Exploring the Possibility That the Titanic Was Sunk by a German U-Boat

This week's Macrodosing is all about the Titanic. You know the company line: there wan an iceberg that popped up out of nowhere and the ship rammed into it and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. But what if that's not the whole truth? We're just here to ask questions, that's all.

The Titanic sank just a few years before the Germans used U-boats to sink the RMS Lusitania, another British ocean liner. Some Titanic survivors reported hearing several explosions as well as seeing an unidentified vessel near the ship as it was going down.

Huffington Post — Significantly, several survivors including both passengers and crew members, when questioned by a U.S. Senate inquiry panel, testified that they never felt any impact or heard any sound when the collision occurred, suggesting it was minor in nature. However, they reported having heard four “reports,” or explosions, deep in the bowels of the Titanic AFTER it had scraped the iceberg! These could conceivably have been torpedoes launched by a German submarine.

Moreover, a number of survivors huddled in lifeboats observed a searchlight in the distance, encouraging them that a rescue vessel was approaching. This light had been attributed to the Californian. But, that ship’s captain, Stanley Lord, insisted that it was not his, that there was another vessel between his and the Titanic. Indeed, his craft was mired in a colossal ice field and forced to remain there until daylight.

All I know is the more we talked about the iceberg, the less it made sense to me. I think it's entirely possible there was an iceberg, but it's plausible a U-boat could have caused the Titanic to hit it. Nobody just slams into an iceberg.

But listen to this week's show and draw your own conclusions about what may have happened with the most famous sinking ship of all-time. Be sure to rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts — as well as YouTube!

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