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Alternate Theories
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Submarine Involvement
There have also been stories of German U-boat involvement. By 1912, the new German navy was ready for war and had perfected the use of submersible ships. Lights seen by survivors, which are believed by historians to either be the nearby SS Californian or an unknown third ship, after the ship sank has been cited as possible evidence of a submarine. The theory claims that a German U-boat had been stalking the Titanic and that the sub fired a torpedo at the iceberg when collision between the Titanic and the iceberg seemed inevitable.
Beyond ridiculous. To say submarines were 'perfected' by 1912 is a bit of a stretch. They were only beginning to become something close to feasible as war machines. They were slow, frail and pretty much committed to coastal waters, not settin' out into the North Atlantic. No U-boat could've kept up with
Titanic to stalk it - it would've pretty much needed to be waitin' for it where they intended to strike for the timing to've worked out. How would they've known in advance exactly where
Titanic would be within a few miles? Are we to believe a U-boat hung around by an iceberg, somehow knowing that a collision between it and
Titanic would seem inevitable, then fire a torpedo 'bout the same time? Uh-huh. Amazing how the Germans set out with plans that relied on an apparant iceberg collision and that's exactly what happened! Sheesch, what were the odds?
Even if they did somehow know these things in advance, which they couldn't've, it took more to torpedo a ship than simply choosing to do so. At the time, working out a firing solution was a long, drawn-out procedure. Torpedoes themselves weren't even very reliable.