Titanic Deception by Joe Loesch part 3 "The Switch"
In Belfast, the Titanic was nearing completion, but all work on her stopped so that every effort could be put into the repair of the Olympic. This work took seven weeks instead of the two weeks originally planned and involved replacing steel plates along one-third of the ship's starboard side. This indicates that the damage was far worse than originally thought.
This is a film of the Olympic backing out of the dock in New York, where you can see the extensive patchwork on her starboard side. It's a huge area, and that's just the damage above the waterline. To get the Olympic back to sea and earning a profit as soon as possible, the starboard propeller, stamped with the Titanic's number 401 and not yet fitted to the Titanic, was fitted to the Olympic. This fact becomes significant later on.
However, the Olympic's troubles were only just beginning. On February 24th, 1912, she ran over a sunken wreck off the Grand Banks and threw a propeller blade on the starboard side. This caused further damage to the already weakened liner. She limped back to Southampton on only one engine, arriving there on February 28th. By March 2nd, she was once again in the Thompson dry dock in Belfast, having her propeller blade replaced. This should have taken only a few hours, but the Olympic remained in Belfast until March 7th.
During this time, the Titanic and the Olympic were often berthed side by side in Belfast and regularly moved in and out of the Thompson dry dock, especially during repairs to the Olympic. Upon close examination of contemporary archive photographs, one can see minor differences in design that distinguish the two ships on the forward part of the sea deck. The Olympic was built with 16 portholes, while the Titanic had 14. Strangely, the Titanic acquired two extra portholes between its launch and its maiden voyage, suggesting the possibility of a switch between the two ships.
At the time of the Titanic's launch, the windows on the B deck were clearly discernible as being evenly spaced. However, they took on a distinctly uneven appearance by the time of her maiden voyage. It's worth noting that the Olympic was open to the public for inspection in Belfast and Liverpool, but the Titanic was not.
Switching the two ships would have been a relatively simple undertaking. There were no members of the press or film crews around, and photography was in its early stages. All crockery, linen, and other supplies were standard issue and interchangeable between ships. Only the names on the bows and sterns, the nameplates on the lifeboats, and 48 lifebelts would need to be swapped. A small crew could have accomplished this over a weekend without much notice.
White Star often used photographs of the Olympic to promote both ships in their advertisements and press releases. The ships had similar flooring. The floors were carpeted just days before the Titanic's maiden voyage, possibly to cover up the Olympic's worn linoleum floors. The vast Harland and Wolf Ship Yard, where the ships were built, was a maze of buildings, workshops, and activity, making unusual activity less noticeable.
The social order at that time made it unlikely for workers to question their superiors. People were generally told what to think, where to go, what to do, and when to do it. It was also easier to manipulate or pressure individuals into following company directives. The lack of a social safety net for the unemployed gave companies the power to dismiss entire families if one member didn't comply.
There was a scam going on, and the bosses were involved. Some individuals knew about the ship swap, but mentioning it was met with threats and intimidation. The surviving crew members, upon returning to Britain, experienced this firsthand. Furthermore, the sea trials of the Olympic and the Titanic differed significantly. The Olympic's original sea trials conducted by the Board of Trade lasted two full days, while the Titanic's trials were rushed, lacked strenuous maneuvers, and were over in time for lunch. Sadly, by this time, the switch had already taken place.