@Raunchy:
Myth has it that the Titanic was sunk April 15th, 1912 not by an iceberg, but by an U-boat on a trial run prior to WWI.
That’s a good one. The Titanic sank a few hundred miles from Newfoundland, on the western side of the Atlantic. Considering that Germany’s primary WWII U-boat, the Type VII, barely had adequate range to operate in the mid-Atlantic, it’s rather implausible that a pre-WWI U-boat would be able to cross almost the whole Atlantic (in both directions) to accomplish such a mission.
It should also be noted that, just before being damaged, the Titanic was travelling at about 21 knots. German WWI subs has a surface speed of about 12 knots. It would have been impossible for a U-boat to track, overtake and intercept the Titanic with that kind of speed differential. Even if we assume that the sub had been lucky enough to pre-position itself exactly on the Titanic’s path ahead of time, it would have taken an equally lucky shot for it to have successfully torpedoed such a fast-moving target (especially in the poor visibility conditions of a dark, moonless night). Even thirty years later, in WWII, fast ocean liners like the Queen Elizabeth could safely cross the Atlantic unescorted because their high speed made them virtually immune to U-boat attack.