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EL TITANIC, ESA MISTERIOSA TRAGEDIA.

La historia del Titanic se halla rodeada innumerables leyendas y relatos más o menos fantásticos, desde el que cuenta que el Titanic era insumergible al que se refiere a la banda de música y su última melodía antes de perecer todos ahogados.
¿Insumergible? Contrario a la creencia popular, el Titanic nunca fue considerado como un barco "imposible de hundir" o "insumergible". Hay algunas publicaciones que hablan de él  como "casi imposible de hundirse", pero no hay ningún dato que confirme que se dijera que el Titanic fuera insumergible hasta después de su hundimiento.
Harland y Wolff nunca afirmaron que la nave fuera realmente imposible de hundir, sino que en la White Star Line insistían en la seguridad de sus barcos diciendo que estaban diseñados para ser casi insumergibles.


ALGUNAS HISTORIAS PERSONALES DIGNAS DE SER CONTADAS  

La historia de W.T. Stead

Una de las leyendas transmitida sobre el barco hundido pertenece al  pasajero de primera clase, William Thomas Stead. De acuerdo con la leyenda, Stead habia presentido su propia muerte a bordo del Titanic a través de una revelación. Aparentemente Stead ya había reflejado esto en dos historias de ficción que escribió unas décadas antes. La primera, "How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Midatlantic, by a Survivor"(1886) , cuenta la colisión del barco con otra nave, dando como resultado  la pérdida de muchas vidas debido a la falta de botes salvavidas suficientes. La segunda, "From the Old World to the New" , narra la historia de una nave de la línea White Star Line, el Majestic, que rescata a los supervivientes de otra nave que ha chocado contra un iceberg.

La triste y dolorosa experiencia de  Gibson

Para unos cuantos la experiencia del Titanic no fue sino otra oportunidad para hacer más dinero. Minutos después de bajarse del Carpanthia (la nave que rescató a los supervivientes del Titanic), la actriz de cine mudo Dorothy Gibson, que sobrevivió al hundimiento del Titanic junto con su madre Pauline, se reencontró con su amante, el rico y casado productor de películas Jules Brulatour y planearon rodar una película acerca del desastre que protagonizaría ella misma.
La filmación de la película comenzó casi inmediatamente después en el estudio Fort Lee en Nueva Jersey. Llevando el mismo traje que había vestido la noche del hundimiento, un vestido de seda blanco, la verosimilitud de la experiencia fue abrumadora. Un testigo del rodaje de la película que llevó por título "Saved from the Titanic", dijo que la actriz había perdido prácticamente el sentido y la razón. Despues de una actuación sublime, o una reconstrucción de los hechos ya sufridos, rompió a llorar. Quizas llena de culpabilidad por su comportamiento durante el hundimiento. Según algunos testigos, mientras estaba en el bote salvavidas, había negado la ayuda a otros viajeros que le extendían los brazos desde el agua para poder subir al bote. Tras casarse con su amante, en cuestión de meses los dos comenzaron a buscar otras parejas, acabando en un terrible divorcio. Gibson decidió trasladarse a Paris con su madre en busca de una nueva vida. A la llegada de la Segunda Guerra Mundial ambas se aliaron con los elementos fascistas, creyendo que Hitler ganaría la guerra. Gibson se enamoró de Antonio Ramos, el jefe de prensa de la embajada española en París. Su madre, por otro lado, idealizaba a Mussolini y decidió mudarse a Florencia. En un viaje que hizo Dorothy de París a Florencia en busca de su madre para traérsela de vuelta a Francia, Alemania invadió Holanda y Bélgica. Hubiera sido posible que las dos mujeres viajaran de vuelta a América pero no lo hicieron, sugestionadas por la experiencia en el Titanic, no quisieron cruzar el océano de nuevo.
En la primavera de 1944, todavía en Florencia con su madre, Gibson fue acusada de ser una espía por la policía italiana y trasladada a un campo de concentración Nazi. Tras pasar por varios campos fue internada en San Vittore, que ella describió como la "muerte en vida." Gibson habría muerto aquí si no hubiera sido por las maquinaciones de un agente doble, Ugo Luca Osteria quien junto con ella y otros dos hombres huyó bajo la pretensión de ser una espía y simpatizante de los nazis. Cuando fue interrogada en Zurich, fue juzgada como "demasiado estúpida" para ser espía. Cuando la guerra terminó, en 1945, Gibson regresó a París donde murió unos meses mas tarde en el Hotel Ritz, de un ataque al corazón. 

La historia tormentosa de Madeleine Astor

Incluso aquellos supervivientes que ocupaban posiciones privilegiadas no escaparon de la sombra del Titanic. Madeleine Astor, de 18 años, viajaba en la nave con su marido, John Jacob Astor, uno de los hombres más ricos del mundo. Había descubierto recientemente que estaba embarazada y regresaban de su luna de miel en Egipto y Europa cuando perdió a su marido en el desastre. Aunque Madeleine habia enviudado siendo enormemente rica, heredando el equivalente a 114 millones de dólares de hoy, solamente podía ser dueña de la herencia si no volvía a casarse nunca. Madeleine decidió representar el papel de viuda hasta que se encontró con  otro hombre rico de nombre William Dick al que le unía una amistad desde la infancia y tuvo dos hijos con él.
En Enero de 1932, Madeleine compró un pasaje de primera clase en el Vulcaniam donde conoció a un famoso pugil italiano, Enzo Fiermonte, quien se quedó prendado de la riqueza de Madeleine y aunque ambos estaban casados y tenían hijos, comenzaron una tormentosa relación.
Tras casarse en Noviembre del 1933, boda que se celebró en un hospital en el que Madeleine se encontraba tras haber tenido una pelea con Enzo y romperse un brazo, la pareja causó un terrible escándalo en su viaje a Italia. Cuando llegaron a suelo italiano, la policía arrestó a Enzo y se quedó con sus documentos, acusándole de haber huído para no realizar el servicio militar. Además, las leyes italianas no reconocían el divorcio de Enzo de su primera mujer, por lo que Madeleine se enfrentaba a una pena de cárcel por participar en la bigamia. El mismo Mussolini desaprobó el comportamiento de Enzo.
Cuando la situación se suavizó un poco gracias a un generoso acuerdo por parte de la primera esposa de Enzo y su hijo, la pareja empezó a pelearse tan violentamente que Madeleine siempre acababa en el hospital. Tras una paliza que casi le ocasiona la muerte, Madeleine inició los trámites de separación, en el 1938. 
Un año más tarde Fiermonte vendió sus trapos sucios a una vulgar revista llamada True Story incluyendo un montón de historias humillantes para Madeleine, que destrozaron su reputación para siempre. Se convirtió en una adicta a los antidepresivos y murió a la edad de 47 años, oficialmente de un ataque al corazón, pero se dijo que habia tomado una sobredosis de pastillas para dormir.

La tragedia de Jack Thayer.

En los momentos finales del hundimiento del Titanic, Jack Thayer, de 17 años, que había viajado en primera clase con sus padres, esperó hasta que el barco estuvo casi sumergido del todo antes de saltar al agua. 
Thayer perdió a su padre en el desastre, y regresó con su madre a América intentando retomar su vida como si nada hubiera sucedido. En 1913 comenzó a cortejar a Lois Buchanan Cassat, la sobrina nieta de James Buchanan, el por entonces presidente de los Estados Unidos. El 15 de Diciembre de 1917 la pareja contrajo matrimonio en Filadelfia. En Septiembre nació John, el primero de sus seis hijos, al cual Thayer no vió nacer pues se encontraba luchando en Francia. Julie Vehr, la hija de Thayer dijo "Debió ser una experiencia terrible para él, pero regresó a casa y nunca habló de ello, al igual que nunca habló de la experiencia sufrida en el Titanic. En aquellos días los hombres no hablaban de sus sentimientos. De hecho, nadie realmente hablaba de sus sentimientos o emociones, simplemente no se hacía."
Cuando sus hijos estaban aproximándose  a  la edad que él tenia cuando sobrevivió al desastre del Titanic, Thayer decidió escribir la historia de lo acontecido solamente para lectura de sus hijos. Cuando escribía esas lineas, en el año 1940, poco sospechaba los horrores personales que aún le esperaban a lo largo de su vida.
Al comenzar a escribir su historia el hombre respetable que había sido se empezó a desmoronar y sufría frecuentemente de ataques de nervios y ansiedad. En Octubre del 1943 le llegó la noticia de que uno de sus hijos, Edward Cassatt, copiloto de un bombardero americano había sido derribado y muerto en acción en el Pacífico. 
Seis meses más tarde su madre falleció a los 72 años, lo que le sumió en una terrible depresión, más aún al darse cuenta que su madre habia muerto el 14 de Abril de 1944, en el 32 aniversario del Titanic. 
En la mañana del 18 de Septiembre de 1945, Thayer, de 50 años de edad salió de su oficina en la universidad de Pensilvania y condujo a través de las calles de Filadelfia. Cerca de la calle 48 con Parkside Avenue frenó y procedió a cortarse las venas y el cuello.

Violet Jessop la superviviente

Pero quizás la historia más curiosa es la de Violet Jessop, una camarera de la línea y enfermera. No solamente fue una de las supervivientes del Titanic, sino que también sobrevivió a otros dos desastres ocurridos en el Britannic y el Olympic, los dos barcos gemelos del Titanic. Antes del Titanic Violet  ya había salido viva de una colisión del Olympic contra otro barco en 1911. Posteriormente al Titanic, Violet también salió ilesa de otro accidente ocurrido en el Britannic en 1916.


Lillian Asplund, la niña a la que no le gustaba el olor a pintura

Lillian fue la última superviviente sueca-americana del hundimiento del Titanic. Era una pasajera de tercera clase y viajaba con su familia; tenía cinco años cuando estuvo a bordo del barco y recordaba perfectamente todo lo que ocurrió. Comentó varias veces que el barco olía mucho a pintura fresca y eso le molestaba. Este comentario estaría estrechamente relacionado con la teoría de la conspiración sobre el fraude del barco gemelo del Titanic, el Olympic.


LEYENDA O REALIDAD: LA BANDA DE MÚSICA

Una de las más famosas leyendas sobre el Titanic es la que trata de la banda de músicos de la nave, de entre cuyos miembros dos eran devotos cristianos metodistas. El 15 de Abril, dicha banda formada por ocho miembros y liderada por Wallace Hartley, se había reunido en primera clase en un esfuerzo para mantener a los pasajeros en calma. Más tarde se trasladaron a la parte delantera de la cubierta del barco. La banda siguió tocando incluso cuando era evidente que el barco se iba a hundir. Todos los miembros perecieron. 
Se ha especulado mucho acerca de cuál fue la ultima canción que tocaron. Una pasajera canadiense que viajaba en primera clase, la señorita Vera Dick así como algunos otros pasajeros alegaron que la ultima canción que los músicos tocaron fue el himno "Nearer, my God, to Thee". Hartley le había comentado a un amigo suyo que si alguna vez estuviera en un barco que se estuviera hundiendo, esa seria la canción que quisiera tocar. Pero Walter Lord cuenta en su libro "A night to remember" , que el operador de telefonía Harold Bride dijo que escuchó la canción "Autumn" justo antes de que el barco se hundiera. No se sabe si Bride quiso decir que escuchó la cancion conocida como "Autumn" o el por aquel entonces popular vals Song d'Automne, pero ninguna de las dos estaban en el libro de canciones de la White Star Line para la banda. Bride es uno de los dos testigos que estuvieron más cerca de la banda, pues permaneció en cubierta hasta que el barco se hundió. La señorita Dick en cambio había abandonado el barco cerca de una hora y 20 minutos antes y no pudo de ninguna manera escuchar qué canción tocó la banda por última vez. 


LA LEYENDA DEL BARCO MISTERIOSO

Algunos creen que había otro barco, el velero noruego Samson, en la vecindad del Titanic cuando éste se hundió. Tambien hay especulaciones de que éste fue el barco que el Titanic vió en la distancia, y no el Californian. Si esto fuera correcto, las coordenadas del Samson le sitúan a una distancia de 10 millas de la posición del Titanic cuando el barco se estaba hundiendo. La historia del capitán Hendrik Bergethon Naess sugiere que cuando el Titanic lanzó las bengalas pidiendo ayuda el Samson no acudió al rescate porque se encontraba en aquellas aguas navegando de forma ilegal y pensaron que las bengalas eran lanzadas por otros barcos para alertar de su presencia a las autoridades. La declaración del capitán afirmaría que se dirigieron hacia el norte al ver las bengalas para evitar un arresto. Sin embargo, en los archivos de la Lista de Lloyd se sugiere que en la fecha en la que el Titanic se hundió, el Samson se encontraba en Islandia, atracado en el puerto llevando a cabo unas reparaciones técnicas, haciendo imposible su presencia cerca del lugar del incidente la noche del 14 de Abril.


LAS MALDICIONES DEL TITANIC.

Cuando el Titanic se hundió, se hicieron eco algunos rumores que hablaban de una maldición relacionada con el barco. La prensa rápidamente relacionó la "maldición del Titanic" con la costumbre de la White Star Line de no bautizar sus barcos. Una de las leyendas más extendidas sobre la maldición está directamente relacionada con el sectarismo de la ciudad de Belfast, donde el barco fue construido. Se sugirió que el número que se le dio al barco, el 390904, si era puesto del revés, 409093 recuerda a las letras NOPOPE , un eslogan sectario que atacaba a los católicos y era frecuentemente utilizado por los protestantes en Irlanda del Norte. Teniendo en cuenta el extremismo religioso de la época en la región, el hundimiento del barco fue achacado al anticatolicismo de sus fabricantes, la compañía Harland & Wolff, quienes habían tenido casi exclusivamente mano de obra protestante y exhibían un pasado hostil hacia los católicos.
Harland & Wolff ciertamente contrató a muy pocos católicos para la construcción del Titanic, ya fuera por política de la compañía o porque el astillero en la bahía de Belfast estaba localizado casi exclusivamente en la zona protestante del Este de la ciudad, a través de la cual pocos católicos se arriesgaban a pasar.


PREMONICIONES DEL HUNDIMIENTO.

En el mismo momento en el que el Titanic se hundió, el número del 1 de Mayo de 1912 de la revista The Popular Magazine, una revista americana de circulación barata se encontraba en en venta en las librerías. Contenía una historia corta llamada "The White Ghost of Disaster" , que describía la colisión de una línea oceánica contra un iceberg en el océano Atlántico, el hundimiento del navío y el fatal destino de los pasajeros. La historia, escrita por Mayn Clew Garnett (el pseudónimo del autor de historias marítimas T. Jenkins Hains) produjo una pequeña conmoción. En 1898, catorce años antes al desastre del Titanic, Morgan Robertson escribió un libro titulado "Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan" . Esta historia muestra un enorme barco de pasajeros británico llamado Titán, el cual creyéndose insumergible, lleva muy pocos botes salvavidas a bordo. En un viaje en el mes de Abril, el Titán choca contra un iceberg y se hunde en el Atlántico Norte, llevándose al fondo del Océano la vida de casi todos los pasajeros y tripulación. Sin duda hay algunas similitudes entre la ficción y la realidad.
En 1912 el periodico alemán Berliner Tageblatt publicó un libro en forma de serial que duró desde el 9 de Enero hasta el 24 de Abril. Esta obra de ficción fue escrita por Herhard Hauptmann, quien más tarde recibiría el premio nobel de literatura en ese mismo año. Un mes antes del viaje del RMS Titanic, la historia fue publicada por S. Fischer Verlag como la novela "Atlantis". Atlantis es una historia romántica que acontece a bordo del navío ficticio Roland, que coincidentemente está destinado a tener un final muy parecido al del Titanic. Esta predicción sobre el destino del Titanic llamó bastante la atención en la época. Una película muda danesa tambien titulada Atlantis, producida por Nordisk Film se basó en la novela. El film fue estrenado apenas un año después del hundimiento del barco y fue censurada en Noruega, que la consideró "de mal gusto." 


ALGUNOS SUEÑOS PREMONITORIOS.

 Algunas de las personas que compraron billetes para el viaje del Titanic cancelaron sus reservas en el último minuto tras tener en sueños una visión del hundimiento del barco. El hombre de negocios británico J. Connor Middleton tuvo un sueño dos noches consecutivas en el que veía cómo el barco se hundía. En su sueño veía a los pasajeros del Titanic y sus tripulantes sumergidos en el agua, a la deriva. También se vio a sí mismo observando la escena desde el aire. Middleton le contó lo que habia visto a su familia y sus amigos y ellos corrieron la noticia. Tenía asuntos de negocios urgentes que resolver en Estados Unidos y le entró  pánico. Dudando sobre si debia realizar  el viaje o cancelarlo. Afortunadamente recibió un telegrama proveniente de Nueva York sugiriendo que pospusiera su viaje. También se dió el caso de algunas personas de la tripulación, incluyendo marineros e ingenieros, que saltaron por la borda del Titanic en el último minuto antes de zarpar en Queenstown, debido a un pálpito.
Henry Wilde, el primer oficial del Titanic que había previamente servido en el Olimpic, mencionó sus reservas en una carta dirigida a su hermana: "Sigue sin gustarme esta nave...me provoca un sentimiento muy extraño." A pesar de esto, dejó que sus amigos le convencieran para aceptar el puesto en el Titanic, decisión que le llevó a perecer junto al resto de la tripulación. 


EL MITO DE LA MALDICIÓN DE LA MOMIA A BORDO DEL TITANIC.

El 12 de Abril de 1912 el Titanic cruzaba el Atlántico camino de Nueva York. Un grupo de 8 hombres se reunieron en la sala de fumadores a hablar del significado de la vida.
Uno de los miembros de este grupo era William T. Stead, periodista y espiritualista inglés. Cuando la tarde iba progresando Stead comenzó a contar una historia de fantasmas que abriría las puertas a algunas leyendas y mitos que rodearon al hundimiento del Titanic en las décadas posteriores. La historia hablaba del hallazgo de una momia egipcia y de la traducción y el significado de la inscripción en el sarcófago de la momia. Esta inscripción advertía que cualquiera que repitiera lo escrito en voz alta se encontraría con una muerte violenta.
Los otros siete miembros del grupo escuchaban con curiosidad. ¿Podría ser cierta la historia que contaba Stead? ¿Y dónde se encontraba el sarcófago de aquella momia? ¿A bordo?
Siete de los ocho hombres se hundieron con el barco, incluído el mismo Stead. El único superviviente del grupo fue Fred Seward, quien se negó a repetir la historia completa de la momia y su inscripción.
La princesa Amen-Ra vivió unos 1.500 años antes de Cristo. Cuando falleció fue introducida en un sarcófago de madera y enterrada en una tumba profunda en Luxor, a orillas del río Nilo. A finales de 1890, cuatro ingleses ricos visitaron las excavaciones del Luxor y fueron invitados a comprar un sarcofago que contenía una momia, los restos de la princesa Amen-Ra.
Hicieron apuestas y el hombre que pagó más dinero se llevó el sarcófago a la habitación de su hotel. Unas horas más tarde fue visto en estado de shock andando en dirección al desierto. Nunca más se supo de él. 
Al día siguiente uno de los otros 3 hombres fue disparado accidentalmente por un sirviente egipcio. Le tuvieron que amputar el brazo.
Un tercer miembro del grupo se encontró a su regreso a casa que todas sus inversiones habían caído y se había arruinado. El cuarto hombre sufrió una terrible enfermedad, perdió su trabajo y acabó sus días vendiendo cerillas en la calle.
De cualquier modo, el sarcófago llegó a Inglaterra, causando otras calamidades a su paso, hasta que un hombre de negocios londinense lo compró. Tres de los miembros de su familia sufrieron heridas en un accidente de tráfico y su casa se prendió fuego, asi que donó el sarcófago al Museo Británico.
Cuando el sarcófago estaba siendo descargado en el patio del museo, el camión dio marcha atrás repentinamente y atropelló a una persona. Cuando dos trabajadores transportaban el sarcófago escaleras arriba, uno de ellos cayó y se rompió una pierna. El otro, aparentemente en posesión de buena salud, murió inexplicablemente a los dos días.
Una vez que la princesa fue instalada en la Sala Egipcia del museo, los problemas comenzaron. Los vigilantes nocturnos del museo escuchaban frecuentemente golpes y sollozos provenientes del interior del sarcófago. Los objetos de otras salas del museo también eran lanzados por el aire a menudo. Uno de los vigilantes murió en horas de trabajo, los demas se querían ir. Los limpiadores también se negaban a acercarse a la princesa. 
Finalmente las autoridades trasladaron la momia al sótano pensando que allí no podría hacer ningun daño a nadie. Al cabo de una semana, uno de los porteadores estaba seriamente enfermo y el supervisor del traslado fue encontrado muerto sobre su escritorio.
Por este tiempo los periódicos ya se habían hecho eco de esto. Un periodista fotógrafo sacó una foto al sarcófago de la momia y cuando la reveló surgió una horripilante cara humana en la superficie de la foto. Se cuenta que el fotógrafo se suicidó de un disparo al día siguiente.
Un poco más adelante el museo vendió la momia a un coleccionista privado, quien tras sufrir varios accidentes puso la momia en el ático de su casa.
Una conocida autoridad, por aquel entonces, en el ámbito de las ciencias ocultas, Madame Helena Blavatsky, visitó el lugar. Al entrar en la casa sintió un golpe en la cara y buscando por todas partes llegó hasta el ático, donde se encontraba el sarcófago de la momia. El dueño le preguntó si podría exorcizar a ese espíritu y Mademe Helena contestó que un exorcismo así era imposible pues el Mal permanece como tal eternamente. No se podía hacer nada y el dueño decidió desahacerse del sarcófago.
Pero no había ningún museo británico que quisiera hacerse cargo de la momia; ya era bien conocido que a lo largo de 10 años más de veinte personas habían fallecido a consecuencia de la maldición.
Finalmente un arqueólogo americano, que achacaba todas estas leyendas a la casualidad, pagó una buena suma de dinero para trasladar  la momia a Nueva York. En Abril de 1912 el nuevo dueño se embarcó con su  tesoro en un barco de la White Star Line, camino a Nueva York. La noche del 14 de Abril, entre escenas de indecible terror, la princesa  Amen-Ra acompañó, al menos eso se creyó, al resto de pasajeros a las profundidades del Atlántico. El nombre del barco, era, por supuesto, Titanic.
Pero hay quien dice que el dueño americano del sarcófago sobornó a algunos miembros de la tripulación para que pusieran el sarcofago en un bote salvavidas y luego fue colocado en la cubierta del Carpanthia. En América el sarcófago siguió causando terror hasta que fue embarcado de nuevo de vuelta a Europa a bordo del Empress of Ireland, que se hundió perdiendo la vida 840 pasajeros el 29 de Mayo de 1912. De alguna forma la momia se salvó de nuevo. El coleccionista decidió devolver la momia a Egipto a bordo de un tercer barco, el Lusitania, que fue torpedeado por un submarino alemán. No se sabe qué fue del sarcofago de la momia después de esta úiltima tragedia.
Otra de las leyendas macabras que rodean al Titanic cuenta que pocos días antes de finalizar la construcción del Titanic se oyeron golpes constantes durante varios días provenientes del interior del casco. Se dice que eran algunos trabajadores que se quedaron atrapados en el casco cuando éste fue finalmente sellado.


EL TITANIC NUNCA SE HUNDIÓ. LA CONSPIRACIÓN DEL TITANIC Y SU GEMELO EL OLYMPIC.

Algunos creen que la tragedia del Titanic no fue sino una conspiración diseñada para llevar a cabo uno de los mayores fraudes de seguros jamás cometidos. El barco gemelo del Titanic, el Olympic había sufrido daños durante uno de sus viajes y se dijo que el barco se había quedado completamente inutilizado. Hay muchos expertos que apoyan esta teoría de la conspiración por fraude debido a las numerosas inconsistencias en la historia del Titanic.
Existen muchos casos de este tipo de fraude de seguros documentados a través de la historia. La idea de cambiar un barco por otro para cobrar un seguro no es una idea reciente.
El Olympic sufrió daños al ser, inadvertidamente, embestido por un velero naval británico de nombre HMS Hawke. Ambos barcos sufrieron grandes daños debido a este incidente. En el caso del Olympic se hizo un gran agujero en el casco y la hélice principal de estribor quedó completamente destrozada. El Olympic, en este viaje, estaba gobernado por el Capitán Smith, el mismo que más tarde se hundiría a bordo del Titanic. Con la ayuda de algunos remolcadores, el Olympic fue llevado de vuelta a Southampton para valorar los daños. Los informes de algunos testigos sugirieron que el hecho de que las rutas del Hawke y el Olympic se hubieran cruzado con fatales resultados no fue en absoluto un accidente. 
Cuando la White Star llevó el caso a los tribunales con el objetivo de  reclamar daños y perjuicios por el destrozo del Olympic, se sentenció que la colisión había sido en un cien por cien culpa del Olympic. De este modo, sin poder cobrar ningún tipo de seguro la White Star se quedó con un barco extremadamente dañado y sin poder recuperar el dinero al no poder ya utilizarlo para llevar pasajeros.
Había costado una verdadera fortuna construir el Olympic, y la compañía no podía permitirse tener uno de sus barcos atracado sin producir ningún beneficio.
Harland & Wolff no disponían de las piezas que necesitaban ser sustituídas y reparadas en el Olympic en esos momentos, a excepción de las que esperaban para ser instaladas en su hermano gemelo, el Titanic. De este modo el Olympic fue reparado con las piezas del, por aquel entonces, inacabado Titanic. Algunas de ellas  aún se pueden ver, como una de las hélices que todavía lleva el número 01 escrito en ella, claramente proveniente del Titanic, que era el modelo 401. También hay que destacar que el eje de una de las hélices que se había doblado a causa del choque con el navío británico nunca fue sustituido, lo que provocaría que el barco se tambaleara excesivamente durante un viaje, algo de lo que curiosamente informó uno de los supervivientes, Lawrence Beesley.
Tanto el Titanic como el Olympic no fueron diseñados para tener mamparos instalados, pero fue instalado uno en el Olympic para reparar el daño producido en el casco del barco. Cuando el Doctor Robert Ballard encontró los restos del Titanic, este constaba de mamparo, algo que definitivamente no estaba incluído en los planes originales de construcción del Titanic.
En una fotografía de Harland & Wolff del Olympic, tomada cuando el barco se encontraba en el muelle de Thompson Graving en 1911, muestra claramente una ensambladura vertical en el casco que sale del escobén del ancla de babor, mientras que algunas fotografías del Titanic cuando todavía estaba siendo equipado en 1911, muestra que no existía en el navío este tipo de ensambladura en el escobén del ancla de babor. Sin embargo, en otra fotografía del Olympic tomada durante su reparación entre 1912 y 1913, después del desastre del Titanic, muestra la ausencia de esta ensambladura, probando de este modo que el casco que se puede ver en la fotografía es el del Titanic, aunque el nombre del Olympic se pueda ver claramente a ambos lados de la proa.
Probablemente la prueba definitiva que sostiene que la teoría de la conspiración es cierta es el tonelaje de los dos barcos. En los informes originales se indica que el Olympic pesaba alrededor de 45,000 toneladas, mientras que el Titanic pesaba unas 46,000. En los últimos meses, antes de su partida, se le hicieron algunas adiciones al supuesto Titanic, en total se añadieron unas 1,000 toneladas con los cambios producidos. No tiene demasiado sentido que a un barco que pesaba 46,000 toneladas se le añadieran 1,000 y en el momento de su partida siguiera pesando 46,000. Es muy probable que las mil toneladas se le añadieran al Olympic para que pesara lo mismo que el Titanic.
Hay otros aspectos que apoyan esta teoría, como el hecho de que algunos de los botes salvavidas tuvieran grabado el nombre Olympic en los trancaniles y una copia exacta de un camarote del Olympic emergiendo durante una filmación del Titanic en 1997 realizada por un submarino.
Otro de los aspectos más importantes que sostienen esta teoría son las fotografías tomadas bajo el mar de los restos del Titanic, donde se muestran partes del casco que revelan una capa de pintura blanca surgiendo a la superficie del casco, bajo una capa principal de pintura negra. El casco del Olympic fue pintado de blanco mientras que el del Titanic fue pintado de negro, lo que sugiere que el barco hundido fue uno que originalmente estaba pintado de blanco.
Un dato muy curioso sobre esta teoría es el que se demostró cuando James Cameron, preparándose para realizar la superproducción de éxito Titanic, visitó varias veces el lugar del hundimiento del barco. En una de esas visitas sumergieron un robot submarino con una cámara para captar imágenes del interior del barco hundido. El pequeño submarino visitó una de las zonas de camarotes que habían sido ocupados en el viaje por Joseph Bruce Ismay (empresario británico que sirvió como presidente y director de la línea de barcos de vapor White Star Line y que sobrevivió al naufragio del Titanic; fue muy duramente criticado por la prensa estadounidense y británica por abandonar el barco cuando aún quedaban mujeres y niños en él). Una de las filmaciones del robot submarino mostraba el perfecto estado de conservación de los camarotes con la chimenea de hierro fundido y su borde de jaspe (mármol veteado) aún intactas. El jaspe es una piedra que al igual que los copos de nieve y las huellas dactilares, ninguna pieza es igual a la anterior. Sin embargo, el jaspe que aparece en la filmación del hundimiento es exactamente igual al que aparece en una fotografía correspondiente a un camarote a bordo del Olympic, tomada en 1911. 


LA VERDADERA HISTORIA DE LA TRAGEDIA.
  
A las 12.25 de la noche del 15 de Abril de 1912 el Carpanthia, un navío de la linea Cunard, recibió un mensaje que decía que otro barco, el Titanic, había chocado contra un iceberg y requería asistencia inmediata. En unos pocos minutos, el capitán del Carpanthia, Arthur Rostron, había alterado su curso y comenzaba a avanzar hacia el lugar en el que el barco había chocado a unas 58 millas de distancia. Sobre las cuatro de la madrugada, el Carpanthia se aproximó al punto de colisión y con la intención de atraer la atención de los supervivientes, la tripulación lanzó una gran cantidad de bengalas y cohetes. Durante el curso de las siguientes cuatro horas, los botes salvavidas no dejaron de llegar al Carpanthia. Los supervivientes del Titanic todavía estaban paralizados; el capitán Rostron observó  que la mayoría actuaban como meros autómatas a causa del shock y del miedo. Reinaba un profundo silencio. Los supervivientes del Titanic estuvieron observando desde cubierta para ver si aparecían más botes salvavidas a la vista con la esperanza de ver a sus familiares y seres queridos, pero ninguno llegó. Todos estaban esperando a un marido, a un hijo o a un hermano que nunca llegaría, dijo Albert Caldwell, pasajero de segunda clase del Titanic. La realización de las pérdidas humanas pronto se hizo presente a bordo del Carpanthia. Setecientas cinco personas habían escapado con vida, unas 1,500 habían muerto, en el choque del Titanic contra el iceberg. Los supervivientes habían escapado solamente con las ropas que llevaban puestas esa noche y deambulaban por la cubierta vestidos con diferentes prendas. Un pasajero que viajaba en primera clase declararía unos días mas tarde "Durante cuatro días los pasajeros convivieron en este estado desastroso, algunos vestidos de gala, otros en camisón y muy pocos vestidos completamente."
A cada milla que el Carpanthia se alejaba del barco hundido, la pena de los pasajeros se hacía más evidente. Karl Behr, quien sobrevivió junto con el amor de su vida, Helen Newsom, dijo "Aunque el hundimiento del Titanic fue espantoso, en mi opinión los cuatro días que lo siguieron a bordo del Carpanthia fueron mucho peores y mas difíciles de olvidar."
El jueves 18 de Abril el llamado "barco de las viudas" atracó en el puerto de Nueva York. 
Aunque la historia del Titanic acaba aquí, la historia de este acontecimiento ha seguido hasta nuestros días y es ahora, al cumplirse los 100 años del hundimiento, cuando la gente está más fascinada por su historia y por lo que ocurrió después.
La condesa de Rothes, por ejemplo, recordaba haber estado cenando con sus amigos una noche, un año después de la tragedia, cuando de repente sintió "la terrible sensación de frio intenso y horror" que asoció inmediatamente con la experiencia sufrida en el Titanic. Se dio cuenta de que la orquesta del restaurante donde cenaba con sus amigos estaba tocando The Tales of Hoffman, la última canción que había escuchado en la cena a bordo del Titanic en la noche del 14 de Abril de 1912. 
En los años siguientes a la tragedia, un total de 10 supervivientes se suicidaron. Es posible que fuera debido a lo que hoy se conoce como el "síndrome del superviviente", definido como un inmenso sentimiento de culpa.

Bea H.

IN ENGLISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TITANIC, AN IMMENSE TRAGEDY AND A VERY THRILLING TALE

Titanic was built in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it's construction was incredible due to its gigantic proportions and although the ships's creation did not determine its eventual fate in any way it was a fate that, nevertheless, has gone down in history as one of life's most momentous tragedies! The story of Titanic has been told many times, and seems quite straightforward on the surface, an ambitious Captain, a flaw in the design and an iceberg finding that flaw and sending it to the bottom of the ocean with terrible loss of life, but dig a little deeper and you will find that Titanic is also surrounded by many legends and supposedly fanciful tale as fanciful as those that say she was unsinkable to  the myth about the ship's band and their last performance before the ocean claimed their last notes 

Unsinkable? Contrary to popular believe, the Titanic was actually never considered an "impossible to sink" or "unsinkable" ship. There are some publications from Titanic's time which talk about it as "almost impossible to sink", "almost being the operative word", but there is no data from the time of the ship's construction that confirms it was ever said that the Titanic was unsinkable until after its unfortunate sinking. 

Harland and Wolff never ever stated that  the ship was impossible to sink, instead White Star Line actually  insisted when describing the security of their boats that they were designed  to be "almost unsinkable".

PECULIAR STORIES WORTH BEING TOLD

The story of W.T. Stead

One of the myths surrounding the doomed liner belongs to one of it's first class passengers, William Thomas Stead. According to legend, Stead had felt a premonition of his own death, a revelation in which he was to meet his end on board the Titanic. Apparently Stead had already reflected this fact in two fiction stories which he had written some decades before. The first one, "How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Midatlantic, by a Survivor" (1886), tells about the collision of the mentioned boat with another ship, the resulting loss of many lives being due to the lack of enough lifeboats. The second, "From the Old World to the New", narrates the story of a ship from the White Star line, the Majestic, which rescues the survivors of another ship that had collided with an iceberg.It is mind boggling to think that W.T. Stead would be killed on a boat mirroring the circumstances in both novels he had written!

The sad and painful story of Dorothy Gibson

For some the experience of the Titanic was nothing more than another excuse to make money from disastrous and morbid circumstances. Minutes after getting off the Carpanthia (the ship that rescued the survivors of the Titanic), the silent movie actress Dorothy Gibson having fortunately survived the sinking of Titanic along with her mother Pauline, met the rich and married movie producer Jules Brulatour. They became lovers and between them they devised to make a movie about the disaster in which Gibson herself would star.

The recording of the movie started not long after the disaster in Fort Lee studios, New Jersey. Wearing a white silk dress when the first scenes were being shot, the exact same dress that she had been wearing on the night of the tragedy, it is likely that the thoughts and memories of that fatefull evening became too overwhelming for her once she was faced with being in similar circumstances on a movie set. A witness to the recording of this movie, "Saved from the TItanic" stated that the actress just basically lost the plot. After a sublime representation, she started to cry hysterically, something which was not in the script during the scene was acting in. Maybe she had become filled with guilt after her behaviour when departing the sinking Titanic. According to some witnesses, while she was safely in the lifeboat she refused to help some less fortunate passengers who were freezing in the icy water and struggling to get into her boat.

Shortly after marrying Jules Brulatour they both started being unfaithful to each other and in the end it ultimately ended in an inevitable and terrible divorce. Gibson decided to move to Paris together with her mother, both now in search of a new life. When the Second World War began they both joined the fascist elements of Hitler's followers believing that Hitler would eventually win the war. Gibson fell in love with the press officer for the Spanish embassy in Paris, Antonio Ramos. Her mother, on the other hand, decided to move to Florence to support Mussolini. During a trip to Florence Dorothy tried to convince her mother to return with her to Paris. In the meantime Germany had invaded Holland and Belgium. At that time they still had the opportunity to leave France to go back to America, but still traumatised by their experiences on board the Titanic they decided not to go out to sea again. 

In the spring of 1944 having remained in Florence with her mother, Dorothy Gibson was accused of being a spy by the Italian police and she was taken to a nazi concentration camp. After going through several more horrific spells in other concentration camps she found herself eventually in San Vittore, which she described as "death in life". Gibson would have died there if it had not been for a double agent called Ugo Luca Osteria who together with Gibson and two other men managed to escape from the San Vittore camp. She was eventually questioned in Zurich where she was judged to have been "too stupid" to be a spy. In 1945 when the war was over Gibson returned to Paris where she died some months later in the Ritz Hotel of a heart attack.

The sad story of Madeleine Astor

Even those survivors who occupied privileged positions could not escape the eerie shadow of Titanic. 18 year old Madeleine Astor was travelling on board the ship with her husband, John Jacob Astor, one of the richest men in the world. She had recently discovered that she was pregnant. They were on board the Titanic returning from their honeymoon in Egypt when she tragically lost her husband when the liner was sent to the depths of the ocean. 

Although Madeleine had then become a very rich widow, inheriting the equivalent of 114 million dollars today, it was stipulated in her husband's will that she could only make use of her inheritance if she vowed never to marry again. But, despite this clause, she did indeed remarry William Dickery, another very rich gentleman with whom she had two children. In January 1932, Madeleine bought a first class ticket for a trip on board another luxury liner, the Vulcanian, on which she met the famous Italian boxer Enzo Fiermonte, a pugilist who became enamoured by her money. Although both were married and had children they started a very stormy relationship. 

After getting married in 1933 the couple caused a huge scandal on in Italy when news reached there that their wedding had been celebrated in a hospital where Madeleine had been admitted after a terrible fight with Enzo which resulted in her arm being broken. When she was deemed strong enough to travel they made their way to Italian soil where the police arrested Enzo and seized his passport, accusing him of running away from his committment to a period of military service. Also, the Italian laws did not recognise his divorce from his first wife which meant that Madeleine was then also facing prison for participating in bigamy. Mussolini himself publicly went on record as stating that he dissaproved of Enzo´s behaviour.

When the situation calmed down due to a generous agreement between Enzo and his first wife and child, the new couple started to fight so violently that Madeine became a frequent patient in hospital. In 1938 after a particularly brutal incident Madeleine had had enough and began divorce proceedings. A year after they were separated Fiermonte sold his dirty laundry to a magazine called 'True Story' and included many humilliating and degrading stories about Madeleine which, true or not, destroyed her reputation forever. As a result of this defammation of character she became heaviliy addicted to antidepressives and she died at the age of 47, some say due to an overdose of sleeping pills.

Further evidence that surviving the tragedy of Titanic's sinking was no guarantee of escaping it's icy reach!

The Tragedy of Jack Thayer

In the final moments of the Titanic disaster, 17 year old Jack Thayer, who had been travelling in first class with his parents, waited until the very last minute as the ship was finally being completely submersed in the bitterly cold water before he decided to jump in an effort to escape and survive.

Miraculously this worked, and although Thayer lost his father in the sinking he managed to be reunited with his mother and they returned to America where he attempted to continue with his life as if nothing had happened. In 1913 he started to court a girl called Lois Buchanan Cassat, the grandniece of James Buchanan who was, back then, president of the United States. On the 15th of December 1917 they got married in Philadelphia. During September John was born, the first of their six children. Jack could not be at the birth because he was fighting in France. Julie Vehr, his daughter, once said "It must have been a terrible experience for him, he came back home and never talked about it, the same way he never talked about the experience with the Titanic. In those days men did not talk about their feelings. Actually, nobody talked about their feelings, it was simply not done."

When his children were around the age he was when the Titanic tragedy took place, he started writing the story of what happened with the intention of his words being solely for his children to read. While he he was writing it was now 1940 and he could never have suspected the horrors that he would still have to go through.

He started having anxiety attacks due to the memories that writing the story was bringing back. In October 1943 he got the sad news that one of his children, Edward Casst, who was a co-pilot in an American bomber, had been shot from the skies over the Pacific and died when his plane hit the sea. Six months later his mother 72 year old mother also passed away. This added bad news made him go into a terrible depression, a circumstance further traumatic even when he realised his mother had died on the 32nd anniversary of the Titanic sinking, the 14th of April 1944. 

On the morning of the 18th of September 1945, Thayer, aged 50, left his office in Pensilvania and drove through the streets of Philadelphia. After a while he parked close to 48 Parkside Avenue and slashed his wrists and his neck. Titanic again had ensured that a survivor would not meet a natural end!

Violet Jessop, the Survivor

Probably one of the most curious facts regarding survival at sea revolves around that of Violet Jessop, a waitress on the liner who was also a nurse. Her medical training may well have contributed to her ability to not only survive the night of Titanic's destiny with an iceberg, but she also survived another two dangerous occurrences on the Britannic and the Olympic, both twin brothers of Titanic. And even before the tragic events on the Titanic, she had already survived a collision in 1911 between the Olympic and another ship. It was after the disaster on board Titanic that in 1916 the unfortunate girl overcame another bad accident on the Britannic. If you were standing beside Violet in the ticket office it was advisable to look over her shoulder, see what ticket she was purchasing, and then making sure you bought a ticket for another boat!

Lillian Asplud, the girl that did not like the Smell of Paint

Lillian was a Swedish-American survivor of the Titanic. She was a third class passenger and travelled with her family in the accommodation associated with the cheaper tickets; she was five when she was aboard the ship and she remembered perfectly everything that happened. She commented several times that the boat actually smelled of fresh paint and that is something that annoyed her nose. This may be a seemingly irrelevant little fact, but it is hugely significant when closely related along with the conspiracy theory about fraud  involving Titanic's twin brother, the Olympic.This will all become clear a little further along!

LEGEND OR REALITY: THE BAND PLAYED ON

One of the most popular stories surrounding the Titanic's last moments is that the group of musicians who were on board the ship,  two of which were devoted Methodist Christians, having played while the carnage around them escalated continued to perform while Titanic eventually sank below the surface of the icy ocean. The 15th of April, the band, containing eight members and lead by Wallace Hartley, had gathered in the first class area and ignoring what was an apparently hopeless situation performed song after song in an effort to keep the passengers calm. Later they would move to the front part of the ship´s deck. The band kept on playing even when it was obvious that the boat was going to sink. All the members died.

There has been a lot of speculation about which was the very last song they played. A Canadian passenger travelling in first class, Mrs Vera Dick, as well as various other passengers stated that the last song the musicians performed was the hymn "Nearer, my God, to Thee". Hartley had told a friend of his that if he was ever in a sinking boat then this song was definitely the one he would play as the boat succummbed to it's watery grave. But Walter Lord tells in his book "A night to remember" that the phone operator Harold Bride claimed that he could hear the song "Autumn" just before the boat sank. We do not know if he meant the song known as "Autumn" or the back then very popular vals Song d´Automne, but neither of these were in the song book that the White Star Line had provided for the band. Bride is one of two witnesses that was closer to the band, as he actually remained on board until the very last minute before the band sadly joined the vessel below the waves. Mrs. Dick on the other hand had abandoned the ship about an hour and twenty minutes before it sank so there is no way that she could have really heard the very last song which the band bravely played. 

THE LEGEND OF THE MYSTERIOUS SHIP

Some say there was another boat, the Norwegian sailboat Samson, supposedly close to the Titanic when the famous liner was hit by the iceberg. There are also speculation to the affect that Samson was the boat that witnesses on the Titanic saw in the distance, and not the Californian as previously claimed. If this fact had have been correct then the coordinates of Samson place it at a distance of only 10 miles from the position of Titanic when the stricken boat was sinking. The story of Captain Hendrik Bergethon Naess suggests that when the Titanic shot distress flares asking for help the Samson refused to go to it's rescue because it was sailing the waters it was in illegally, and Samson's crew thought that the flares were being shot by other boats to alert the authorities of their presence. If it was proven that Samson was that close to the vicinity of Titanic then it's fair to assume they could have saved countless lives.  The declaration of Captain Hendrik Bergethon Naess would claim that the Samson sped towards the North when they saw the Titanic's flares to avoid being arrested. However, in the files of Lloyds List it is recorded that on the date that the Titanic sank the Samson was in Iceland,  absolutely moored and undergoing some technical repairs, making its presence close to the area of the accident the on night of the 14th of April to be, apparently, impossible!

THE CURSES OF THE TITANIC

When the Titanic sank, some rumours began to emanate referring to a curse associated with the boat. The press quickly related "the curse of the Titanic" with the White Star Line's custom of not christening their ships by breaking a bottle of champagne on their hull as they are launched from dry dock into the water for the first time. One of the most extensive legends about the curse is directly related with the political tensions in the city of Belfast, where Titanic was built, which were all too real during the ship's construction. It was a popular theory amongst the mainly Protestant workforce that the official number which was assigned to the boat, the 390904, if reversed becomes 409093 and is claimed to represent the phrase 'NOPOPE', a slogan used by protestants in Northern Ireland to verbally annoy Catholics. Bearing in mind the religious extremism of the time in the region, the sinking of the ship was popularly used by Catholics who claimed the Protestants had actually doomed the liner with their anti-catholic slogan, and it was easier then to blame the company Harland & Wolff, who had used, almost exclusively, protestant labour. Harland & Wolff certainly hired very few Catholics to build the Titanic, but no one knows if it was due to the policy of the company or because the shipyard was situated in the Belfast bay that is localised almost exclusively in the protestant area at the east of the city, through which very few Catholics would, back then, dare to travel!

PREMONITIONS OF THE SINKING

At the same time that the Titanic was sinking, the 1st of May 1912 issue of 'The Popular Magazine' which was a cheap american gossip magazine contained a short story called "The White Ghost of Disaster". This article described the collision of an oceanic liner against an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, the inevitable sinking of the unfortunate ship and the fatal destination of it's passengers. The story, written by Mayn Clew Garnett (the pseudonym of the author of sea stories T. Jenkins Hains) provoked a slight commotion. In 1889, fourteen years before the tragedy of the Titanic, writer Morgan Robertson wrote a book entitled "Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan". This story involves an enormous British ship full of passengers called Titan, which believing itself unsinkable, was carrying very few lifeboats along with it. In a journey in April, the Titan crashes against an iceberg and sinks in the North Atlantic, carrying to the bottom of the ocean the lives of almost all the passengers and crew. Without a doubt when you read these stories written by people with absolutely no knowledge of Titanic's existence, there are an incredible amount of coincidences between the fiction and the reality.

In 1912 the German newspaper Berliner Tageblatt published a book in the serial format which lasted from the 9th of January to the 24th of April of that year. This work of fiction was written by author Herhard Hauptmann, who would later receive the nobel prize for litarature that very same year. A month before the journey of the RMS Titanic, his story was published by S. Fischer Verlag as the novel "Atlantis". It is basically is a romantic story which takes place aboard a fictional ship known as Roland, which also, coincidentally, was destined to have a very similar ending to that of Titanic. This prediction about the destination of the Titanic was quite popular at the time. A dansk silent movie entitled Atlantis and produced by Nordisk FIlm was based in this novel. When it was released, a year after the  Titanic tragedy, it was censored in Norway as being considered "of bad taste", completely ignoring the amazing fact that the Atlantis had been written as fiction long before the tragic fact of Titanic.

SOME PREMONITORY DREAMS

Some of the people who had bought tickets to travel on the Titanic cancelled their reservations at the last minute after having premonitory dreams in which they saw how the boat was going to sink. The businessman J. Connor Middleton had a dream for two consecutive nights in which he saw the boat going down. In his dream he could see the passengers and the crew floating adrift, all dead. He also saw himself watching the scene from the air. Middleton told his family and friends what he had seen and they told other people, like their associates in America. He had some urgent business matter to solve in USA and he was having doubts about cancelling the journey. Fortunately he received a telegram from New York suggesting that he should postpone his journey. Dreams came to his rescue!

Some of the crew members, including experienced seamen and engineers jumped over the side of Titanic at the last minute before it set sail from Queenstown due to a hunch they had that all was not going to end well with the massive ship.

Henry Wilde, the chief officer of Titanic, had previously served on another ship The Olympic. He mentioned his reservations in a letter sent to his sister: " I still don´t like this ship" he stated..."it provokes a strange feeling in me". Despite these reservations his friends convinced him to accept the chief officer position on the TItanic, a decision that resulted in him dying together with the rest of the crew.

THE CURSE OF THE EGYPTIAN MUMMY ON BOARD THE TITANIC

On the 12th of April 1912 the Titanic was crossing the Atlantic on its way to New York. A group of 8 men gathered in the smoking room to sort out the world. One of those in attendance was William T. Stead, British journalist and spiritualist. As the evening was progressing Stead started to tell a ghost story which would subsequently open the door to some legends and myths that surrounded the sinking of the Titanic during the decades which followed it's sinking. The story talked about the discovery in Egypt of an ancient mummy and the inscription on the mummy´s sarcophagus which was later translated. This inscription warned that any one who repeated what was written on the sarcophagus in a loud voice would die a violent death. The other seven members of the group listened curiously. Could this be true?And was this mysterious and deadly sarcophagus aboard? Seven of the eight men who were in the smoking room sank with the boat, including Stead. The only survivor of the group was Fred Seward, who understandably did not want to recount the whole story about the mummy and its inscription.

The princess Amen-Ra lived about 1,500 BC. When she died she was placed in a wooden sarcophagous and buried in a deep grave in Luxor, on the shore of the river Nile. At the end of 1890, four rich British men visited the excavations of Luxor and they were invited to buy a sarcophagous that contained a mummy. They bet with each other in order to determine who was going to buy the sarcophagus and the guy who bought it got it brought to his hotel room. One hour later he was seen walking around in a state of shock on his way to the desert. Nobody ever saw him again!  The next day one of the other men was shot accidentally by an egyptian servant. He had to have his arm amputated.

A third member of the group found on his way back home to England that all his investments had dropped down and he lost eveything. The fourth man suffered a terrible illness, lost his job and spent the rest of his days selling matches on the streets.

Nevertheless the sarcophagous arrived in England, causing many more calamities on it's way. It remained in storage until a wealthy London businessman bought it. Three members of his family suffered injuries in a bad car accident and his house burned down, so he decided to donate the sarcophagous to the British Museum. When it was being unloaded in the patio of the museum, the lorry carrying it suddenly reversed and run over a person. When two workers were carrying it upstairs, one of them fell and broke a leg. The other one, apparently in very good health, died misteriously two days later. 

Once the mummified princess had been installed in the Egyptian room of the museum, the problems there really started. The night guards of the museum frequently heard thumping noises and frightening cries coming from the inside the sarcophagus. Other museum objects in adjoining rooms were suddenly being thrown into the air by invisible forces. One of the night guards actually died while working close to the Egyptian artifacts area and all the other night watchmen understandably wanted out. The museum cleaners also refused to get close to the princess. Finally the authorities transfered the mummy to the basement thinking it could not possibly hurt anyone there. However after only one week of the sarcophagus apparently being out of harms way one of the men who had assisted in carrying it downstairs got seriously ill. He fortunately got well some time later but and the supervisor of the move was then found dead on top of his desk!

Later the Museum had had enough and sold the mummy to another wealthy private collector who, after suffering several accidents, decided to put the mummy in the attic of his mansion. He invited Madame Helena Blavatsky, then an authority in the ocult, to visit his house. When she entered the collectors home she immediately  felt a blow to her face and without being told where the sacophagus had been stored she followed her instincts and made her way towards the attic. previous experiences had made her prepared for any eventuallity, but in this instance she appeared particularly frightened and told the owner that it was impossible to exorcise this object stating aloud as she left the house that "the evil stays evil forever". The owner decided to get rid of the mummy but it's reputation now preceded it and no museum or private colector wanted to buy the cursed object. This was in no small way due to the startling fact that during the last 10 years twenty people had died because of it. 

Finally an American archelogist who believed that these legends were all just a coincidence paid a good amount of money to have the mummy delivered to the United States. In April of 1912, the new owner embarked on a sea journey along with the sarcophagus on a new ship owned by the White Star Line which was to be the mummy's transport across the Atlantic  to New York. On the night of the 14th of April, surrounded by scenes of indescribable terror, the princess Amen-Ra joined the rest of the passengers on that White Star liner at the bottom of the ocean. The name of the boat was, of course, Titanic. Later reports at the same time claim that the businessman owner of the mummy managed to bribe some members of the Titanic's crew to put the sarcophagous onto a lifeboat which then ended up with it being lifted on board the Carpanthia. It is further said that arriving in America the mummy kept on causing all sorts of trouble until it was shipped again back to Europe aboard the liner Empress of Ireland, a boat which also tragically sank on the 29th of May 1912 with the terrible loss of 840 passengers. Miraculously though even from this disaster the mummy somehow got saved again. The businessman also survived the Empress of Ireland tragedy and this time decided to bring the mummy back to Egypt aboard a third ship called the Lusitania. Famously this vessel was torpedoed by a German submarine. At this point we finally lose track of the apparently immortal Egyptian mummified princess and her cursed sarcophagous.

Unrelated to the Sarcophagus myth but none-the-less equally as haunting due to it's relation to entombment is another macabre legends that surrounding the Titanic which tells that during it's final times in Belfast a few days before the completion of building the Titanic constant knocks were being heard  coming from the inside of it's hull. The strange noises were said to be from some shipyard workers who had become trapped inside the cavernous hull just before they finally sealed it. The noises were dismissed as metal settling into position and the fate of these men was as sealed as the steel sheets which had apparently entombed them.

THE CONSPIRANCY ABOUT THE TITANIC AND ITS TWIN THE OLYMPIC

Some conspiracy theorists honestly believe that the tragedy of Titanic was nothing but a very well organised plan designed to carry out one of the biggest insurance frauds ever committed. The twin brother of the Titanic, the Olympic had been damaged during one of its journeys and it was said that the boat had been left completely disabled. There are a lot of experts who support this theory of conspiracy by fraud due to the numerous inconsistencies in the story of the Titanic itself.

Insurance fraud involving boats was nothing new, there are a lot of cases of such methods involving attempts to fool and swindle insurance companies documented through history. The idea of changing one boat for another to receive the valuable compensation from an insurance is definitely not a recent or isolated idea. The Olympic suffered huge structural damage when it collided with a British naval sailboat named HMS Hawke. Both ships were badly affected because of this accident. The Olympic suffered a massive hole in its hull and the main propeller had been completely destroyed. The Olympic, on that eventful journey, was captained by a Captain Smith, the same person who would later go down with the Titanic. With the help of some tugboats, the Olympic was taken to Southampton to evaluate its damage. The reports from some witnesses suggest to the original accident suggest that it was a fact that the path of the Hawke and the Olympic which led to them colliding with each other had not been an accident at all!

When the White Star company took the case to court with the objective of claiming compensation for the destructive damage done to of the Olympic, it was decided by the authorities that the collision had, unfortunately for White Star, been 100% the Olympic´s fault. With this decision the company were faced with an inability now of getting any money legitamately from the their insurers and White Star was therefore left with a damaged boat which would never recuperate any money due to it not being able to be used anymore to transport passengers.

It had cost White Star a fortune to build the Olympic and the company could not afford to have one of its boats moored, useless and not of any benefit to them whatsoever. 

Harland & Wolff did not have the necessary parts at that time which were needed to have been replaced and repaired in order to make the Olympic seaworthy once again. They did, however, have identical parts which were ready to be installed in its twin brother, Titanic. The theory continues that a decision was made behind closed doors to repair the Olympic with the parts originally destined for the, at that stage, unfinished Titanic. Some of them can be seen in later photographs, like one of the propellers that still has the number 01 written on it, clearly an indication that it may have come from the Titanic whose assigned propeller was marked model 401. We also have to remark that one of the Olympics other propellers which had been badly bent due to it's collision with the British ship was never replaced. This would account for some reports which state that the Titanic had 'staggered excessively' during part of it's journey, something that coincidentally was reported by one of the survivors, Lawrence Beesley. This could only have been as a result of the ships having swapped identity.

Neither the Titanic or the Olympic were designed to have bulkheads installed, but one was installed in the Olympic to repair the damaged area in the hull of the ship. When Doctor Robert Ballar found the remains of the TItanic in its eerie seabed resting place, it was ascertained that it had a bulkhead, something which had definitely not been included in the original building plans of the TItanic. 

In a photograph of the Olympic taken by Harland & Wolff when the boat was moored in the Thompson Graving dock in 1911, it is clearly shown that there is a vertical joint in the hull which comes from the fairlead of the port anchor, while some photographs of the Titanic when it was still being equiped in 1911 show that this joint in the port anchor´s fairlead did not exist. However, in another photograph of the Olympic taken during its repair between 1912 and 1913, after the disaster of the Titanic, it shows the absence of that joint, proving this way that the hull that can be seen in the photograph actually belongs to the Titanic, although the name Olympic can be seen on both sides of the bow. Further evidence to suggest that a massive operation had taken place to replace the newly built Titanic with the stricken Olympic but in order for everything to go according to their sinister plan the White Star Line had to ensure that no one would be able to discover the fraud, which obviously meant that they knew when the Titanic (which was now the Olympic) set sail that it's voyage across the Atlantic would be it's first and last journey. 

Probably the definitive proof that sustains the theory of conspiracy to be true is the records of the tonnage of both ships. In the original reports  it is indicated that the Olympic weighed 45,000 tons and the Titanic weighed 46,000. In the last months before the Titanic´s maiden voyage some additions were made to the ship that added a further 1,000 tons to its overall weight. But the boat which actually departed still weighed 46.000 thousands tons. Where were the 1,000 additional tons that the Titanic had supposedly aquired? Is it feasible that the 1,000 tons were in fact added to the Olympic when it had replaced the Titanic instead making it weigh 46,000 tons whereas if the extra weight had been added to the Titanic it would have left the dock weighing 47,000 tons!

There are other aspects just as important to sustain the swapping theory sustain this theory, such as the astounding revelation that some of the lifeboats which were on the supposed Titanic had been engraved with the name of the Olympic, and there was an undoubtably Olympic cabin capture by camera during the filming of the Titanic's remains in 1997 by a submarine.

Further important aspects that support the theory are the photographs taken under water of what is supposed to be the remains of the Titanic which reveal parts of it's hull with a layer of white paint coming out to the surface under a layer of black paint. The hull of the Olympic was painted in white while the hull of the Titanic was painted in black, which suggests that the sunken boat was a ship which had originally been painted in white. 

Another very curious detail about this theory is one that James Cameron revealed when he was getting ready to make the successful blockbuster production "Titanic". Several times he actually visited the resting place of the ship. During one of these visits they inmersed a submarine robot armed with a camera to get images of the interior of the sunken boat. The small submarine visited one of the areas of cabins which had been occupied during the journey by Joseph Bruce Ismay (the British businessman who had served as president and director of the ship White Star Line and who had survived the shipwreck of the Titanic; he was very strongly critisied by the American and British press for abandoning the boat while there were still women and children onboard). Part of the astonishing footage which the submarine robot captured showed in perfectly-preserved condition the cabins with their cast iron fireplaces and jasper edges still intact. Jasper is a stone the pieces of which when cut, similar to the individually identifying features of snowflakes and fingerprints , are all different from each other. The Jasper that appears in the footage of the Titanic is identical to that used in fireplaces which were photographed within a cabin on board the Olympic, taken in 1911!

THE REAL FACTS

At 12.25 am just after midnight on the 15th of April 1912 the Carpanthia, a boat belonging to the Cunard shipping line, received a message which stated that another boat, the Titanic, had crashed against an iceberg and required immediate assistance. Within some minutes the captain of the Carpanthia, Arthur Rostron, had altered the course of his ship, he was at that point roughly 58 miles from Titanic, with the intention of getting to the ship which had collided with the iceberg as fast as he could possibly go! At approximately 4.00 am the Carpanthia approached the area of collision and immediately set about trying to attract the attention of survivors in the water and in lifeboats. The crew shot a constant amount of flares and rockets into the black sky to guide survivors to them. During the course of the next four hours there was a non stop stream of lifeboats arriving to the side of the Carpanthia. The survivors of Titanic were still paralysed with cold and trauma and Captain Rostron saw that most of them staring blankly due to the fear and the shock instead of appearing euphoric with being rescued. There was a very deep silence. The survivors of the Titanic were watching from the deck of the Carpanthia to see if more lifeboats would appeared with the hope that their relatives were in them. But no more arrived. Albert Caldwell, a passenger on the Carpanthia recounted that they were all waiting for a husband, a son or a brother that would never return to them. Soon the realisation of the huge tragedy and loss of human lives was present aboard the Carpanthia. 705 people had survived the collision and over 1500 had died when the boat hit the iceberg. The survivors had only escaped with the clothes they had been wearing that night. A passenger who was travelling in first class would declare days later "For four days the passengers lived in this disastrous state, some dressed for a gala, some in their night gowns and very some not totally dressed at all."

Karl Behr, who survived the sinking together with his sweetheart, said "Although the sinking of the Titanic was terrible, in my opinion for us the four days that followed on board the Carpanthia were much worse and more difficult to forget."

On Thursday the 18th of April the so called "ship of widows" docked in the New York harbour.

The Countess of Rothes, for example, remembered having been  dining with some friends a year after the tragedy when she suddenly "started feeling the same terrible sensation of intense coldness and horror" that she automatically associated with the terrible experience she had suffered aboard the Titanic. She realised that the orchesta in the restaurant she found herself dining were playing The Tales of Hoffman, the last song which she had heard at diner onboard of the Titanic that fateful night of the 14th of April 1912.

In the years following the tragedy, a total of 10 survivors commited suicide. It is possible this was due to what today is known as "survivor´s syndrome", explained as an immense feeling of guilt.

Although our story of the Titanic ends here, the story of this event never really ends, it remains with us today as clearly as it did all those years ago and especially now during the 100th anniversary of the disaster when the people are more fascinated than ever before about the story and what happened afterwards. 

Bea H.