evidence: The biggest ship of its kind, Titanic was billed ‘unsinkable’ by its owners White Star Line. But on April 15, 1912, it hit an iceberg and sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, with the loss of 1,517 lives However, according to Mr Gardiner, 64, the ship that sank was not Titanic at all – it was Olympic, her sister ship, in what was planned as one of the world’s greatest insurance frauds. Mr Gardiner, 64, a plasterer and father-of-one from Barton, said: "My new book, The Great Titanic Conspiracy, has new, conclusive photographic and documentary evidence of the swap of Olympic and Titanic. [...] "Swapping the identities of Olympic and Titanic was also the opportunity for Morgan, with the collusion of the British government, to quietly ship £8m of gold to the US.