Recently we reported that a misleading advertising gimmick made people falsely believe that a photo from a camera brought up from the ocean showed Titanic sinking. This was shown by Snopes to be a marketing gimmick, using a manipulated image, to get people to view a slideshow. Now comes word of another deception being done by the exact same marketing tactic. This appeared, according Snopes, in February 2020 on many websites:

“Experts Discovered The Real Reason The Titanic Sank – And The Truth Had Been Covered Up For Decades.”

When you clicked on it, you were taken to a website called Serendipity Times. The story indicated that a 2017 documentary “Titanic: The New Evidence” indicated photographs supported the theory that a coal fire, which started during construction, was ignored. Supposedly these photographs had been covered up for decades. However, according to Snopes, that is not what the documentary actually said. The photos were in an attic. And, of course, the coal fire theory is not new. That theory has been out there for a long time and looked into by many Titanic researchers.

Some argue that the fire would have damaged the ship’s hull making it more vulnerable to being pierced by the iceberg. Others disagree as to the importance of the fire and the role it played. The iceberg pierced the hull with punctures and gashes causing a tremendous amount of water to enter the forward compartments. If the theory is true, it merely hastened the inevitable without really changing the outcome. At any rate, whatever your views on this theory, this marketing tactic is pretty tacky and deceitful.

Source:

Was the ‘Hidden Truth’ of Titanic ‘Covered Up for Decades’? (Snopes.com, 10 Dec 2020)