#Titanic - For decades it was believed that the ill-fated Titanic was sunk by an iceberg on its maiden transatlantic voyage.
Indeed, the dramatic collision and its aftermath has long been etched on the Irish consciousness, and was the centrepiece of 1997’s Oscar-winning epic.
But now experts have claimed that the iceberg was only the final straw of a calamitous journey whose fate was sealed by an unnoticed fire in its hull some three weeks before, as Independent.ie reports.
Previously only theorised by experts on the ocean liner and its demise in 1912, the fire’s status as the primary cause of the Titanic’s demise has now been all but confirmed after new analysis of photographs of the vessel before it left the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
These appear to show scorch marks on the hull close to the spot where it was later breached by contact with the iceberg — lending credence to the idea that the ship was already fatally weakened by the incredible heat of a fire inside.
Journalist Senan Molony, who fronted a Channel 4 documentary on his findings on New Year’s Day, also makes the bold claim that the White Star Line covered up the fire incident even before the Titanic launched from Southampton.
“Nobody has investigated these marks before,” said Molony. “It totally changes the narrative.”
Independent.ie has much more on the story HERE.
