RMS Olympic in dazzle paint during the First World War, where the strength and manoeverability she shared with her sister, Titanic, allowed her to ram and sink an enemy submarine Eventually, she was scrapped in 1935, due to reduced transatlantic passenger numbers. Olympic went on to steam more than 600,000 miles, succesfully carrying 200,000 troops in the First World War, when she also sucessfully used the strength and manoeverability she shared with her sister, the Titanic, to deliberately ram and sink an enemy submarine – the only merchant ship ever to do so. To the delight of her passengers, on only her second crossing to New York, and without her owner Joseph Bruce Ismay being on board, Captain Smith cooly brought the Olympic in on Tuesday night, instead of on Wednesday morning, when she had been scheduled to arrive. Olympic arriving into New York on her maiden voyage in 1911 her sister would never see the New World © Science Photo LibraryĬaptain Smith on board the unfinished Titanic © Mary Evans Picture Library Titanic had a slightly older, almost identical twin sister called The Olympic, who had sucessfully completed her maiden voyage less than a year before the Titanic, on the same route, with the same captain and carrying many of the same people that would later die on Titanic’s maiden voyage. The Titanic is seen here on the right, next to her twin sister, the Olympic, in Belfast As a result, Titanic is one of the best-documented disasters in history. At these, hundreds of eye witnesses were asked more than fifty thousand questions about the catastrophe, and their sworn testimonies faithfully recorded and preserved. As soon as the news arrived, exhaustive public enquiries were ordered, on both sides of the Atlantic. In the new age of wireless it caused the first global media storm, with the New York Times devoting its first 12 pages to the disaster.
The sinking of the Titanic on the 15 th April 1912 was as shocking to the world as the destruction of the Twin Towers on 11 th September 2001. As 1,500 people who had just been enjoying the luxury, comfort and fun of the newest and largest liner in the world froze to death in the calm, ink black water of the North Atlantic that night, their surprise turned to anger and despair as they stared up into a perfect canopy of stars and demanded an answer.
The enduring nature of the story of the Titanic lies in its power as a metaphor for the human condition: she represented the best that the science of man could achieve and carried with her the confidence and hope of her age, but she was destroyed on her maiden voyage by the humbling power of nature, perfectly represented by an unseen mountain of ice lurking in the darkness. This book proves the presence of abnormal refraction – or mirage – at Titanic’s crash site and reveals its previously unseen but crucial role, shedding new light on the tragedy. But the true cause of the Titanic disaster has never been revealed, until now. 100 years after the Titanic sank on 15 th April 1912, the world is still fascinated by the story of how 1,500 people froze to death in the calm waters of the North Atlantic, on the maiden voyage of the largest and safest ship in the world.
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