The HMS Titanic was built in Belfast. It's one of those facts that float around somewhere in my head, on the edge of oblivion. I don't remember learning it, but it's there when I need it. It popped right back up when I was poring over a city map of Belfast with Urška and Žana, two Slovenian girls I'd met through a mutual friend. We quite frankly had no idea about the things we could do in Belfast, but a visit to the dry dock where the Titanic was built shot right to the top of our to-do list. We planned to go there immediately. Immediately after a much-needed nap, that is.

Early in the afternoon, we left our hostel on Donegall Road and set out for the shipyard. It looked like the other end of the world on our map, but the best way to get to know a city is on foot, so we walked. The weather was nice, and so was the company I was in. Much sooner than we'd expected, we were at the riverfront. We only had to follow it to the north. After a few detours into cute stores, we arrived at our destination. I'm not gonna lie, it was definitely a tourist trap. But it also was very awesome, a place where you could feel history, as it were. Even for someone who hasn't seen the movie, *cough* me *cough*, it was a great place to spend some time.

Urška, Žana and I had our obligatory photo shoot at the Titanic sign. We laughed about a bench with the sign "Rest yer wee legs!" next to it. We went to the gift shop, then finally walked out onto the former dock. That's when Urška spoke a few words I'll never forget: "Titanic didn't sink though!"
"What? You serious?" I asked.
"It's a conspiracy theory," she admitted. Then she warned me she wouldn't shut up about it is I asked her to tell more. But I was in the mood to put the proverbial tinfoil hat on.
"Tell me the theory."

Legend has it that the White Star Line, owner of both the Titanic and its sister ship the Olympic, was in a bit of financial trouble. It had launched the Olympic in 1911 and within a few months, the ship had crashed twice. Its second collision damaged the ship badly, and the repairs would cost the company a lot of money. The amount of money and the extent of the damage is up for debate; Some say the ship was basically ready for the scrapyard after its second collision. And the White Star Line wouldn't be able to save it from that faith with the little money it had.
Luckily, the company still had the Titanic, which looked just like the Olympic. A plan was made: the Olympic and Titanic would switch places. When the Olympic-disguised-as-Titanic would inevitably meet its end, the White Star would cash out the insurance money and keep the Titanic-disguised-as-Olympic in operation. A win-win. Except for the people who would die, of course.
The whole plan worked. The two ships weren't exactly identical, but came close enough. They were built on the same dry dock, were moored side by side. Apparently, all that had to be done to make the ships switch places was swapping a few nameplates and plaques; A few minor differences between the ships were fixed, like the number of portholes. There were rumours about the insurance fraud among the crew though, and a lot of the paperwork didn't check out while important persons canceled their voyage at the very last moment. These were all alleged signs of the White Star deliberately swapping its ships. Nonetheless, the Titanic left Southampton in April 1912, and the rest is history.


By the time Urška was done with her story, the sun was already starting to set. The Titanic conspiracy theory had me smiling because of its ridiculousness, despite the sadness of the story as a whole. I didn't care if the theory could possibly be true, it just added an extra dimension to our visit. Even though it wasn't a happy place, we were having a lot of fun. Urška and Žana marveled at the height of the ship, which was indicated by huge iron pillars, while I dramatically complained about the smell of fish by asking them if they could smell the decaying corpses of the sea dwellers. A broken scooter brought us hours of fun. We ended our day on a bench overlooking the water. We'd bought cheese sandwiches, which we ate while going over the events of our first day in Belfast. We came back to the conspiracy theory again and again. I admit it's a plausible one. And as night fell over Northern Ireland, I was glad to have heard about it in the city where it all allegedly took place.

Months later, I read an article debunking all arguments Urška had made. It didn't matter anymore by that time. All it reminded me of was storytelling in a former shipyard, cheese sandwiches and new friends. It reminded me of those days in Belfast, when every mention of the Titanic was followed by the three of us saying: "Titanic didn't sink though!"
"No, Titanic didn't sink."
"It was Olympic."