The sinking of the RMS Titanic could have been caused by a large fire on board and not by crashing into an iceberg in the North Atlantic, according to experts, as new evidence came to light backing the theory. Over than 1,500 passengers lost their lives when the Titanic sank on route to New York from Southampton in April 1912. The cause of the disaster has long been attributed to the vessel hitting an iceberg, but fresh evidence suggests a fire that broke in the ship’s hull, which burt unnoticed for 3 weeks, could be the reason that led to the collision. While experts have previously acknowledged the theory of a fire on board, new analysis of rarely seen photographs has prompted researchers to blame the fire as the primary cause of the ship’s demise. Senan Molony, a journalist who has researched and studied the sinking of the Titanic for more than 30 years, looked at photographs taken by the ship’s chief electrical engineers before it left Belfast shipyard, and claims he was able to identify 30ft-long black marks along the front right-hand side of the hull, just behind where the ship’s lining was pierced by the iceberg. Experts subsequently confirmed the marks were likely to have been caused by a fire started in a three-storey high fuel store behind one of the ship’s boiler rooms. A team of 12 men attempted to put out the flames, but it was too large to control, reaching temperatures of up to 1000 degrees Celsius.
Subsequently, when the Titanic struck ice, the steel hull was weak enough for the ship’s lining to be torn open.
Officers on board were reportedly under strict instruction from J Bruce Ismay, president of the company that built the titanic, not to mention the fire to any of the ship’s 2,500 passengers.
Presenting his research in a Channel 4 documentary, Titanic: The New Evidence, broadcast on New Year’s Day, Mr Maloney also claims the ship was reversed into its berth in Southampton to prevent passengers from seeing damage made to the side of the ship by the on-going fire.
Mr Molony said: “The official Titanic inquiry branded [the sinking] as an act of God. This isn’t a simple story of colliding with an iceberg and sinking.