Shipwreck of the “Titanic”: and if the iceberg was not the only one responsible?

News 3 January, 2017

Before hitting an iceberg on the night of 14-15 April 1912, the “Titanic” would have been weakened by a fire. This is the theory of a documentary aired on the Channel 4 channel on 1 January.

The iceberg that sank the Titanic in 1912 may not be solely responsible for the disaster. According to the documentary Titanic: The New Evidence , aired on 1 January 2017 on Channel 4 and USAinformations has watched a fire would also have weakened the hull.

In the documentary, Irish journalist Senan Molony relies on a photo album made by one of the engineers who helped build the ship. The shots, taken before the start of the Titanic , show significant black mark on one side of the hull. It would correspond to the hole formed by the collision with the iceberg. For the journalist, these photos accredit the thesis of a fragility of the boat at this precise place.

A coal fire before departure

It is the coal stored in the ship that could be partly responsible for the sinking. According to the historians to whom Senan Molony submitted these images, the stock was at the level of the black spot visible on the cliché. It would have caught fire even before the departure from Belfast, where it was built. At the time, the company had minimized the facts. But this type of fire can cover for several weeks and the temperature reaches a thousand degrees. Such a scenario could significantly weaken the hull of the Titanic , says an expert, interviewed in the documentary.

Difficult to clarify this mystery, given the degradation of the wreck, which has been lying in the Atlantic Ocean for over a century. The Titanic left Southampton 10 April 1912, with 2200 passengers on board. Collided with an iceberg in the night of 14 to 15 April 1912, i l never reached New York, the final destination. The sinking lasted less than three hours and caused about 1,500 deaths.