, the black gang - stokers recruited in Ireland and Liverpool who initially were completely unfamiliar with the ship but had worked in the boiler and engine rooms during the trip down from Belfast -might have signed on for the supposed maiden voyage. Perhaps because they had become all too aware that the boilers they were feeding with coal were anything but brand new, all but one of them neglected to do so. Or perhaps it was simply because the officers had not run the ship as if she was brand new on the sho
rt voyage. In consequence of this high-speed run, the firemen would have been worked much harder than they expected to be.
Because of the labour unrest, in particular the coal strike, there were many ships in Southampton without enough fuel to make an Atlantic crossing, several of them belonging to J. P. Morgan’s IMM company. Consequently there were a lot of unemployed seamen, among them many experienced firemen and lookouts, all looking for a job. There was no welfare state in 1912 - if a man didn’t work, he and his family did not eat.
There was not enough coal on hand to supply the new White Star liner, as her sister had taken most of it before she left just a day before the new ship arrived. Somehow the newcomer’s bunkers, one of which was supposedly on fire and had been ever since her ridiculously short sea trials two days before, had to be filled quickly if she was to depart on time. To accomplish this, what fuel was available was scavenged from the bunkers of all the other IMM vessels in the port. Nothing was done about the fire, which still burned out of control in No 10 bunker. Instead, about 400 tons of coal were poured into the bunker on top of the fire, banking it up. Captain Smith and his senior officers would have been well aware of the danger posed by a coal bunker fire, and under normal circumstances would have moved heaven and earth to extinguish it. To have dealt with the fire while the ship was at Southampton, with all the labour available to him, would have been the captain’s obvious course of action. Instead, the fire was fed with more fuel. There has to be a very compelling reason for Captain Smith’s cavalier attitude to this fire, if it truly existed. The chances of the ship completing an Atlantic crossing without such a fire causing serious problems, perhaps actually sinking the vessel, were so slim as to be not worth consideration. Of course, there might not have been any bunker fire at all, so pouring coal into No 10 bunker would not have been the suicidal folly it first seems.
The Great Titanic Conspiracy Page 11
