The Titanic Conspiracy Theory That The Ship Was Attacked By A German U-Boat
Wikimedia CommonsThe first U-boat produced for the German Empire, SM U-1, which was commissioned in 1906.
German U-boats are most closely associated with World War I and World War II, but the first one produced for the German Empire was actually commissioned in 1906. And a number of other U-boats were ordered after SM U-1 — years before the first world war broke out.
This brings us to the next Titanic conspiracy theory — that the doomed ship was covertly attacked by an early German U-boat. This bizarre theory emerged out of the fact that a German U-boat sank the British liner RMS Lusitania near Ireland three years after the tragedy of the Titanic, killing nearly 1,200 passengers and crew members in May 1915.
A few months prior to the sinking, Germany had declared a war zone around the British Isles, meaning that any Allied ships traveling in the area were at risk of being attacked. Just before the Lusitania made its return voyage from New York back to Liverpool, the Imperial German Embassy issued an ominous warning to travelers, including those on the Lusitania.
“NOTICE! TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or of any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk,” the Imperial German Embassy advised on April 22, 1915, according to The Washington Times (an older newspaper that ceased production in 1939, not the current newspaper by the same name).
Library of CongressThe Imperial German Embassy issued a warning to Americans traveling on British ships shortly before the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat in May 1915.
While the Titanic sank three years prior to the attack on the Lusitania and before the onset of World War I, some wondered whether the Titanic could have been an early attack on the British by Germany.
A number of Titanic survivors did testify that they never felt or heard the collision with the iceberg, explained actor and ufologist Dr. Franklin Ruehl in a HuffPost article. However, these survivors did say they heard four “reports” (explosions) coming from the bottom of the Titanic — after it had already scraped the iceberg. Ruehl claims these explosions could have hypothetically been torpedoes from a U-boat.
Additionally, some survivors on the Titanic and some crew members of the Californian, the nearest ship to the Titanic at the time it sank, attested that there was another, smaller ship between the Titanic and the Californian.
“Several sailors on watch asserted that they witnessed an unidentified vessel approximately 5 to 6 miles away until about 2 a.m., possibly a submarine that had surfaced to assess the damage it had caused, after which time it skulked off,” Ruehl wrote.
That said, there is no hard evidence to prove that a German U-boat caused the Titanic to sink, either intentionally or unintentionally, and this theory remains one of the most obscure ones on this list.
