The Titanic Did Not Sink From An Iceberg or Did it?!
By Adwaith Shamjith, Grade 6
What is the easiest history lesson you may have learned in your life? You may not be able to track down exactly what was the answer; but by the age of 10, most people know about the short and simple story of the Titanic. It is even stated simply, " The Titanic, the unsinkable ship, sank in the Atlantic Ocean when it hit an iceberg." However, there was a survivor from the Titanic who begged to differ. And dig this, he said nothing, absolutely nothing about an iceberg.
25-year old Vaghinak Byurat was an Armenian author in 1912. He published some books with his father and was later tasked to carry the books to the US. Initially, his health problems made him ineligible for the task, but his father tied some knots and played his best cards, and made the arrangement work out. Byurat caught a famous train called the Orient Express set to travel from Istanbul to Le Havre, and later traveled to Southampton. He caught the legendary Titanic as it was set to go on the nearest voyage to the New World on April 10, 1912, and shared Cabin 804 with two Englishmen and Moren, a French guy, whom he quickly made friends with. They hung around the ship, partied, conversed, and voyaged without care; after all, haha, would the Unsinkable ship sink? Little did the two know, they were in for a rude answer. Moren and Vaghinak slept late on April 14, 1912, as usual on other nights when they would party, and had started in the depths of slumber when an unprecedented explosion rang throughout the ship. BOOM! BANG! BLAM! The two Englishmen crumpled to the floor, to be helped up by Moren and Vaghinak. Byurat only took all the cash he had and his passport, thinking he would step back in his cabin that he would never see ever again. After some tense moments in the corridors of the ship, Vaghinak and Moren observed lifeboats carrying out women and children and knew at once due to the obvious warding off of crew people, that since the lifeboats were not meant for men, they could either sink with the ship or at least try a swim in the baltic 28 degrees Fahrenheit North Atlantic waters to safety. Both being able to swim very well, the strapped life vests and after bravely taking the plunge, immediately, got separated by a wave. Tragically, both were at wit's end only moments later, what with having lost the life vests and Vaghinak having lost his passport and money. But wait! Just then, Vaghinak bumped into the nose of a lifeboat. But, the lifeboat refuses to admit Vaghinak due to the boat sinking from extra weight. So, Vaghinak dies! The End. Boo hoo hoo...
OR IS IT....
Vaghinak woke up onboard the sister ship of the Titanic, the Carpathia, also en route to New York. How is that possible? Well, it turns out that this mother, who was in the lifeboat, forced the lifeboat back to save him after she realized her son was almost dead and that her husband had died in the Titanic. After Vaghinak's discovery of the events in the hospital in New York he was admitted to, he was released, reunited with his family, and led a peaceful life as an author. In the many writings he had published, Vaghinak has mainly pointed out an explosion, rattling all the people on board. A theory that was vaguely stated by Vaghinak was that there was an explosion from the hull of the legendary ship. Scientists add to that theory when they point out a large dark mark on the roof of the hull found in a photograph. This theory has two different perspectives linked to it; one that the ship couldn't possibly survive a meeting with an iceberg ( due to the fire burning in the hull for a long time as it left the Southampton dock ) and other people contradicting it. But additionally, there are many other theories, none of which can be proven or disproven for sure. One of the many theories is that a German U-boat had shot a missile or some weapon towards the bowel of the "Unsinkable Ship". Many survivors mentioned explosions coming from the bottom of the ship, further strengthening a chance for the possible truth. And a vessel had been seen shortly afterward, and since it wasn't a rescue mission, it could have been the executioners rushing to the surface to grasp what had happened to the ship. But, 1912 was a peaceful time in the World, even before World War I, and no country in their right mind would dare to even attack thousands of people. Secondly, even now, expert submariners have trouble finding targets at night, and so in 1912, this was impossible to do. Finally, a submarine could never have reached or been stationed in the region where the Titanic sank, and even if it had, it simply would haven't survived for long.
To summarize, the Titanic, the " unsinkable ship" sunk from anything but an iceberg. Survivors, scientists, and some evidence can support this to some extent, but no one has hit the jackpot quite yet. Hopefully, with the modernization the world is facing, we can finally put the 1912 sinking as purely " known history"!