New Theory Suggests Titanic Sank Due To Fire, Not Iceburg

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- You might want to sit down for this one: it's possible that the Titanic wasn't sunk by an iceberg, but by an unnoticed fire.

The theory has been presented in a new documentary titled "Titanic: The New Evidence."

"We are looking at the exact area where the iceberg struck, and we appear to have a weakness or damage to the hull in that specific place, before she even left Belfast," Senan Molony, an Irish journalist who has spent more than 30 years researching the Titanic, says in the film.

"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. It's a perfect storm of extraordinary factors coming together: fire, ice and criminal negligence."

Molony studied images that showed what appeared to be burn marks near where the iceberg hit, making it a weak point on the boat.

The "unsinkable ship," as it was branded before it set out from Southampton England to New York City, was carrying 2,228 men, women and children. More than 1,500 of them died on April 14, 1912, in the icy waters of the northern Atlantic Ocean.

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