The Titanic Conspiracy Theory About The Ship’s Alleged “Secret Message”
Wikimedia CommonsOne theory alleges the Titanic was given the hull number of 3909 04, which, if read as a mirror image, says, “NO POPE.”
One Titanic conspiracy theory out there goes so far as to suggest the ship was cursed because it carried a secret anti-Catholic message.
The theory claims that the Titanic’s hull number was 3909 04 — which, if read as a mirror image, appears to spell the phrase “NO POPE.”
Believers allege that Catholic workers on the Titanic realized this and were horrified by the message that had been sent by their shipbuilding company, Harland and Wolff. They also believed the ship was doomed to sink.
At the time of the construction of the Titanic, Harland and Wolff was located in Belfast, Ireland, where conflict between Catholics and Protestants was ever-growing. Reports from the time state that many Catholics who worked at shipyards were subjected to harassment and attacks from Protestants.
But did Catholic workers at Harland and Wolff really spot an anti-pope message on the Titanic — and predict its fate ahead of time?
All in all, this theory appears to be nothing more than urban legend.
There is no documentation of the number 3909 04 appearing anywhere on the Titanic, or in anything related to the ship. According to Snopes, “[the Titanic’s] official Board of Trade designation was 131,428, and the yard number assigned to her by Harland & Wolff was 401.”
And it’s highly unlikely that there would be any Catholic employees at Harland and Wolff at the time to warn people of the “cursed” number.
According to Business Insider, author Annie Caulfield writes that “by the twentieth century, Harland and Wolff had a reputation for only employing Protestants.”
