Then came the British Inquiry into the disaster where, in the main, selected witnesses answered carefully selected questions with well-rehearsed replies. Those of the crew who were in a position to know anything particularly damning were rewarded for keeping silent at the inquiry by being given jobs for life with the line at a time when jobs for life just didn’t exist for ordinary crew members (they still don’t). One important witness was awarded a sideways promotion when he was made a harbour master in South Africa, a far cry from being a mere helmsman. Of course, Robert Hitchens was in a position to know exactly what had been happening on the bridge of the Titanic, and who was there at any given time.
There were, as always, winners and losers. The British Government had its troopships. The vessel sailing under the name Olympic was by far the most successful troop carrier of the entire First World War, even if the price of £8,000,000-plus was a little on the steep side. Olympic went on to serve the White Star Line for 25 years, right up to the eve of the Second World War, as one of the most successful ocean liners ever.
The gold, it seems, has never been recovered, so whoever made off with it didn’t do too badly out of the affair. Ismay and Pirrie both bought large houses shortly after the Titanic disaster, but they never exhibited any other signs of suddenly coming into a great fortune. J. P. Morgan’s organisation continued much as usual, although Morgan himself died in 1913. It is unlikely that we will ever know where the gold went.
It also seems unlikely that we shall ever discover what became of the 98 extra survivors, who clearly did not come from Titanic but whose names were transmitted by Carpathia. One can only hope that they were allowed to continue their journey to wherever, although no trace of them has ever come to light.
The White Star Line, which had slightly over-insured the ship, recovered its money, not that it did the company a lot of good. The spectre of the Titanic haunted the line and it never truly prospered again. In 1927 IMM sold White Star to Lord Kylsant’s Royal Mail group of shipping companies, which didn’t improve matters at all. Just four years later Kylsant was jailed for publishing misleading statements in the 1928 Royal Mail prospectus. By 1933 White Star was in serious financial trouble, having lost £1,500,000, exactly what it had cost it to build each of the ‘Olympic’ class ships more than 20 years before. In 1934 the White Star Line and Cunard merged, forming Cunard White Star. The White Star part of the name was dropped shortly after the end of the Second World War.
There is one more curious chapter regarding a survivor from the Titanic, a humble fireman called Thomas Hart. Before Titanic left Southampton every member of her crew was checked out by the Board of Trade inspector, Maurice Clarke, to see that the details recorded in the Certificate of Continuous Discharge (effectively a seaman’s service record and a licence to work) were correct. Thomas Hart’s name does not appear on any survivor list from the White Star liner. He does not appear to have been picked up by Carpathia, or any other known vessel in the area when Titanic foundered. Nevertheless Hart turned up at his College Street, Southampton, home in late May 1912. He claimed that he had lost his Discharge book during a drinking bout in a public house shortly before Titanic sailed. His place aboard the ship must have been taken by whoever had found or stolen his papers. His story is palpably untrue. No fewer than 34 other crew members, who also worked in the boiler rooms of the Titanic, came from the same small area of Southampton as Hart. Some, if not all, would have known him and spotted an impostor right away - and remember that Clarke had checked everyone’s papers. Nobody could have passed themselves off as Hart without the connivance of his shipmates. Either Thomas Hart was part of yet another conspiracy or there was a second rescue ship; after all, he couldn’t have swum home. Where had he been for the two months since the sinking? It seems that officialdom failed, as usual in the case of the Titanic, to ask the right questions.
Back in 1912 the political situation in Europe continued to deteriorate and the threat of war pushed Titanic out of the public consciousness - there were other things to worry about. For more than 40 years the worst shipping disaster up to that time was all but forgotten, and so it would have remained. However, the Titanic had become a symbol, a part of the English language. Major catastrophes and disasters were, and still are, referred to as of ‘Titanic’ proportions. It appears that her name, as well as the ship herself, carried on well after the date on which she officially went to the bottom of the sea.
Appendix 1
The shipbuilders’ scale models
Like most ships, the ‘Olympic’ class vessels were first given physical form as builders’ half models. These are exact scale miniatures of the full-sized ship, but usually only one side of this ‘working model’ is actually built. In the case of the ‘Olympics’ a complete model of the finished class leader, Olympic, was also constructed.
In March 1910 the quarter-inch working model had been completed, but no name was painted on it. However, identification was provided on the background sheet of wood on which the half model was mounted - it said, ‘Olympic and Titanic’. In addition to the half models, a complete quarter-inch-scale finished model (ie a fully rigged replica) was also constructed, and this was also completed in the spring of 1910. Only the name Olympic appeared on the bow, however. There is no record of a separate Titanic model being built. The half model, which would later be sent to the British Inquiry into the Titanic disaster, weighed about 30 hundredweight, which means that it was the larger of the two.
According to Dr Alan Scarth, Curator of Ship Models, Merseyside Maritime Museum, the quarter-inch builders’ scale model of Olympic and Titanic in the museum was completed some time between spring 1910 and 1911, and was wired up for internal illumination. This model, although obviously of Olympic and originally with that name on bow and stern, has Titanic’s build number (401) written in pencil on the inside of several doors and other small fittings on its superstructure. Scarth, apparently without any provenance whatsoever, claims that after the Titanic disaster this same model, after being removed from its original display case, which declared it to be of both vessels, was then put into a somewhat more modest case with a nameplate indicating that it represented Olympic alone. Then, within about a year or so the model was substantially altered by the builders to represent the third sister, Britannic, and displayed by the White Star Line at the Anglo-American Exposition at the White City, London, in 1914. This is difficult to believe as these models were built accurately to scale, and Britannic was both wider and longer than the other two vessels of the ‘Olympic’ class.
The vessel known as Olympic, after doing sterling service as a troopship during the First World War, was refitted ready to return to civilian service between August 1919 and June 1920. At the same time the model was altered again, back to resembling just Olympic. However, this time the conversion was incomplete, not unlike that of Olympic into Titanic in 1911. The large screens of 41 windows on A Deck, the arrangement of windows on B Deck, and the decking over the aft well deck remained. Neither Olympic nor Titanic ever had any of these features. Titanic had 42 screens on each side of A Deck, while in reality Britannic only had 38. Then the model seems to have disappeared.
It next seems to have appeared with Wards of Sheffield, which broke up Olympic at its Albion works in 1937, although this might have been a different, smaller model altogether. The model next turned up in a hangar at Blackpool Airport, where it had been kept by the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, Blackpool, with a view to its possible display at the airport restaurant. The LAC donated the model to Liverpool City Museums in 1951. How the model got to Blackpool is something of a mystery, but there is an unsubstantiated story that it was displayed as the Titanic, either at the Tower or Winter Gardens in Blackpool at some time in the 1930s. While it was in the tender care of the Liverpool Museum Service, between 1951 and the early 1970s, the model suffered greatly; its display case was disposed of, and a number of small parts disappeared. Then, at long last, it was thoroughly cleaned and partially re
paired before going on display in 1974. In 1978 it was sent to Scale Model International Ltd of Crosby, Merseyside, for complete restoration. During this work, which was not competed until 1982, it was discovered that the model, in certain minor details, most resembled Titanic, rather than the other two vessels of her class, especially once she had been stripped down. (This is hardly surprising when one discovers that Olympic was really Titanic operating under her sister’s name for all but about one year of her long life.)
‘Finally, cost, time and ethical (sic) constraints weighed heavily against the major reconstruction of its superstructure, which would have been required to make the model accurate to any one of the three ships concerned at any time in its history. The compromise reached, therefore, was to have the model restored as a fairly accurate representation of the Titanic as she sailed, while accepting that certain features, notably the window arrangement on decks A and B, were those of the short-lived Britannic model of 1914. The most obvious structural change made was the removal of the decking over the aft well deck, which had never been a feature of either the Olympic or the Titanic.’
And that, according to Dr Scarth, is how the Liverpool Museum Service, between 1951 and 1982, managed to completely destroy the historical value of the shipbuilders’ scale model, originally constructed by Harland & Wolff of Belfast, of possibly the most famous class of ships ever built, and of which one was certainly the best-known liner of them all.
Appendix 2
Titanic’s insurance
The insurance situation with regard to the Titanic is, to say the least, difficult to unravel. The White Star Line habitually under-insured its ships by about a third of their value to save money on the premiums. Titanic had cost the line about £1,500,000 so, following the company’s usual practice, she would normally have been covered for £1,000,000, which is exactly what has always been claimed. In truth the ship was insured for considerably more than just a million, or even her real value.
Willis Faber & Co acted as agents and sold £1,000,000-worth of insurance in relatively small parcels to a large number of insurance companies in Britain, none being in a position to accept such a large risk alone. Among the largest of the risks taken on in Britain was for £75,000 by R. T. Jones of the Commercial Union. More than 70 other companies were involved, accepting risks of between £1,000 and £75,000. The world’s most famous maritime insurer, Lloyd’s of London, does not appear on the document listing the names and amounts covered, although that list does show that the full £1,000,000 was covered. This insurance document, known as ‘The Titanic Slip’, is regarded as the definitive evidence that the ship was truly covered for only the £1,000,000 usually claimed. However, from other documentation it is apparent that Lloyd’s did indeed carry a large piece of Titanic’s insurance.
As late as 8 July 1912 Lloyd’s appears to have been trying to distance itself from the disaster, even though as early as 17 April it had begun to liquidate assets to cover its commitment. The Liverpool Echo carried an article quoting from a letter written by Mr A. Scott, secretary of Lloyd’s, to The Times:
‘In view of the reports which have appeared in the press in connection with the inquiry into the loss of the SS Titanic, to the effect that the vessel was built considerably in excess of the requirements of Lloyd’s Register, I am directed to say that these statements are inaccurate. On the contrary, in important parts of her structure the vessel as built did not come up to the requirements of Lloyd’s Register for a vessel of her dimensions.’
Nevertheless, Lloyd’s, unlike some German underwriters, honoured its commitment and eventually paid out almost £1,500,000.
As is already apparent, insurance cover for Titanic was not only arranged in Britain but another large sum was covered by European, Australian and American companies, again in many relatively small parcels. The Insurance Company of North America carried $50,000 of the risk and Atlantic Mutual accepted double that amount. For American purposes the vessel was valued at $5 million, which was equivalent to £1,000,000 at the time.
Despite the generally held belief that Titanic was under-insured by as much as a third of her actual value, it seems that this was not the case. In fact, the vessel was dramatically over-insured by more than £1,500,000, perhaps more. The insurance situation with Titanic was so complicated that to the present day the file on the ship has still not been finally closed.
There is a clause written into maritime insurance of the day, and it may well still be included in more modern policies. This clause, known as the ‘Sister Ship Clause’, states that ‘should the vessel insured come into collision or receive salvage services from another vessel belonging wholly or in part to the same owners or under the same management, the assured shall have the same rights under the policy as they would have were the other vessel the property of owners not interested in the policy.’ This would explain why any vessels intended to be part of any rescue or salvage attempt would have to belong to the same owners as the victim and why vessels belonging to other owners would be discouraged from participating in any rescue, which is exactly what happened in April 1912.
On 16 April 1912, the day after Titanic foundered, the Liverpool & London Steamship Protection Association, an insurance company, agreed to provide the third party insurance covering passengers, crew and baggage aboard the ship.
Olympic had provisionally been entered onto the London & Liverpool’s books at 45,000 tons at the committee meeting on 14 February 1911, but not on risk.
Titanic was provisionally entered at 46,000 tons at the committee meeting on 13 February 1912, but not on risk.
Olympic was entered onto the company books on risk at 45,324 tons at the committee meeting on 30 May 1911 to coincide with the ship’s trials and transfer from H&W. The entry was backdated to 28 May to cover the sea trials. The backdating of insurance cover is fraud, no matter whether it is done with the best possible motives or not.
Titanic was entered on risk at 46,329 tons at the committee meeting on 16 April 1912. The entry was backdated to 1 April 1912 to cover the sea trials. Unfortunately this entry was made the day after the ship sank, and the committee knew this, which again is fraud.
To cover the insurance company’s losses a special premium was levied on all of the other passenger-carrying lines insured by them, thus defrauding the shareholders and owners of those lines.
Clearly the Liverpool & London Insurance Company was prepared to bend the rules a little for the White Star Line. However, if the ship that sank on 15 April 1912 was really Olympic, she was legitimately covered by the insurance agreement entered onto the insurer’s book on the previous 30 May.
Appendix 3
The Tutankhamun Deception by Gerald O’Farrell raises the strong possibility that Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon had discovered and been removing articles from Tutankhamun’s tomb for more than a decade before its official opening in November 1922. One of the chief beneficiaries of this looting appears to have been J. P. Morgan’s Metropolitan Museum in New York.
The millionaire Theodore Davis had, during most of the first ten years of the 20th century, employed Howard Carter on his concession ground in the Valley of the Kings. Davis had in 1909 given artefacts to Herbert Winlock (later to become director of the Metropolitan Museum) to ship to New York. Winlock did not examine these closely until 1921 when he was amazed to find some of them bore the seal of Tutankhamun and the royal necropolis seal, proof that they had been interred in the Valley of the Kings. Some of the material recovered from the tomb appears to have been in the form of papyrus.
Some time in 1910 or 1911 Carter and Carnarvon appear to have recovered some papyrus scrolls from the Tutankhamun tomb. One of the scrolls tells how a group of disaffected Egyptians, together with their assorted multi-racial collection of slaves, left Egypt to preserve the religion founded by the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, with his blessing and under the guidance of his trusted advisor Moses. In short, the Coptic scroll was a very early example of the second book of the Bible,
Exodus, showing that the Jews were not God’s chosen people but a mongrel race descended from Egyptians and slaves. Whether or not the scroll gave an accurate picture of history was immaterial. It was certainly ancient, which gave it credibility; and it was political dynamite. What stability there was in the Middle East was based on sectarianism, and anything that upset the delicate balance could easily set the whole area alight.
J. P. Morgan’s focus of interest in antiquity and religion embraced how the Christians evolved from Judaic law and what the Jews had inherited from earlier civilisations in Egypt and Sumeria. He personally travelled great distances year after year, in discomfort, collecting any artefacts relating to the subject.
The scroll was first offered for sale to the British Museum, but it was unable to come up with the necessary cash to buy it. Obviously the British Museum did not inform the Government of the scroll’s existence or that they had been offered it. If they had, the money to buy the potentially inflammatory document would undoubtedly have been found. After all, the British Government needed the oil from Persia (now Iraq) for its new battleships, so it had more than a slight interest in preserving the stability of the area.
The Great Titanic Conspiracy Page 27
