Customer Reviews

The Titanic Conspiracy

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The title of this book may prompt intrigue or skepticism. For the skeptics, the book is well researched and written in sophisticated, but readable, language. The authors analyze issues (many of which seem rather trivial) fairly thoroughly and are able to distinguish fact from fiction. For those wanting the intrigue of shocking conspiracies, the authors present the idea that the Titanic and Olympic switched places in the first chapters but do not carry on this hypothesis throughout the book. In fact, they do not come back to this point until the latter part of the final (and comparatively short) chapter.

Gardiner and Van Der Vat include a lot of information on White Star Line, Harland and Wolff, and the role of J. P. Morgan (they are highly critical of the financier). They cover the origin of the "Olympic" class including the sea trials of both Olympic and Titanic very well. Chapters in this book also cover the lowering of lifeboats during Titanic's final hours, the role of the Carpathia, Californian (the authors sympathize more with the vilified Capt. Lord than do many other Titanic historians), Mount Temple, and other possible "mystery ships" at the scene, the behavior of the press when the survivors arrived at New York, and the American and British inquiries.

As an overview of the disaster and the hearings, the book is valuable. Where the authors fall short is on the bombshell they introduce at the beginning of their book. The idea is that the Olympic was put in place of the Titanic because the former was built with inferior steel and was in several accidents that cost the White Star Line a lot of money. The Olympic was getting a propeller blade repaired at the same time and place the Titanic was being prepared for her maiden voyage. The authors introduce the idea that the two ships switched identities and the troubled Olympic sailed in her sister's place. Her sinking was planned to be written off White Star's insurance (if they planned on sinking her, they certainly were not very organized in doing so). They back up this theory with the following weak reasons: (1) It was very easy the switch the identities of the ships because they were practically identical, (2) there were 55 last-minute cancellations, including that of J. P. Morgan who claimed to be sick but was seen with his French mistress the day after the sinking to be quite healthy, (3) Chief officer Wilde wrote his sister that he "STILL" did not like the ship but, since it was the Titanic's maiden voyage, why would he write the word "still," (4) only one of the Olympic vets below deck signed on with the Titanic as if they knew a dark secret.

The authors criticize the "nit-picking, repetitious" Senator William Alden Smith who conducted the American inquiry, but they are at times just as guilty. They keep going back to a fire that was allowed to burn in Titanic's sixth bunker only, on the last page, to admit the weakened bunker did not cause the ship to sink. The authors harp on the fact that there were several last minute crew changes at the top including Wilde joining the ship from the Olympic. Capt. Smith (of whom the authors are extremely critical) apparently wanted some of his Olympic crew with him. They never seem to go anywhere with this point. They also pick apart details not related to any conspiracies: the fact that Jack Phillips sent the message "Engine room full up to the boilers," which apparently is technologically inaccurate (well, he was under some stress at the time). They also seem strangely intrigued by J. J. Astor's body being found near a lifeboat when he never got into one (maybe it just floated there). As to the great conspiracy theory, they never get back to it until the very end of the book. Then they remark that people need conspiracies when disasters occur (i.e. the JFK assassination) as if they are backing off from the conspiracy bomb they themselves set. An intriguing photograph of "401" on the starboard propeller of Titanic as she rests in the Atlantic also proves to be a dud: "401" was the hull number NOT of the Olympic as one would suspect but of the Titanic (surprise) ; however, according to the authors, parts were borrowed from Titanic and used on the Olympic, so that number does not prove anything (indeed). Slapping "Conspiracy" and "Cover-Ups" on the cover of a book probably improved its sales, but it is really false advertising. The book is valuable for background information and for an overview of the many controversies surrounding the Titanic but, when it comes to the Great Conspiracy, it will disappoint.

Having read over two dozen articles and books on the Titanic, it was with great interest that I picked up Mr. Gardiner's and Mr Van Der Vat's The Titanic Conspiracy, as it brimmed with promisses of new information and new theories. On both counts I was somewhat disappointed. The binoculars and coal fire I had previously read about (though not in such great detail,) probably in Walter Lord's A Night to Remember, printed almost half a century earlier. The theory of the Olympic/Titanic switch I had heard of, but had never seen explored. Dr. Robert Ballard suggests that the position radioed by the sinking ship may have been incorrect, in his The Discovery of the Titanic; Exploring the Greatest of All Lost Ships, published shortly after his 1986 exploration of the wreck. The scandal of not enough lifeboats was covered quite well in Mr. Lord's 1987 (1988?) The Night Lives On.

This is not to say, though, Mr Gardiner and Mr. Van Der Vat fail to provide any fresh data, theory, or insight. They certainly are, to my uncertain knowledge, the first to assemble so many mysteries and inconsistancies of the disaster in one volume, but, and this is my primary quibble, they make grander proposals than their citations of fact can support They assume, it appears, that the reader will take them at their word rather that wish to see the evidence and decide for themselves. In a book that claims to be an expose', this is at once insulting to the reader and a little suspect.

Overall, I can only recomend the book as a collection of theories that are many times best researched elsewhere, or at least in titles in addition to this one.

This is a book that could only have been written in the 1990's. The so-called 'conspiracy'appears specious at best. (Words of Wisdom: Never ascribe to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.) All available evidence on TITANIC points to massive incompetence and lack of communication as the true cause of the disaster. I really doubt that the White Star Line wanted to sink one of their prized new liners for the insurance! This, again, is a very modern outlook and the authors offer no proof of their hypothesis. TITANIC CONSPIRACY is also turgidly written and only has one 'fact' that appears to be original with the authors. I won't spoil it for you here. You may have already bought this one. I did, and wish I hadn't. There are much better books on TITANIC out there; this one is strictly for the tabloid set.

This book gave very little evidence of any conspiracies. The jacket implied there were facts that were hidden and not brought up in other books - i.e. switching with the Olympic, insurance scam - but it gave little or no evidence of it. It mentions an extra bulkhead - as if this is supposed to mean something - yet never tells where the bulkhead is or what it could mean. It raises a few questions or points that other books have not but gives nothing to sink your teeth in. The "conspiracy" part takes up about .05% of the book. There are no extra "characters" who give evidence. No real intent on proving a conspiracy except the well-trod inconsistancies that have been written about for years.

I have no doubt that a lot of research went into this book. It should have been titled different - marketed different. I only bought it for additional information but found little. If it had been titled different I may have bought it for primary research.

Aside: The authors never discuss how a 46,000 ton ship could have been replaced by her sister without someone noticing and talking. They are not two cars in an empty garage. Nor did they give good reasoning for a company to trade an underinsured ship for another for the insurance money - which would have caused a huge loss for White Star. Nor a theory on how they planned to "accidentally" sink the ship with no loss of life by ramming an iceburg.

Very disappointing. Remove the jacket, change the title, and a much better rating would be have.

The title itself may be true, but the book falls far short of the implication the reader infers from it. We (the audience) are led to believe that some secret lies two miles down under the Atlantic Ocean, waiting for someone to set it free. Not so, or at least not to the degree they imply.

The book itself is an almost anal-retentive study of course, architecture and materials (except for the enthusiast, who really cares what degree Smith turned on any trip other than Titanic's last?). I do not doubt that the work is meticulously researched, as it appears. The fact is that the content falls quite short of the implied mark. The book, at a glance, implies that in fact the Olympic may be the liner that sank (don't forget that there is a glossy picture that points to a number "401" on the wreckage of the port propeller; when you read near the end of the book, it turns out that even the authors acknowledge that the prop is, in fact, from the Titanic).

If this book had been titled "The Titanic Conspiracy" with a follow-up subtitle "The Erros, Omissions, Oversights, Distortions and Falsifications of the White Star Line" it would have been much more honest and credible. One could have even added at the end, like a bonus question, "Could the wreck actually be Titanic's sister ship Olympic?" As this theory has less credibility than the Floating Living Room Furniture theory, it should not be graced as a milestone of research or a primary foundation for the book.

Pure speculation, little or no evidence throughout most of the book. In short, "The Titanic Conspiracy" is a lot of smoke and no fire, and we all know that fire doesn't burn well under the water.

C'mon this seems completely ridiculous...the Olympic is having some problems..."hey I know...let's switch plates...no one would EVER know"....egads

First off, this book is Exhibit A in the case against jacket-copy writers who don't read the books they're writing copy for. The rhetorical questions raised on the rear suggest we will read about the wreck on the seafloor not being consistent with the ship's final reported position. But there's nothing about that in the book. Perhaps it was edited out, but I doubt it, considering that any decent editor would have told Gardiner he had to present his theory coherently. That means, no hopscotching from point to point, set out the fundamentals of your argument at the beginning and reiterate them at the end. Like any good disaffected Brit, he harps at length on the corruptness of the naval and mercantile establishments. He takes special pleasure in lambasting the British inquiry into the disaster, and practically throws tantrums over its failure to note that one of the ship's builders was also a partner in White Star. Yet he never quite demonstrates the importance of that fact, or rather kills it by overstatement. His strongest points are the sea voyage itself, where he records much that raised my eyebrows: the fire that burned for days after leaving Belfast, the missing binoculars, and certain odd crew changes and assignments. But he never pulls it all into one ... he discusses at length the many nearby ships survivors said they saw and implies he's going to explain that, but never does. It's very possible that Olympic and Titanic were switched in Belfast to scuttle the former in insurance fraud. But this book isn't the proof it could be - it's too much conspiracy and too little theory.

They reveal facts and pose questions upon the events before the Titanic set sail. This book supplies historical background into the famous demise of the White Star Line and it's "Masterminds." Full detail is given into the construction of Titanic. This book is for all of the people that are looking to find out the truth as well as hear a tragic ending to the greatest ship ever constucted.

Titanic - The ship that never sank Robin Gardiner This is the second book on the topic of the alleged switching of the Titanic and the Olympic before the 1912 disaster. In his first book, the Riddle of the Titanic, Robin Gardiner collaborated with Dan Van Der Vat to describe their theory that the Olympic was switched with the Titanic because the Olympic was so badly damaged in a collision with a cruiser at Southampton. They develop the theory that the Olympic was very severely damaged by the ram on the bow of the warship. The story is at least credible and evidence or rather inconsistencies are highlighted which make the thesis far beyond conspiracy theorist's lunacy. Photos illustrate minute detail on the bow plates of the "Titanic" which are characteristic of the Olympic. The two ships were sisters but not identical. An extra life boat was accounted for at the scene which suggests the presence of another ship. The bizarre behaviour of the captain of the Californian is explained in that he was there as a rescue ship but told to expect precise coloured rocket signals. The provision of coal for the Leyland Line's cargo steamer Californian is slightly strange when crack liners were moored two abreast at Southampton because of a coal strike. Both Leyland Line and Cunard were owned by IMM. Some of the survivor stories are challenged as inconsistent and the crew were held away from the press until they had been spoken to by the company and British authorities. Robin Gardiner says that the Olympic was scuttled because she was beyond repair and before she set out she was relabelled as the Titanic in order to collect better insurance. Read the evidence and believe what you will. Published 1998 Ian Allan , Birmingham, ISBN 0 7110 2633 5 £16.99

Often , one wonders , listening to the press , what they've been smokin'...

With , Mr. Gardiner's prose... Let's say he had a bad running boiler . A case of intoxication ...
This book should definitely be classed under fiction ( miction?) ...


There's not A HINT OF TRUTH IN IT !
FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE ! DO READ THE TITANIC INQUIRIES WHICH ARE AVAILABLE ON THE NET !
His theory is nothing else than fantasy .

If you wanna read good fiction , read HG Wells , or 2001 !
For Titanic , sick to leslie reade's version : "the ship that stood still"!

Good reading !